The Faculty Senate will be discussing issues and trends influencing the future of higher education during its meeting Tuesday.

Allan Philips, the deputy director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, will be presenting an evaluation of the affordability of education and various limitations to student success.

Philip’s presentation includes 79 slides of the data and analysis of these factors dating to Nov. 2012.

Philips said he would give an overview of the increasing competition among universities as well as the changing nature of students and how they view education.

“I will be giving a view of what’s going on and the general trends that will impact schools in the long term that need to be addressed to continue to attract students,” Philips said.

He said he would offer a strategic view of higher education.

Philips said he has given the presentation to Western and Chicago State, and plans to visit the University of Illinois in the spring.

Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor and Faculty Senate member, said he is concerned with how the presentation portrays education.

“The biggest concern I have with the presentation is it appears to accept a view of education according to which the only thing that matters is teaching people specific skills for their job,” Sterling said.

He said the data undermines the importance of learning things like art, music, literature, philosophy or writing.

“It makes it sound as though none of those things have any importance, that the only thing that matters is that we offer classes students can take that will meet specific skills demanded by their job,” he said.

Sterling said he would inquire about the nature of the data.

“I’m certainly going to be asking whether that’s actually what the Illinois Board of Higher Education believes about higher education,” he said.

Jeffrey Stowell, a psychology professor and Faculty Senate member, said he has no specific resistance to the data in the presentation.

“It really captures the major disruptive forces like changing technology, increased competition and decreased state funding,” Stowell said.

He said he is interested by the data’s focus on technology and online-education models.

“I was pleased to see some of the themes we had looked into as the Online Learning Committee,” he said.

Stowell said he is also interested to hear how other Faculty Senate members respond to the presentation.

“Higher education is changing,” he said. “I don’t think Eastern is going to be at the forefront of the wave, but we don’t want to be let behind.”

The Faculty Senate will meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Room 4440 of Booth Library.

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].