The Faculty Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday to write a letter to Presidential Search Committee Chair Betsy Mitchell requesting “more timely” communication to the campus.

Numerous senate members, who are also on the search committee, said they learned about the group’s first meeting, on Sept. 23, from the newspapers

“It seems like the Presidential Search Committee is starting slowly,” said senate chair David Carpenter, who will write the letter to Mitchell on the senate’s behalf.

The senate cited the miscommunication for the first meeting, and a “sparsely” attended informational meeting Thursday with the committee’s search consultant, Jim Appleberry, as the two main reasons for the letter.

“It feels like I am out of the loop,” said Bud Fischer, an associate professor in biological sciences and a member on the presidential search committee.

When Fischer asked reasons for the delay, he said the response was the committee had hired a new secretary and that “things should get better.”

Local competition is increasing the importance of efficient planning and swift progress. Illinois State University is also in process of searching for a new president.

The pool of potential applicants is “scarce,” said Steve Scher, associate psychology professor. Scher said interest in the university president traditionally dwindles in the early parts of the semester and during Thanksgiving break.

The senate discussed concern about the chance to attract top candidates evaporating if the job opening was not posted soon.

Since Carol Surles resignation because of illness in July 2001, Eastern has been searching for a new president. Former Vice President for Student Affairs Lou Hencken assumed presidential responsibilities on an interim basis Aug. 1, 2001.

A nationwide search was conducted in the fall of 2001 and extended into the following spring, but Eastern’s top choice, John Cavanaugh, declined the offer and accepted the president position at the University of West Florida.

That experience should work into the committee’s advantage, foreign languages professor Luis Clay-Mendez says, because “the wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented.”