* The more I think about it, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that the state should not spend $40 million to tear down NIU’s Cole Hall and build something else on the site of the recent tragic shootings. It just seems like an expensive, feel-good overreaction that won’t accomplish anything. Plus, most of the students who are there now and are undoubtedly traumatized by the events will be gone in a few years. As Phil Kadner notes…

The most obvious reason to do this is that students will find it difficult to enter the lecture hall without thinking of those who were killed or wounded I’m sure that’s true for those who were there that day or those who knew someone who was shot. It may also be somewhat upsetting in future years to students who had no personal connection to any of the victims.

But these aren’t young children we’re talking about. They’re young adults. Old enough to serve in combat zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. I think most of them are tough enough and smart enough to sit in Cole Lecture Hall and realize that life has to go on.

* The Tribune editorial board made some good points today…

After last spring’s tragedy at Virginia Tech, the university formed a task force to decide the fate of Norris Hall, the site of the shootings. Late last year, the university’s president announced that the three-story building would be used for a new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. […]

Why not use the classroom where Steven Kazmierczak attacked in a way similar to what Virginia Tech has done? Use it to promote peace. Why not say, “We’re not going to allow Kazmierczak to change the face of Northern Illinois University”?

* Rep. Lang also had a good idea…

“My first reaction is we’d be better off spending a smaller amount of money and building a memorial right next to Cole Hall,” said Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie). “I’m not sure we benefit by spending that type of money for this purpose. Perhaps it’s good to keep [Cole Hall] there as a memory.”

* And a Northern Star columnist points out that another building on campus, the Stevens Building, is in dire need of repairs…

…Gov. Blagojevich triumphantly announced in planning for fiscal year 2008 that he had included $19 million for Stevens Building work. It was exciting to feel like our governor was indeed listening to us and taking initiative in supporting our education as college students.

The problem: Our $19 million for the Stevens Building never made it to NIU. Like so much else having to do with funding in Illinois, it seems to have disappeared somewhere in Springfield.

* Chuck Sweeny laid it on the line…

The governor and NIU leaders should not trivialize the massacre of students by using the traumatic event to lay a guilt trip on the General Assembly to fund a new building with $40 million the state doesn’t have.

* And the Daily Herald editorial board adds itself to the list of skeptics…

Unfortunately, the rushed presentation of the project could lead the more cynical among us to wonder whether this proposal may be a subtle manipulation of the tragedy.

After all, Peters conceded that NIU officials considered Cole Hall to be outdated and that the university already had plans to replace it rather than renovate it.

* And the shootings got dragged into a House committee hearing yesterday to ban semiautomatic weapons and outlaw more than one handgun purchase a month…

Also testifying against the idea was Joel Brunsvold, a lobbyist for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He said a one-gun-a-month law would not have prevented shooting deaths such as those at Northern Illinois University this month and Virginia Tech University last year. […]

Rep. Edward Acevedo, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the assault-weapon legislation, said he was “appalled” at Brunsvold’s suggestion that the committee was taking up the gun-control proposals because of the NIU shooting. “For years, we’ve been trying to pass common-sense gun-law legislation,” Acevedo said.