The Faculty Senate will discuss improvements to Eastern’s campus during its meeting today.

Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, Ryan Siegel, campus energy and sustainability coordinator, and Gary Reed, director of facilities, planning and management, will all speak at the meeting about Eastern’s facilities.

“We’re going to talk about renovations and alteration projects.how those are carried out,” Reed said. “We’ll talk about .what the level of deferred maintenance is on campus.”

The senate meets at 2 p.m. in Booth Library Conference Room 4440.

Deferred maintenance is the cumulative costs of repairs to Eastern facilities that are so large the administration cannot afford to spend the money for repairs and thus postpones the repairs.

As of fall 2007, the university had $90 million in deferred maintenance. The aging steam plant composes 20 percent of the total amount, according to fall 2007 numbers.

Faculty Senate Chair John Pommier said Cooley, Reed and Siegel would also discuss efforts to make Eastern more environmentally friendly.

“We’re going to be hearing about green technology on campus.where that’s headed,” Pommier said.

Eastern has already tried to cut energy costs by installing motion sensor lights, replacing the toilets in residence halls, establishing a recycling program, and purchasing hybrid and electric vehicles.

Eastern has also conducted numerous energy audits, including one in 1995 that resulted in lighting upgrades and high efficiency motors. The audit generated $500,000 in savings per year.

Recently, Honeywell International conducted an energy audit this semester. The outcome of the audit determined $80 million worth of projects, including the Renewable Energy Center.

The center, which would have replaced the steam plant, and the other energy projects were put on hold indefinitely in November because of the receding economy.

The senate will also speak by teleconference with LDL Consulting at today’s meeting, said Chat Chatterji, assistant vice president for information technology services.

LDL Consulting has been conducting a survey of Eastern employees, asking them their opinions about ITS, Chatterji added. He said the teleconference would be the LDL’s first chance to speak with the senate.

“They will be chatting with Faculty Senate to get their views on ITS’s performance,” Chatterji said. “Due to timing.this semester, the consultant was not able to have a face-to-face meeting with the Faculty Senate when they were last on campus.”

Joe Astrouski can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.