A project begun last year by Eastern’s former president is expected to be completed during Christmas break.

Work on “Great Beginnings,” which was proposed by Lou Hencken during a speech to faculty Aug. 30, 2006, will occur during a time when students are not on campus.

“It is a process where we don’t want a lot of people walking under the operation or down the hall inside the building,” said Steve Shrake, associate director of design and construction.

They could not get the replacement windows this past summer, which is another reason the project was moved to winter break.

“Great Beginnings” will replace the windows on the south side of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union walkway.

The new windows are expected to be more energy-efficient and will be decorated by meaningful first lines of books, plays, poems, speeches, and other documents.

The new windows were originally going to be etched, but this might result in weak zones in insulated glass, causing them to crack, Shrake said.

He said the new plan is to install glass sections inside the insulated glass units that will have the quotes etched.

The new glass is insulated glass and looks similar to the food court windows.

Ann Brownson, who is the head of the committee for “Great Beginnings,” said the windows will have no more than 30 quotes.

The quotations were submitted late last spring by students and faculty.

Many other quotes were turned in to the committee but could not be used when their attribution was not verified.

“It’s important to have them verified in an academic institution,” Brownson said.

The cost to replace the windows is projected to be $170,000.

Shrake said the Union had planned to replace the windows for a while as an energy-saving measure. The project was moved up because of the “Great Beginnings” proposal.