The Staff Senate met yesterday to address concerns relating to the pending construction of a campus furlough policy that, if adopted, will require all university employees to take an unpaid leave of absence.

“I think we’re in unfamiliar territory,” said Staff Senate President Cay Kolling of Information Technology Services. “This has never been done in university history.”

The potential policy has been identified as an alternative to layoffs by President Bill Perry in the search for a solution to insufficient funding. The state, Perry said in a campuswide e-mail on Nov. 13, has yet to release appropriated funds to support Eastern, which, as was stated during the meeting, requires $6 million monthly to execute payroll.

Kolling also confirmed that a $3 million deficit for the coming fiscal year is a legitimate concern.

Prior to approving a policy, Perry asked the Staff Senate to garner feedback from constituents so as to address every area of concern and put all questions, comments and other cost-saving ideas on the table.

Kolling reiterated that the Staff Senate’s mission at hand is to provide feedback to the Council on University and Planning Budget that will be made public next Friday following presentation to the CUPB. The input will eventually be posted on a frequently asked questions feature of the business affairs Web page for employee reference.

Kolling compiled a packet of unaltered questions and concerns presented to her by Staff Senate members that she distributed at the meeting.

“Some of them are kind of raw,” Kolling said. “You can kind of feel some emotion in some of them.”

She indicated that a significant portion of the questions posed by colleagues centered on the fate of their benefits, insurance and retirement.

“I know in our department, a lot of people are like, ‘What? Should I just retire now? What should I do?'” Kolling said, adding that her department has already experienced layoffs. “I think the key here is to not run scared and don’t let emotions take it away.”

Aside from possibly being obligated to take unpaid time off of work, Kolling dislikes the idea of furloughs because they potentially prevent employees from working when needed.

“On ITS, if the server or e-mail was down while we’re on furlough, legally, we can’t fix it,” she said.

Conversely, Antoine Thomas of the university union advisory committee said he would not mind going on furlough if he knew that every other option was explored first.

In addition to the two open forums scheduled to generate input, Thomas suggested constructing an online forum or blog for employees to direct questions and receive prompt responses.

In the midst of extensive attention paid to constructing the furlough policy, Joann Daugherty, library technical assistant, expressed a concern that the university is conforming too quickly to the furlough route without looking into new ideas or determining other areas to cut costs.

“I lived through the energy crunch in the ’70s,” Daugherty said, “and I swear, every single light in this whole place is on at night.”

Daugherty believes that an effective solution for the university to consider includes conserving energy by switching off lights and computers not in use rather than leaving them on all night, as well as monitoring temperatures and turning the heat down in relevant areas when necessary.

“We’re running all these buildings because the business service workers, believe it or not, are scheduled for night,” she said.

Marcus Ricci of the international programs committee agreed and said the wording of the future policy is key.

“I feel like we’re being asked lightly, not sincerely, what we can do to balance the budget,” Ricci said. “We don’t have Ph.Ds in business or economics, but we are the people in the office where it’s 85 degrees. Do we really need the heat? Do we really need the lights on at 3 a.m.?”

When discussion turned to conservation, Suzann Bennett of the Booth Library and parking appeals committee said that the university has no incentive for saving money.

“That mentality doesn’t exist with state-appropriated money,” she said. “The idea is to spend, spend, spend every penny of the given $17 million, because if we don’t, then next year, we’ll only have $15 million.”

Further discussions pertaining to the furlough policy pend following the presentation of feedback to the CUPB.

“The more comments we have,” Kolling said, “the better off we’ll be if this comes to pass.”

Erica Whelan can be reached at 581-7942 or elwhelan@eiu.edu.