The construction of UNA’s Academic Center and Student Commons building is on schedule, said UNA Director of Facilities Michael Gautney.

“We were held off this past week because of rain, but there have been no major delays,” he said. “They are currently working on welding the steel members together over the next two months.”

Gautney said the building will undergo several more stages of construction before completion in the spring of 2014.

“The official completion date is April 15, 2014,” he said. “We anticipate that, hopefully, we will finish it much sooner.”

The building will house UNA’s Center for Academic Advising and Retention Services, an expanded campus bookstore, the Department of Criminal Justice and The Hill, as well as a new service from Listerhill Credit Union.

“After years of planning, we are very excited to take our financial education efforts even further in the university’s new Student Commons Building,” said Kristen Mashburn, Listerhill’s Marketing Director, via email. “Listerhill’s new Center for Financial Literacy, located in the Student Commons Building, will offer financial services, as well as practical financial advice.”

The Student Commons portion of the building will also offer businesses such as Frostbite, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A.

David Hughes, a freshman at UNA, said he is excited about the building.

“I think (the Center for Financial Literacy) will be very useful because learning how to manage money is very important so you don’t go in debt,” he said.

Jeremy Jackson, a senior at UNA, said he wishes the building would open sooner so that he would be able to enjoy what his tuition is helping to construct.

“I was told the original plan was to have it done by fall of this year,” Jackson said. “It is a little depressing that I will no longer be a student when it is completed. I now feel kind of indifferent about it, but it will be nice to have a Starbucks in Florence.”

Kaitlin Chappell, a junior, said she is very excited for the building’s completion for herself, her peers and future students at UNA.

“I think it is a great step in the growth of our already amazing university,” she said. “It is appealing to prospective students, and it adds to the beauty and the prestige of UNA.”