As many students amble to class, the hammering and banding often interrupting their daydreams is a sign of the ongoing campus construction.

However, in times when SUNY’s budget faces extreme cuts — initially $210 million and more recently an additional $140 million — certain aspects of the campus must be cut as well.

The current capital budget for 2009-2014 has two components: critical maintenance, which includes repairs to current buildings, and strategic initiatives that include all new projects, such as the recreation center scheduled to open in 2010.

Stony Brook University’s capital budget is allocated $364.4 million, which is up from the previous amount of $223.7 million.

However, because of the recent budget cuts and the state of the economy, things have changed.

“Imagine how happy I was months ago when I had this very healthy capital budget for 2009 to 2014,” said Barbara Chernow, vice president for facilities and services.

“I had plans to spend $364.4 million to refurbish our existing buildings, and had plans to build the strategic initiative,” Chernow said. “But right now we are on hold for the critical maintenance and were told that we can only go ahead with the first project.”

The first project that will be completed is the recreation center as it is already underway, Chernow said.

The overall budget has been put on hold because of the current condition of the state and country. Moreover, because of the lagging economy, the university is not able to spend what has been appropriated.

In a recent letter to the campus community, Chernow outlined current and future projects that are in planning stage, which include the new recreation center, with construction to begin in June of 2009 and completion anticipated by 2010.

Also, as featured in a recent issue of the Statesman, the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is set to begin construction this spring, and construction on a new Biomedical Engineering building is scheduled to be completed in June 2009.

In addition, a project that many students have been anticipating is the construction of a 600-bed facility in Kelly Quad.

In addition to new building projects, plans have begun for a renovation of Kelly cafeteria and laboratories in the Chemistry, Health Sciences Library, and Life Sciences buildings.