In response to last Thursday's article on the problems with the Sackett Building, I would like to thank the Office of the Physical Plant for painting the back doors -- now the building looks great. The more pressing problem with the building (as well as many other campus buildings), however, is that the design is terribly outdated. Years ago, energy efficiency and long term operating costs were not important design issues.

Unfortunately, this seems to still be the case. Renovations to campus buildings seem to focus on the "quick fix" rather than best solution.

In the Sackett Building, for example, the single pane windows result in a heat loss equivalent to 1 cent per minute per window (-$2250.00/day on your average winter day), assuming that they are all closed, which they never are. Usually the heat is cranked up and the windows are all open which makes the temperature bearable.

Additionally, on a sunny day, most rooms have the shades pulled down and the lights on rather than using the horizontal blinds to control the natural lighting levels. Those are just two examples in one building, well thought-out solutions to problems such as these could save the university millions of dollars a year.

I applaud the efforts of the Green Design Team in trying to find ways to make this university more responsible environmentally and financially.