The Council of University Planning and Budget Friday approved an action to create a faculty-and-staff-based lobbying group, while opting to postpone other motions, suggesting solutions to the budget crisis and faculty negotiations.

Jill Nilsen, vice president of external affairs, proposed a staff and faculty lobbing group to compliment the Student Action Team. She said The Student Action Team, a group which makes several trips to Springfield to lobby for funding at Eastern, has proved successful in the past, and a faculty group only can produce more positive results.

Two factors call for the creation of the legislative action team, Nilsen said. The budget crisis facing Illinois is the worst in 50 years coupled with the change of administration in Springfield, a democratic governor and a democratic assembly.

“We don’t know yet who the players are,” she said. “We don’t know what their stands will be.

Five volunteers, all chosen at the meeting, will serve on the team, and Nilsen will present an outlined plan discussing how the group will operate during the next CUPB meeting in January.

“Eastern must send a strong message of unity as the university makes its case for more appropriated funds, and (CUPB) is missing an important piece of looking into the budget,” Nilsen said.

While the committee continues to discuss the 2003 and 2005 budget, it has not been involved with the 2004 budget that will go

to the General Assembly in the spring.

Her team of faculty and staff lobbyists will address the 2004 budget, supplying legislators with facts on Eastern’s financial situation and money saving strategies, while sharing the success stories.

Student Body President Alison Mormino supported Nilsen’s plan. Based on her experience with the Student Action Team, she said legislators prefer to hear the success stories of Eastern, rather than hearing of the financial woes they hear from every other states school.

“If we had a united front … about why we enjoy Eastern so much, that’s going to make a difference, ” Mormino said.

In other business, David Carpenter, English professor, proposed two motions to create discussion on solutions to the budget crisis and find a compromise in faculty contract negotiations.

“We keep doing business as usual on a tighter budget,” Carpenter said. “It’s time to start looking at how we can manage an increasingly tighter budget in new ways.”

One motion, to have the CUPB recommend to the interim president and the board of trustees that

CUPB

12-month administrative contracts be reduced to 11-month contracts, was postponed.

The motion pertains to assistant deans including directors, but details of motion, such as what month would be omitted and how much the contract reduction would save were not presented by Carpenter.

The motions were met with opposition from administrators, including Richard Wandling, chair of the English department, who said fewer students in summer months did not mean less work.

“I have a 12 month (long) job, but really I feel like I have a 15 or 16 month (long) job,” he said.

Carpenter proposed another motion to have the CUPB recommend to the interim president and the Board of Trustees the amount of appropriated funds allotted to athletics be reduced to $0 was withdrawn. However, Carpenter said he has plans to re-issue the motion once more information on the matter has been gathered and does not intend to eliminate the athletic department.

Interim President Lou Hencken said while Illinois State University does not receive appropriated dollars to fund athletics, as a consequence, students absorbed more fees, and the department dropped two sports.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education and the legislator recommended twice in the 1990s that schools discontinue appropriated funds to their athletic departments.

“Intercollegiate athletics can be self supporting,” he said.