The Faculty Senate discussed streamlining the Council on University Planning and Budgeting at their meeting Tuesday.

Economics professor Teshome Abebe gave a report on the CUPB, which is in charge of looking at budgets sent to them from advisory subcommittees and advising Eastern President David Glassman about these budgets.

Faculty members also discussed problems they were having with getting enough resources and a lack of money for trips at the meeting.

Abebe said the problem with the CUPB is that it does not work well.

“It was not effective in the work it needs to do and it needs to be streamlined,” Abebe said.

The executive committees of both the senate and the CUPB met twice over the summer to figure out what the problems were, and the senate passed and sent a resolution to Glassman including their problems.

Glassman attended the second meeting.

During the first meeting, the executive committees of the CUPB and the senate both agreed that the CUPB was too big.

The two groups decided to work together to streamline the CUPB, which both executive committees said will make the group work a lot better for the university.

Blair Lord, the vice president for academic affairs, talked about enrollment and said student numbers are down like they have been in years before.

However, Lord said the enrollment numbers he received are better than many had originally anticipated.

Not as many professors were hired during the summer because of the low numbers of the incoming class.

Jeffrey Stowell, the senate vice-chair, gave his report on elected positions and committees.

He brought up how there are vacancies in some of the committees the senate oversees.

These include the Council on Academic Affairs, the Council on Graduate Studies, the Council on Teacher Education and the Council on Faculty Research.

“This happens every year. People go on sabbatical; some people leave. We have guidelines in place to help us select replacements to fill those vacancies,” Stowell said.

The process to find new people to fill these vacancies usually takes place in the spring semester. The professor submits a petition that needs three signatures, and the professor is then interviewed for the position. The terms last for three years and are staggered.

“We have elections every year for major committees,” Stowell said.

The senate meets at 2 p.m. every first and third Tuesday of the month in room 4440 of Booth Library.

Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or scnusbaum@eiu.edu