Three different aspects of the Civil Service Council constitution were discussed at its meeting on Tuesday.

One issue discussed was to change the date of Civil Service Council elections.

“The general Election shall be completed by the first Monday in October of each year,” according to the Civil Service Council constitution.

During the meeting, it was motioned to change the election date from October to May.

Angie Campbell, the president of the Civil Service Council, said having elections in October did not work well with maintaining representation on the Staff Senate.

“Representatives on the Civil Service Council are also a part of the Staff Senate, which has officer elections in July,” Campbell said. “Since we have elections in October, it can leave a void for Staff Senate if someone is an officer and then is not reelected to the Civil Service Council.”

The specific date of the election will be discussed at a later meeting, Campbell said.

The council members also discussed whether the council president should be mandated to be an ex-officio member of the Personnel Committee because of the term differences.

The Civil Service Council president’s term is one year and the committee position is two years, Campbell said.

The role of the Salary Plan Committee was also discussed.

“We have had the Salary Plan Committee in our constitution since it was written, but the problem is for many years now the committee has basically had no function with the council,” Campbell said during the meeting. “I think what we need to do is find a way to resurface this committee.”

Committee chairs for each committee will present their goals and plan of action to the Civil Service Council to better understand the stance of the committees at a later meeting, Campbell said.

Michelle Payne, director of the annual fund and commencement for Alumni Services, presented the council with percentages from faculty/staff contributions to the EI&U Foundation.

“Last year, we had 581 total donors and 122 were first-time EIU donors, and 30 departments had participation of 70 percent or more,” Payne said. “In 2010, we were at 20 percent participation campus wide, and last year we raised that to 35 percent participation, which is a 75 percent decrease.”

The Staff Senate had a 54 percent participation rate, Faculty Senate was 60 percent and the Civil Service Council had an 84 percent participation rate, Payne said.

Payne suggested to the council members to have a competition with the Staff Senate and the Faculty Senate to see if participation with the campaign would increase.

“Even in tough economic times with a decline in employees, funds keep coming in, and I think that all of the percentages are a good testament to what we can do when we put our minds to it,” Campbell said.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].