NIU expects to save about $100,000 by shortening its work week to four days and closing DuSable Hall, said Bob Albanese, associate vice president of Finance and Facilities.

As part of an effort to cut summer costs, NIU chose to close DuSable Hall because it’s primarily a classroom building and does not have as many academic offices as other buildings, he said.

Albanese said $100,000 is the university’s projected savings for the summer adjustments.

“Closing DuSable Hall generates substantial utilities savings,” Albanese said last week. “This is the first time we’ve done this in 10 to 12 years due to the budget cuts the university is facing.”

The shortened work week allows the temperature to be raised in all the buildings east of Annie Glidden Road for the three-day weekend, Albanese said. The temperature in DuSable Hall is kept somewhere in the low 80s so it won’t damage any of the computer equipment in the building, he said.

Faculty members still have limited access to the building, but there are no lights.

Closing the buildings translates to savings in utilities as well as labor because buildings have to be cleaned less often. Buildings are now closed at 11 p.m. and most of the cleaning is done during the day. The number of janitors on third shift, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., has been reduced from 85 to 6.

Albanese said the staff has not been laid off, but their hours had been adjusted to a shorter work week.

Montgomery Hall, where animal experiments are being conducted, is the only other building where the temperature is maintained over the weekend.

The use of the pools in Gable and Anderson halls also is curtailed on the three-day weekend to allow the buildings to be closed.

Starting the week of Aug. 11, Fridays will become working days again. DuSable Hall will become operational in mid-August once faculty members have had time to move in to their offices again.

Also, the offices of the statistics department have been moved from DuSable Hall to Gable Hall, said Bill Manor, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Teaching assistants in math and foreign languages who had offices in the building have been relocated to Reavis Hall.

Clinical laboratory sciences offices and courses scheduled to be held in DuSable have been relocated to other buildings on campus.

“The move from DuSable Hall has been difficult but all the units involved have cooperated very well in trying to make the best of a difficult situation,” Manor said.