Expansion and renovation of the 140,000-square-foot Titan Student Union, built in 1976, will begin June 2015.

The goal of the project, approved last year, is to make the TSU the student body’s home away from home.

The $20 million rejuvenation, expected to be done by spring 2017, will enlarge the front patio entrance, upgrade the heating and cooling systems and renovate the second floor.

The project is seeking a design-build team to hash out the details of the project, said Kurt Borsting, the director of Titan Student Centers.

The expansion will be funded by existing cash reserves from TSU operations and the Associated Students Inc. budget. No new student fees will be needed to fund the project.

The funds were available because of “good operations at the Student Union,” Borsting said.

The entrance will be expanded approximately 20,000 to 22,000 square feet on the southeast side facing the Performing Arts building, Borsting said.

The goal is to create a welcoming place for students to lounge in between classes, where they can study and hang out with other students, Borsting said.

The heating, ventilation and the air conditioning haven’t been upgraded since the facility was first built. This upgrade will allow the TSU to keep cool or warm while having less of an effect on the environment. It will also be able to handle the increased heating and cooling demands, after expansion.

The planned improvements were made after surveying students on their needs and desires for the TSU.

“Some of the suggestions were a little hard to hear at the time,” Borsting said.

Part of the feedback was that the second floor is boring and gives little reason for students to go there because it’s primarily offices. We want students to get excited about coming to the TSU and getting involved, Borsting said.

The second floor serves as offices for both faculty and student leaders. The floor will get a makeover and create spaces for student teams to plan extracurricular activities.

When the TSU was built nearly 40 years ago, the number of enrolled students was 21,500. Today the student body has grown to about 38,000 students. The last expansion happened in 1992, when the size of the TSU was doubled to 140,000 square feet.

“What we really are in the business of is graduating students,” Borsting said.

“This type of facility and this type of investment is really to continue to connect students to the campus so that they’re engaged and when they are engaged they are more likely to be successful.”