The plans for the new Davies Center are officially on hold for the Council Oak, said UW-Eau Claire’s Campus Facility planner Rick Gonzales, who spoke at a meeting with the University Steering Committee on Tuesday.

Gonzales said he was optimistic the plan would not break the $48.8 million budget despite the delays, but at this point no one knows what the outcome will be.

“I’m sure that we’re still OK,” Gonzales said. “We will get through this.”

Currently, the decision is in the hands of the Wisconsin Division of State Facilities, Gonzales said. Until the DSF acts, Eau Claire can do nothing.

“There’s a right and a wrong way to push, and we’re trying to push the right way,” he said. He added that Eau Claire is not allowed to have contact with the architects in charge of the project until the DSF allows it, which could take a few months.

When asked about possible redesign options, Gonzales said there were many ideas floating around, but because the architects could not be brought in, any options are on hold. The original design will be implemented as much as possible due to the extra cost of a redesign.

Gonzales stressed that each approval from the city, state and UW System was subject to the selected site of the building. Depending on how much the plan varies from the initial blueprints, he said the university may need to reenter the approval process.

Associate professor of math and member of the steering committee Susan Harrison said the decision to look at options to save the tree was brought on by public pressure.

“The chancellor (Brian Levin-Stankevich) realized how important the symbolism can be,” Gonzales said. “This is something powerful enough to unify.”

He also noted that much of the pressure came from alumni and community members, and not necessarily from Native American groups.

Senior Mike DuPont, a student member of the Davies Building Commission, said he believes the chancellor did what he could in the given situation, but he was concerned about the lack of student input.

“Although it is a student-focused project, holistically,” DuPont said, “the students are not being given fair say.”

DuPont said the university seemed to make the decision to save the tree based on alumni opinion, without gauging current student support.

Later in the meeting, Harrison proposed to assemble a committee over Winterim so that the university is ready to act as soon as possible. Both Harrison and Gonzales stressed the importance of student involvement in all aspects of the project. The Winterim committee would possibly be able to start choosing interior design aspects such as paint color and flooring, since those decisions are not affected by the exterior plans.

Gonzales said they hope to still hit the aggressive timeline that was originally set, despite the setback. However, he warned to not be too hasty in decision-making. “If you go fast, sometimes things can lose control.”