Despite the delayed check from the state, President Bill Perry and University Treasurer Paul McCann said the university would make it to the end of the school year.

Perry and McCann presented an updated budget, prepared by William Weber, vice president for business affairs, vice president of business affairs, at Friday’s council on university planning and budget meeting.

More than $1 million has been saved this year because of the attrition and hiring freeze and by cutting travel and equipment purchases.

The document also shows a $1 million decrease in operating expenditures from the 2009 budget to the current one.

“People have taken what the president asked us to do to save expenses,” McCann said of the decrease.

The university will run into funding problems at the beginning of fiscal year 2011 starting July 1, until student tuition arrives in August.

“It’s going to be July and August that we have a problem,” McCann said.

The summer hours will have utility savings for when the campus is only open for half a day on Fridays during the summer semester.

In the meantime, the university is in regular contact with state legislators about incoming funds.

“We continue to make sure our needs are known,” Perry said.

John Pommier, an assistant professor in recreation administration, asked about the possibility of the university borrowing money.

“Only in the most extreme case would we consider that,” Perry said in response.

When asked about the donors’ knowledge of the situation, Perry said they have responded well.

“They understand; we actually have more alumni giving than last year,” Perry said.

Karen Drage, chair of the CUPB, said Eastern is doing well in comparison to other state schools.

“Looking at other universities; we are really holding our own here,” Drage said.

Michael Hoadley, director for the center for academic technology support, gave a presentation on technology use as part of the meeting.

Hoadley spoke about the potential funding savings in the Web conferencing software, Elluminate. The software, already used by several departments including chemistry and physics, has been used to preview candidates for hiring and for students to give their thesis presentations.

Similar to Skype, Elluminate can be used by both students and faculty for a variety of purposes.

“The good thing about Elluminate is it can all be recorded, it can all be saved, it can all be archived for the future,” Hoadley said.

Hoadley also spoke about the use of WebCt on campus. Although CATS has seen an increase, 30 percent of staff on campus is using the software.

Hoadley also spoke about the large amount of computer labs; 17 general and 25 departmental labs.

“We have an outrageous number of computer labs on campus,” Hoadley said, and compared it to the University of Illinois, which only has four.

Hoadley said, with 94 percent of students owning personal computers, 60 percent of which are laptops, the university is working toward decreasing the number of labs.

The executive committee reported Robert Augustine, dean of the graduate school, received a letter from graduate students regarding campus parking. Among other suggestions, the graduate students requested they be allowed to use faculty/staff parking.

Representing the academic affairs sub-committee, Sarah Daugherty said preparations for the new Textbook Rental facility are near completion. One third of the books in the facility have been tagged electronically. They are hoping for a test run of the system in the summer term after the remaining books have been returned and tagged at the end of the spring semester.

A report on cost containment by Pommier was postponed until the next meeting April 16 in the 1895 Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Emily Steele can be reached at 581-7942 or at easteele2@eiu.edu.