In his State of the University Address, Eastern President David Glassman will tackle questions and outline plans for the university’s recovery as well as the steps the administration will take to move forward over the next four years.

Glassman will touch upon on subjects that affect the everyday lives of students, faculty and staff, as well as describe how the university is and his plans for the future.

The former provost and vice president of academic affairs at Bradley University came to Eastern and was immediately faced with the budgetary impasse that has crippled the state and held public universities hostage.

Glassman said he wants to recognize the many strengths and weaknesses of the university, and he will talk about the budget for this school year.

Out of the many plans Glassman has for this year, he said he will focus most of his attention on getting a full budget from Springfield and increasing strategies that will enhance Eastern’s brand.

By increasing Eastern’s brand, Glassman said it will also increase enrollment.

“Concerining the budget, I will continue my visits to Springfield on behalf of Eastern and work together with the other Illinois public university presidents to make sure our lawmakers understand the importance of funding higher education and the deleterious impact on the state’s future if they do not,” Glassman said in an email.

Glassman said he has a plan to help the school and help achieve his goals.

“This year we will be investing more heavily in marketing EIU to prospective students through social media, billboards, radio and other media markets.” Glassman said. “We will also increase the amount of information about EIU to high school sophomores and juniors, as students are starting their college search much earlier than in the past.”

In the university newsletter, Glassman invites all who are interested to attend and encourages all supervisors to let staff members to be allowed to leave their offices and watch the address.

The State of the University Address will be at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7 at the Dvorak Concert Hall in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

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