Eastern’s Faculty Senate was updated on the statuses of the ongoing searches for two of Eastern’s vice president positions and two dean positions. 

Eastern is currently seeking candidates to fill the vice president of student affairs, vice president of business affairs, the dean of the college of education and the dean of the college of liberal arts and sciences. 

Eastern Provost Jay Gatrell informed the Senate on Tuesday that the goal is to have the candidates for the dean positions to be on campus for visits by early January and that the selection process will include open sessions that faculty can attend to be engaged in the process.

Gatrell also said the ideal number of finalists for the positions would be three. 

The Senate was also informed by Gatrell that the dean positions will be filled before the vice president positions and that whoever is selected to be the new vice presidents would start in July or August. 

Steve Brantley, a member of Faculty Senate and a committee member on the search for the vice president of business affairs position, said that in all the searches the Senate’s role will be to provide insight from a faculty perspective.

“In terms of being a senate representative I just sort of serve as a connection to the faculty and if there are particular issues that come up that are important to me I will keep in mind what I imagine the faculty are interested in talking about and what they would consider important to bring up,” Brantley said. 

The Senate was also visited Tuesday by Austin Cheney, the dean of the school of business, who updated the Senate on the plans he has for his college in the coming months. 

Cheney said that his college is focused on high-levels of student engagement, both inside and outside of the classroom, adding that a student’s career does not begin after college, but begins when they enter Lumpkin Hall. 

Faculty Senate will meet next on Dec. 3.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or jpbullock@eiu.edu