The Faculty senate is still trying to find its voice on campus.

The function and structure of the faculty senate was debated at Tuesday’s meeting, though no changes were made.

Currently, the senate is elected at large from the entire faculty, which has led to uneven representation from each college.

“When we look at the number of faculty senate representatives from each college; it’s not historically evenly represented,” said Dawn VanGunten, vice chair and secondary education and foundations professor. “Various colleges are very overrepresented.”

A proposed bylaw change would give each college three representatives, Booth Library one and at-large candidates would fill the remaining two seats.

“You would vote twice on at-large years, once for your college and then one at-large,” VanGunten said.

John Pommier, the faculty senate chair and a recreation administration professor, said he believes the change would be especially beneficial when major issues, such as furloughs, come up and the senate wants its voice heard.

“When something major issue presents itself, you want to be sure you are properly represented,” Pommier said.

Not all members agreed that even representation is the way to give the senate a stronger voice.

“I’m not so sure we’ve used our voice with persistence,” said John Best, a psychology professor and senate member. “It’s not a structural problem; it’s a process problem. I think we’ve got a good structure. It’d be better to have more members from one college who are interested and engaged than someone who was just thrust into it.”

Members described the senate as having a presentation followed by question-and-answer session format.

“I think what we are now is a big ole’ Fender amplifier,” Best said. “People come in with their guitar, plug in and we’re just like ‘OK, we’ll put that out there real big and real loud.'”

The senate agreed it needed to find a way to increase its voice on campus.

“It’s a dog and pony show,” said Jonathan Coit, senate recorder and history professor. “We attend meetings and discuss issues, but then we don’t come back and develop those issues.”

Coit said one issue with having the entire senate made up of at-large elected members was a lack of accountability to groups.

“After the meetings, I don’t know what I am supposed to do with what we discussed,” Coit said. “I don’t know who my constituents are.”

No votes were taken on the proposed change, but a suspension of bylaws was unanimously approved to allow Amy Rosenstein, a special education professor, to serve as a temporary replacement for senate member Kiranmayi Padmaraju.

Karen Drage, chair of the Council on University Planning and Budget, gave a presentation on the council’s work on the furlough policy and said a finalized policy is expected within two weeks.

Drage said the council was told that the university would be looking at a $3 million decrease in state appropriated funds for fiscal year 2011, a 6 percent drop.

President Bill Perry asked the council to collect comments on the policy as the university faces a rough financial future.

“We all hope this is a policy we can develop, put it on the shelf and let it collect dust,” Drage said. “It’s a last resort.”

The CUPB is also collecting cost-containment suggestions to help the university limp through the crisis and keep operating costs down in the future.

“We can make a dent in the budget, but we’re also looking for a long-term cost containment plan,” Drage said.

The senate will vote on a timeline for spring elections at its next meeting on Feb. 9.

An amendment proposed by Pommier to update the list of the senate’s committees will also be discussed at that meeting.

“We have all of our committees listed, but many are omitted and some names have changed,” Pommier said. “We would like to get our bylaws amended to reflect that.”

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or at seruholl2@eiu.edu.