Journalism professor Les Hyder is concerned about state funding for Eastern in the upcoming fiscal year.

He said the university needs more state funding but will not likely see it any time soon.

“My concern is to hold on to what we got,” Hyder said. “The likelihood is we will not see any action on the budget until last minute, around June 30.”

Hyder, a Faculty Senate member, spoke to the senate about Illinois’ funding for public higher education Tuesday during its meeting.

Hyder is also Eastern’s representative on the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Faculty Advisory Council.

In his budget recommendation for fiscal year 2009, Gov. Rod Blagojevich recommended a 0 percent increase for higher education from the 2008 fiscal year.

The state started to cut funding for higher education in 2002. The General Assembly is doing preliminary budget planning for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

In other business, Robert Augustine, dean of the Graduate School, and Jeanne Snyder, coordinator of the Gerontology program, presented a seven-minute video on interdisciplinary graduate programs.

Augustine said interdisciplinary research is tough for every institution; however, to strengthen the practice, one must strengthen professional practices.

Gerontology is the only interdisciplinary program at Eastern. Gerontology is the scientific study of the aging process and old age, and the program involves five departments and three colleges.

Snyder said one difficult aspect for this program is that gerontology faculty members do not report to her or anyone, which makes communication difficult.

“Initially when I became coordinator in 2001, we had more of these kinds of challenges, but in the last year or two, I would say we are now on solid ground,” Snyder said.

Augustine said he is going to develop interdisciplinary graduate programs in the future and wants to attract the best students for that in the world.

“We don’t want our institution to be behind on this,” he said.

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7942 or at bmgarcia@eiu.edu.