The Council on University Planning and Budget will elect a new chair and executive committee Friday.

“This is our transitional meeting,” said Bob Augustine, dean of the graduate school and last year’s CUPB chair, of the first meeting of the semester.

Anyone can serve as the CUPB chair, Augustine says, but positions on the various executive subcommittees (Academic Affairs, Business Affairs, Student Affairs, External Relations, Presidential and Budget Transfer) must be associated with the respective departments.

Augustine said the positions will be filled by those present at Friday’s meeting, and nominations and voting will take place on the floor.

The CUPB consists of 37 voting members and nine non-voting members. The CUPB has two roles, Augustine said. One is to listen to the various campus departments’ budget requests and provide feedback, and the other is to create long-term plans for the university.

“It was a challenging year for all the members,” Augustine said in reflection. “It was a tough year to do it because of budget cuts, and no one ever likes to prioritize budget cuts.”

Also on the CUPB’s agenda:

* A report from the five administrative subcommittees

* A report on the budget from the Legislative Action Team, a Student Government group that lobbies for Eastern in Springfield.

* The dispersal of a study listing the council’s views of Eastern’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Augustine said the list is meant to help with university planning.

Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, also serves as the chairman to his department’s subcommittee. He said his committee attempts to meet separately once a month to go over the CUPB agenda. He expects most of the reports Friday to be brief because some of the subcommittee positions are not filled.

“The report will be quite short, which is probably what you’ll find with the others,” Lord said.

A report on the university budget will be similar to the one delivered to the Board of Trustees at their June 23 meeting, Budget Director Jim Shonkwiler said.

At that June meeting, Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, reported to the BOT Eastern’s total Fiscal Year 2004 budget at $146.4 million, an 0.8 percent or $1.23 million increase from the previous fiscal year.

“That’s the point where we took the snap shot of the budget,” Shonkwiler said. “So that’s what we want – to make sure the faculty have consistent information with what was given to the BOT.”

Shonkwiler said the budget has changed since June, but to redo those estimates that change on a day-to-day basis would require “lots of extra work.”

Administration Editor Tim Martin can be reached at noles_acc@yahoo.com