Faculty Senate discussed the possibility of a university-wide cell phone policy at their meeting Tuesday.

Provost Blair Lord called for the discussion and said, while cell phones can disrupt classes, the university’s emergency alert system uses text messaging.

“None of us like to have interference from cell phones,” Lord said. “Yet we do know that is one of the ways of notifying people of anything going on campus in the way of an emergency.”

Lord said the text message system is important, since the university siren system cannot be heard from all parts of campus, including Old Main.

Senate member Marie Fero said she is hesitant to take her students’ phones away, recalling how the shooting at Northern Illinois University last spring troubled her students.

“It’s such an individual issue,” Fero said. “I don’t mind (my students) bringing their cell phones if they have them on vibrate.”

Senate member Joy Russell said she thought a university-wide policy would be helpful.

“I do think it’s harder to watch the appropriate use of cell phones in larger classes,” Russell said. “It would be nice to know ‘This is what the university feels.'”

Senate member Dawn VanGunten said it is hard for students to tell whether a text message is urgent.

“Texting happens continually,” VanGunten said. “There’s no way to distinguish an important text from ‘Hey, what are you doing?'”

VanGunten said she worried texting could disrupt classes.

“I want to protect the student who might be distracted,” she said.

In other business, Athletic Director Barbara Burke addressed the senate for the first time since coming to Eastern.

She said athletes’ education and academics are her top concern.

“Education is our primary goal,” Burke said. “We preach going to class. It’s expected that our students do go to class.”

Burke said the department is working on a strategic plan that will give athletes more academic support.

“(We will) increase our academic staff and increase our technology support and resources for technology,” she said.

Burke also said she wants to increase the academic staff which provides tutoring to individual students.

A draft of the strategic plan should be released online next semester, according to Burke, to allow for faculty and student input.

Burke praised the academic performance of Eastern’s athletic teams, noting that the Academic Progress Rates of every team exceeded NCAA requirements during the 2007-2008 academic year.

Joe Astouski can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmastrouski@eiu.edu.

John Henry Pommier, Faculty Senate Chair, speaks at the senate meeting Tuesday at Booth Library. (Amir Prellberg / The Daily Eastern News)

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