The Faculty Senate plans to join their colleagues at six other Illinois public universities in protesting the way some state grants are awarded.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the senate began discussing a resolution before all the faculty senates of state public universities concerning how Illinois Monetary Award Program funds are distributed. The senate will work to approve the resolution, which states that IMAP grant distribution unfairly benefits students attending private universities.

The resolution, drawn up at a meeting of the Council of Illinois University Senates, pointed out that while private institutions educate less than a third of Illinois’ college students, they received better than half of IMAP’s 2001 money.

“In 2001, Independent Colleges and Universities received $178.6 million in IMAP awards, or 50.4 percent of the total $354.2 million granted…So, 32.5 percent of the people got 50.4 percent of the money,” the original resolution stated.

The discrepancy is caused by the higher tuition rates at private colleges and universities. IMAP grants are given to students based on need, and need is assessed by comparing income to cost of attendance. A student’s need is greater at a more expensive private institution and he or she therefore receives more money, the resolution stated.

The CIUS resolution asks the Illinois General Assembly to formulate legislation that would distribute IMAP funds more proportionally, but senate member Matthew Monippallil, accountancy and finance professor, suggested drawing up suggestions for that legislation before passing the resolution, and the senate agreed to work toward that end at next week’s meeting.

So far, six of Illinois 12 public universities have passed the resolution, Eastern is next in line to make the call and the rest have the motion on their faculty senate agendas, senate chair Bud Fischer, biological sciences professor said Tuesday.

The senate also received a visit from Bob Augustine, dean of the graduate school and interim assistant vice president for academic affairs for technology, who addressed academic concerns related to the slow university server that faculty may have.

Augustine emphasized that he didn’t want to discourage faculty and students from taking full advantage of Eastern’s network despite the fact that a large increase in traffic is the main source of the network’s sluggishness. He also acknowledged that the problem could take years to fix.