The Ferguson Center theater has been under renovation since December and will soon finish up in May.

Dana Bonifacio-Sample, director of the Ferguson Center, said renovations should be done and ready right before the first round of Bama Bound students. The Ferguson Center theater was opened in 1972, almost 50 years ago, and the need to renovate has been there for a while,  Bonifacio-Sample said.

Moving the Welcome Center from Bryant-Denny Stadium to the Ferg is one of the newest additions.

“As our campus visits have grown over the years, that requires us to need space to be able to host all of our visitors,” said Andrew Tucker, assistant director of undergraduate admissions. “We thought in conjunction with the renovation of the Ferguson theater, that that would be a good central location for all of our prospective students to check in for their campus tours and be more in the central part of campus so they can know more about student life and know what goes on in the Ferguson Center.”

One of the main benefits of the Welcome Center moving to the Ferguson Center theater is guests not having to change locations for information sessions and being able to go immediately into the theatre after checking in.

“If they want to go down to the Supe Store or to Starbucks or just want to explore around, it’ll give them a lot more things to do while they’re waiting for their tour or after the tour,” Tucker said.

The theater will have 410 new chairs, flooring, AV system and an accessible lift. The renovations cost around $1 million.

“Pretty much everything will be new other than the four walls that stood around it to begin with,”  Bonifacio-Sample said. “We’re not really adding any additional space, it’s just a better use of the space that was already there. We’re not able to add any square footage, but with the renovation, I think it’ll be better utilized.”

With a number of organizations meeting in the Ferguson theater, Bonifacio-Sample said employees have tried their best to accommodate them in other areas of the Ferg.

“We’ve worked with them ahead of time to be able to move their events to other spaces on campus or use the ballroom here in the Ferguson Center for as many events as we could possibly can,” Bonifacio-Sample said. “We’ve also been using the Great Hall more for a lot of the events that were held in the theater.”