Robin Murray said she is excited to talk with President William Perry today.

Perry will be at this afternoon’s Faculty Senate meeting to discuss his letter to the university community.

“I found President Perry’s goals effective and appropriate for the EIU community and think stimulating research, the arts and study abroad are worthy goals worth pursuing,” said Murray, faculty senate member and English professor. “Now I believe we all would like to learn more about putting a foundation beneath these great goals.”

Faculty Senate Chair Lynne Curry said Perry will have the opportunity to ask the faculty questions about his letter and his goals and the faculty will be able to ask him questions, as well.

Curry said it is important for the faculty senate to discuss Perry’s letter because it will help put his ideas and goals into perspective and allow Perry to have automatic feedback from members of the university community.

Representatives from the National Writing Project will also be presenting at the meeting.

Murray said NWP is a professional development network for writing teachers at all grade levels in all subjects in all disciplines.

NWP representatives will be on campus to visit the new Eastern Illinois Writing Project site.

The site will promote high quality writing instruction in the 10 county regions surrounding Eastern, Murray said.

NWP is helping set up a summer workshop at Eastern for teachers and also ongoing workshops throughout the school year.

“Those goals and principles align with the mission that puts teachers first in initiatives created to improve the teaching of writing across the curriculum and across grade levels,” Murray said.

The English department will be hosting a reception for the NWP representatives and the new site at 3 p.m. this afternoon in the Tarble Arts Center atrium.

Curry said Bob Chesnut, director of research and sponsored programs, will also be giving a brief presentation at the senate meeting.

Chesnut said he would discuss recommendations dealing with improving publicity and recognition for research and creative activity at Eastern.

All faculty senate meetings are open, and Curry encourages students and other campus community members to attend the senate’s 2 p.m. meeting in Booth Library conference room 4440 to get to know the president and understand his goals for Eastern.

“Anybody else can come and ask questions, too,” Curry said. “If students want to be heard, they should come to the meetings and ask questions or participate in discussion. We are always happy to hear from guests.”

Barbara Harrington can be reached at 581-7942 or at bjharrington@eiu.edu.