President Eli Capilouto announced a $30 million plan Tuesday to start renovating campus.

This project, discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting, includes new residence halls. One such hall will cater to Honors Program students and will be built at the sports field by Haggin Hall.

This is good news, but it also comes as a surprise. In just three weeks after the Board’s retreat (where Capilouto and other trustees discussed the urgent need to renovate), Capilouto has quickly created a plan.

Finally, campus can see the Board’s ideas put into action and that the Board isn’t just all talk.

And Capilouto has also proven himself.

After his 100 days of listening to campus and its problems, Capilouto has taken in advice, complaints and concerns and promptly begun looking for a solution.

He has come up with something that will directly affect students, especially incoming students. In fact, the plan’s first priority is to benefit students.

A goal of the project is to add 9,000 residence hall beds. Currently, UK has 5,148 beds. This would almost double the number of space for people to live on campus and would give upperclassmen an option to stay on campus — if they wish.

The first phase of the plan is expected to open in 2013 and construction should start as early as spring 2012.

The hope is that we will start seeing cranes and trucks on campus building facilities for students. But until then, students can only wait and hope the plan doesn’t fall through.