Editor’s Note: In the Sept. 21 issue of The Daily Eastern News the article covering the Sept. 13 Faculty Senate meeting was accidentally re-run in place of the Sept. 20 meeting article. This article from the Sept. 20 meeting is being put online to rectify this mistake. The News regrets the error.

Faculty Senate discussed a potential list of nominees they received to be a part of the vitalization project at their meeting Tuesday.

The senate talked about the workgroups and whether or not the senate should be making nominations to each of the workgroups listed on the projects webpage. They then set about looking at the workgroups people want to serve on.

The vitalization project was announced by Eastern President David Glassman as a way to increase enrollment and save money. Luke Young, student vice president of academic affairs, said for the workgroups with seats reserved for students, he would talk to the student senate and see who among them would want to serve on those committees.

Senator Jeffrey Stowell asked the senate if its members are vetting everyone who volunteered or not.

Senator Billy Hung said they would discuss the more than one nomination workgroups with the senate to see if they should endorse them.

Senator Teshome Abebe said debating the people who volunteered for these positions would not be helpful to anyone.

“Why don’t we submit all the names that have been nominated and have volunteered? It is the president who eventually chooses and any debate here is not going to help anything,” Abebe said.

He said it makes the senate looks like it is getting involved in the merit of each potential member of the work groups.

The senate discussed a motion to send the nominations to Glassman saying which these candidates they liked.

Senator Bailey Young said the senate should send a message to Glassman saying the senate wants to be helpful but also keep its constitutional responsibility.

Hung said he does not like the idea of just sending forward the names without an endorsement or statement. He said as the elected body of the faculty, they have some say in the process and the faculty knows the Faculty Senate is in looking closely at everything involving the vitalization project.

The vote to endorse the workgroup nominees failed with five yes votes and nine nay votes.

Abebe came up with a motion which sends the names and work group preferences and the names of others to consider.

The senate then debated the language of Abebe’s motion and voted and passed this one unanimously,

Young and Hung both left the senate to draft an updated motion to send to Glassman and it passed with a 13 to one vote.

Senator CC Wharram said this meeting was important to deliberate the process and formation of committees.

The senate does not want to be dragged into anything and it is supposed to look at everything closely, Wharram said.

Even though during the last vote he was the only one to say no, he does not feel bad about the vote going a different way.

“I don’t have any qualms about the democratic process being followed here,” Wharram said.

Wharram said he wants to be on a committee from the vitalization project and it is time to start talking about how Eastern will be 10 years from now.

Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2821 or at scnusbaum@eiu.edu.