CUPB to finally meet

The Committee for University Planning and Budget will finally meet today in its first meeting since Feb. 2.

That meeting had been delayed from the original Jan. 19. The Feb. 23 meeting was canceled. Today’s meeting was delayed from March 23 and moved from its normal meeting area in the Tuscola-Arcola Room.

These delays stem, in part, from the large size of the committees and the resulting schedule difficulties.

This meeting is expected to see the final determination of the committee’s size. Their recommendation would cut the committee down to 24 members from its current 37. This comes from reducing the number of representatives from almost every constituency. The library, vice president for academic affairs, president’s representative and minority representatives avoided a reduction because they only have one representative on the committee.

“I feel that streamlining the board in order to make it more efficient is fine as long as representation, especially student representation, isn’t limited or taken away,” said Levi Bulgar, student vice president for business affairs.

Student representation gained one seat, from the three students currently sitting on the council. They represent graduate, undergraduate and non-traditional students.

Jeff Cooley, vice president of business affairs, said he expects Eastern President Lou Hencken to speak about budget numbers and the composition of the committee.

According to Pat Fewell, the unwieldy size of the committee was the primary drive for reducing it from 37 to 24 seats.

The committee has only two more meetings scheduled for this semester: April 27 and May 11.

The meeting is at 3 p.m. in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union and is open to the public.