The Faculty Senate heard discussion Tuesday on the feasibility of the Textbook Rental Service, concluding the service can continue as an asset to Eastern and still undergo revision.

History professor Keith Wilson serves on the faculty textbook rental committee and brought senate members a summary of the complaints and suggestions.

Textbook rental has told academic departments it will not buy any new textbooks for summer school classes unless the book used is going out of print or the course is new to the summer curriculum, Wilson said.

He said textbook rental informed the committee of the possibility for no new books last semester.

“They mentioned at last semester’s meeting that the budget was in trouble … they said, hypothetically, there would be a problem in the summer,” he said.

Some concerns offered by the history department are the service is counterproductive, not productive in changing texts or the price of the service is too low, Wilson said.

Wilson said some suggested solutions include abolishing the program for graduate students or raising the current student fee structure.

Senate member and psychology professor Steve Scher questioned “whether the value (textbook rental’s) getting economically is anywhere … where they perceive it to be.”

Textbook rental does not sell books to students at a price lower than its initial purchase cost.

Students are saving money overall by renting books and the university could raise the student fee funding the rental service, Scher said.

“They’re getting a fee to support the program so why do they have to get the initial cost (back from students) … that’s an outrage,” he said. “I’d like to see the system work better. We could raise fees and still be far below the cost of books at other universities.”

He said one of the best ideas the Faculty Senate has previously suggested was to make textbook rental a voluntary service.

Senate member and technology professor Mori Toosi said only 11 universities nationally have a textbook rental service.

“The cost savings is a reason for students to come here,” said English professor and senate member David Carpenter.

Eastern would still have no problem attracting students without the option of textbook rental, said David Carwell, senate member and political science instructor.

“The only thing I think you should do with it is haul it out to the crossroads at midnight and drive a stake through it’s heart,” he said. “Textbook rental is an abomination.”

Carwell said some suggested reforms for the system simply will not work.

Wilson said he would take points of the discussion with the senate back to the textbook faculty committee.

The senate subcommittee on the Council on University Planning and Budget reported to senate members an intent to change the membership of the council.

The CUPB currently has 37 members.

The discussion detailed an intent to decrease the number of voting members to 15, including four faculty representing each college.

The council plays on budgetary advisory role, and if the membership is not changed “the CUPB is likely to become nothing more than a side show” because of meetings usually resulting in arguments, senate committee chair Matthew Monippallil said.

The proposal suggests going back to resemble the type of membership the council has had in the past, he said.

The CUPB senate subcommittee will bring a resolution back to the senate in the future, Monippallil said.

The senate also discussed standardized testing at Illinois state universities.

Senate chair Anne Zahlan said the Illinois Board of Higher Education is recommending the testing pilot, and university participation is optional.

The IBHE is looking at testing students to see the results of academic programs funded by taxpayers, Monippallil said.

The senate will likely discuss the testing in the future.