A report on the last Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Faculty Advisory Council meeting and a discussion on how Faculty Senate minutes are recorded will be discussed at the Faculty Senate meeting today.

Les Hyder, chair of the journalism department and Eastern’s representative to the IBHE Faculty Advisory Council, will present his report to the senate.

The IBHE recently discussed the state’s aid to private universities and the disadvantage it presents to public universities, said Senate Chair Anne Zahlan, English professor.

Other IBHE issues encompassed in Hyder’s report include a study on the diversity of faculty, and the use of part-time faculty.

Another new item on the Faculty Senate’s agenda involves the transcripts of the meeting’s minutes.

Zahlan said the job of the recorder is difficult, and the issue of how thorough transcripts were was brought up last week.

Senate member Reed Benedict, associate professor of anthropology and sociology, said he spoke at length last Tuesday on how the minutes are transcribed.

“My concern was, in reading the minutes, it’s difficult to tell if the minutes were a verbatim transcription of the Faculty Senate meeting, or a detailed reflection with attribution,” Benedict said.

Some senate members would like to see more detail, and some would like to see less. Benedict said it’s up to the senate to decide the most effective way to transcribe minutes, keeping in mind what its constituents want as well.

“This is more about the philosophy of informing our colleagues and the best way to do that,” Zahlan said.

Other items on today’s agenda include old business and new communications.

A discussion on the proposal to change the name of the Honors Program will continue, Zahlan said.

Herbert Lasky, director of the Honors Program, proposed two weeks ago to call the program the Honors College in order to improve the recruitment of honors students, as well as increase administration and fund raising for the program.

Lasky said the name change would not alter the present makeup of the Honors Program.

A copy of the Illinois Administrative Code regarding Eastern showing changes provided by Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, will be discussed. Zahlan said the senate will go through the report and decide what key points are important.

An e-mail message from Chuck Eberly, professor in the Department of Counseling and Student Development, which addressed the issue of using student’s social security numbers, also will be looked into by the Faculty Senate.

Although the new Panther Cards don’t have social security numbers on them, Eberly disagreed with using the numbers to report grades.

“Eberly suggested we need to get rid of social security numbers as student IDs,” Zahlan said.

Enrollment and enrollment management are among the future agenda items the senate will discuss.

The senate meets at 2 p.m. every Tuesday in Booth Library Conference Room 4440.