The Group Insurance Reimbursement plan will be up for purchase by the Board of Trustees at its meeting Friday.

In December 2001, Gov. Ryan requested that higher education contribute $45 million to Central Management Services to cover a shortfall in the state group insurance program. Eastern is expected to cover $1.7 million of this in four payments of $428,325, according to the report to the Board of Trustees.

In an effort to become more active in student and academic affairs, the Board of Trustees formed the academic and student affairs sub-committee at its June 20 meeting.

“Frequently board meetings-at least in terms of the action items-tend to get driven by financial matters because (members) have a fiduciary responsibility as trustees,” said Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Committee members, Andrew Berger and Leo Welch, will meet for the first time this Friday with Lord and Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs.

“When you’re making the decision for the university academic and students are a huge part of the university-these are the reasons for the university-so, it would only make sense to have a committee to address those two facets,” said Andrew Berger, student trustee and committee member.

When Berger ran for his current office of student executive vice president, one of his campaign platforms was to work to make the board more visible and this committee is part of that promise.

“I definitely would like to see the board get more involved on campus,” he said. “I think the board is on campus a lot, but a lot of the events they attend are administration events. I would like to see them more at events like football games.”

In other business, the president’s report to the board will cover construction, the Honors College and international programs

“It’s pretty straightforward the materials we’ll be covering,” Berger said. “Nothing earth shattering. I’m excited to participate and actually get to vote.”

The board will meet at 1 p.m. in the University Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.