Eastern has yet to receive $6.4 million from the state for Fiscal Year 2011.

Bill Weber, the vice president for business affairs, said the state has promised to send Eastern the funds by the end of December.

“We are all impacted by the state’s cash flow problems,” Weber said.

Weber said Eastern received the lowest amount of funding out of all the state schools even though the university had the highest retention rate in the state.

Weber also presented the findings from the final stage of Eastern’s collaborative strategic planning, which he will be presenting to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on Jan. 20.

Ideas for improvements are listed under six categories including academic excellence, campus and community life, marketing and communication, sustainable finances, global competition and changing demographics and emerging technologies.

The strategic plan preliminary draft outlines steps such as eliminating certain programs or positions at Eastern that are not financially lucrative or essential to Eastern’s mission.

“We need to have some serious discussions and considerations as to what can we stop doing without endangering our mission,” Weber said.

Andrew Methven, the chairman of the Faculty Senate and professor of biology, said the strategic plan preliminary draft outlines a set of steps that will help Eastern reach its goals.

“The outcome is going to be a five-year plan for where Eastern is going in the future,” Methven said.

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, also mentioned the recent issue of security for academic buildings.

Lord said there are around 700 cameras on campus, but the only academic buildings that have cameras installed are the Booth Library and Lumpkin Hall.

Lord said future security measures to the Physical Science Building could be implemented as early as next semester.

The discussions for how to increase building security are in the preliminary stages, but the idea of electronic locks have been brought up, he said

Those who wanted to access the building after hours would have to swipe their Panther Card, which would make a record of who enters the building at what time, Lord said.

During the meeting, a motion was passed to create a task force for looking into the future of electronic and online learning materials concerning aspects from online textbooks to online courses.

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].