Over a year after construction began, SHSU’s newest classroom building is nearing completion. Academic Building 4 is on schedule to open its doors to students for the upcoming spring semester.The Board of Regents approved construction of the new building in August 1999 with a budget of $8.5 million. Although initially marked for completion in February 2002, construction met with unexpected problems causing crews to finish the work several months behind schedule.The new 61,070 square-foot building, located at the intersection of 20th Street and Avenue I, replaced five departmental dormitories that once housed students. Following destruction of the departmental dorms, university officials elected to build the new academic building.”The fact is we really needed the space,” Physical Plant Director Douglas Greening said in an interview shortly after construction began. “Several of our departments are in temporary buildings and badly need a permanent home.” The structure will serve as the new home of the history, library science and psychology departments as well as Student Advising and Mentoring Center.John McCroskey, SHSU Physical Plant employee and overseer of the construction project said officials are currently going through the process of walking through the building and seeing to any last minute adjustments.”Right now we’re doing what we call the punch-out phase,” McCroskey said. “That means we’re basically checking everything out and fixing any scratched paint or stained carpet. We’re in the clean-up phase.”McCroskey said the third and fourth floors are approved and the crews are working on the final clean up of floors one and two. He said students entering AB4 for classes this spring would be impressed with the results of the many months of construction.”I think students will be very impressed with the building; it looks great,” he said,” he said. “I think everyone will be especially impressed with the new auditorium in the building. It will seat around 300 people.”In addition to the auditorium, McCroskey said the four-story academic building will feature large state-of-the-art classrooms as well as a fully stocked Computer Services computer lab for student use.Computer Services staff member Bill Thomas said the new lab will feature two printers, scanners and up to 96 personal computer stations. The new lab will offer all of the same services as existing computer labs and be staffed by lab assistants. Thomas said the new lab would offer the growing student population more access to computers on campus. “The use of computer labs in campus hasn’t dropped,” he said. “The new lab will allow more students to access to computers for everything from class assignments to surfing the Internet.”McCroskey said all professors who will be moving to the new building have had the opportunity to visit their new work environment. Reactions to AB4 have been positive.”We’ve given professors the chance to walk through the building, and we’ve heard very good things from everyone,” he said. “This building will definitely serve as a great and much needed asset to SHSU.”