Workers are using the summer months to get a head start on projects, with Carman Hall closing its doors in the fall for renovations and construction, .

Mark Hudson, the director of University Housing and Dining Services, said they will go into assessment mode after this weekend.

This weekend, the rooms will house one last group of students as the boys IHSA state track meet comes to Eastern’s campus.

Hudson said there were 70 or 80 girls staying in Carman for the previous weekend’s meet, and he estimates about the same numbers for this weekend.

When the meet is over, engineers and workers will begin work on the residence hall.

“We’re in the process of hiring an engineer who is an expert at HVAC systems, which is heating and air conditioning and also plumbing,” he said. “They’re going to go in and do an assessment of the building based on little issues and what we can do to resolve them.”

In order to do that, the engineers and workers will have to tear down some walls to get to the piping.

“That’ll be kind of the messy part probably later this summer,” Hudson said.

The other Carman project taking place while the majority of students are at home is elevator work.

“The four elevators are going to get new hoists in them,” he said. “These hoists are what the cars go up and down on.”

All four hoists will have to be transported from ground level to the tenth floor where the hoists are installed.

“A great big crane will appear out there this summer to take out the old hoists and put in the new ones,” he said. “It should be happening some time in late June.”

The hoists will cost $130,000 because they have to be specially made.

The current hoists are the ones that were originally installed.

“We intend to use the building again, so we want to get this taken care of,” Hudson said.

Hudson said those two projects are two very basic comfort issues for students, so they want to get a sense of how the students are reacting to the Carman environment.

“We’re going to conduct a survey so we can determine a kind of wireless system to put into the building,” he said.

Hudson said the survey process involves ensuring the best wireless for students throughout the residence hall.

“It seems funny to do a survey, but they go room to room to see what signal they get,” he said. “If it’s necessary to have a distribution point every three rooms, that’s what we’ll do.”

Meeting the needs of the students and the wireless connection they need to do their schoolwork is key, Hudson said.

“We just want to have good coverage everywhere in the building,” he said.

By working with the heating and cooling and installing new hoists, Hudson said they hope to give students better climate control.

“The building should be more balanced in heating and cooling,” he said. “(The improvements) will also provide them with Wi-Fi, which is like air to breathe.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.