Student Senate member Jesse Green, a senior finance major, will address the Student Senate about Eastern’s recent decrease in students at the group’s meeting on Wednesday.

“I saw an article in the paper and it really brought the issue to light,” Green said. “I’m going to give a fairly short presentation on the numbers, about where we’ve been and where we could be headed.”

Green said he put together a chart with the enrollment numbers he found to make it easier to follow and see the current trend.

“Basically, I looked at all the figures I could find on the university’s website,” Green said. “I found 2003 to now.”

Along with Green’s presentation, the group will also vote on a resolution to fund travel for Jarrod Scherle, the student executive vice president, to the Illinois Board of Higher Education-Student Advisory Committee meeting on Sept. 25 at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove.

Student Senate Speaker Mitch Gurick said the group has a few resolutions in the works that could be discussed but was not sure if they would make it on this week’s agenda because of timing issues.

“Kaylia Eskew is working on one to honor Doug Lawhead, a journalism professor who recently died,” Gurick said. “She’s working on it, but I am not sure if it will be on this week or next week.”

Since the group’s last meeting on Sept. 12, Gurick reported that three Student Senate members have resigned.

Taylor Hinton, Justin Emerson and Erin Deason, who was the group’s committee chair for internal affairs, have all left the group, leaving Gurick with three seats to fill.

“They all left because of how much a of time commitment Student Senate is,” Gurick said. “I know some of them were frustrated with how some events were going and how much time it takes to plan them, we’ll miss them.”

Although, Gurick still had applications left over from when he filled the 15 spots vacated over the summer, he said he chose not to use them.

Instead, he is choosing from the pool of applicants he received through the recent “Senate on the Road” program where the group sets up a tent and information table at a different location every Wednesday during the semester.

Through the program, Gurick said he received five applications to fill three spots.

“I reviewed the old applications but I thought there were more qualified people out there,” Gurick said. “A lot of the former applicants also applied for other positions throughout student government such as Student Supreme Court.”

The applicants chosen will be sworn in at the meeting.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu