What time is it? Time for Eastern to get some new clocks.

Many clocks throughout campus have not been in running in sync, and around half of the clocks in the Life Sciences building are slow by about 15 or20 minutes.

“Most aren’t working,” Dr. James A. McGaughy, biology professor, said. “The first day I came in, the clocks were a quarter to, and everybody was already there.”

Eastern is set up with a coordinated Simplex manufactured clock signal system, one typical of most large institutions, which is supposed to keep all of the university’s clocks in tune. The system operates by pushing a signal through the electrical power lines on campus.

Gary Reed, director of facilities planning and management, said the Simplex synchronous clock system is obsolete and has been for many years before this one.

“We could not predict when problems would occur with this old system,” Reed said. “The EIU system has been notoriously hard to maintain and is also unreliable.”

Dr. Michael Cornebise, geology/geography professor, said he has not seen the off-sync problem in the Physical Science building but the Union has similar problems keeping time, as one of the clocks was off by about eight hours.

“In the Union, the clock’s way off, it should be 12 o’clock and it says 7 o’clock,” he said.

Last fiscal year the Simplex system started a phased replacement process in which a new receiver station was purchased and installed in the center of campus that receives a synchronizing signal from a satellite. The base station then feeds a coordinated time signal to special clocks, which according to Reed, are being purchased and installed as they are received.

“This system, once the transition is completed, will eliminate the old Simplex system in its entirety,” Reed said. “The new clocks can be recognized by the word Visiplex on their face. There are currently over 400 new clocks on order. We will continue replacing clocks until all the old Simplex units are updated.”