According to www.msubsu.com,the Baptist Student Union has an on-campus history that dates as far back as the 1920s and is getting a new building within the next few years.
The current BSU building, located on East Lee Boulevard, was built in 1961 and was expanded in 1983, making the building a total of 11,565 square feet.
The new building will be located on Coliseum Boulevard, just behind the current BSU building.
It will be 20,264 square feet.
Michael Ball, director of the BSU, said the thought of a new building has been discussed for about five years.
Ball said the lack of space in the current BSU building has hindered the organization from flourishing as much as it could, and he said he is excited to use the new building to grow.
“We have been limited on any kind of growth,” he said. “It will be a huge blessing.”
Ball also said the plans for this building have been in the process for the past three to five years, and they were finalized this past January.
The new building has been needed for the past 10 to 15 years, Ball said.
Garret Alford, senior marketing major, said he thinks a new building will be beneficial to the BSU.
“We are outgrowing this building,” he said. “There are a lot of things that we are going to do there to increase the possibilities for more students.”
Alford said he thinks there would be more opportunites for the BSU to have events and other on- campus ministries at the new building.
The BSU needs about another million dollars in order to begin building the new facility, he said.
Ball said members of the BSU are working on finding that money.
“We are in an active campaign right now for that purpose,” he said.
The new building is estimated to begin in about a year and will take about a year to complete construction.
Ball said the construction of the new building should not interfere with meetings.
With this new building, many minor issues will be resolved, such as the BSU parking in the lots for the Campus Book Mart.
Grant Lyons, senior history major and a family group leader in the BSU, said he believes a new building will improve the problem of BSU parking overflow into Campus Book Mart’s lot.
“I would imagine that it would alleviate the parking situation,” he said. “We do our best here to make sure that we tell people here to stay off of their parking lot because they are trying to run a business.”
Lyons also said the Campus Book Mart is gracious enough to let them park in its gravel parking area.
Another minor, but potentially dangerous, issue is the traffic jam on Tuesday nights after Priority, the BSU’s primary meeting.
Lyons said moving the entrance  to the BSU building from East Lee Boulevard to Coliseum Boulevard will help with the traffic jam.
“I feel that the majority of the flow of traffic will be down the hill,” he said.
Alford said he thinks this would help traffic to be less of a hazard.
He said with approximately 400 to 500 students attending BSU on Tuesday nights, the new building is a necessity.
He said he has seen a lot of growth in the BSU despite the limited space, especially in the fall semester with freshmen and transfer students.
According to Ball, the BSU has been growing steadily for the past 11 years.
 ”I would say it has been a steady increase,” he said. “This has always been a very strong BSU program across our state.”