Come January there will be a new home for the school's cafeteria and bookstore, as the old student center is torn down to make way for a new one. And it will be a tent. A very large thermostat controlled tent.

"People are having a real tough time visualizing what this is going to look like and how it was going to work," says Dana Nunn with Mesa State College.

The 45 foot tall, 13,000 square foot pavilion is scheduled to be finished in January, just in time for the second term. The college plans to use the tent for 18 months while crews build the new student center.
Nunn says funding for the center is already gathered. "Students a couple years ago passed a student fee increase to pay for construction of the new college center."

The tent, better known as a pavilion, will be insulated and thermostat controlled. College officials say when the new student center is finished the pavilion can modified and used for other activities.