After a presentation detailing the cost of attendance at Eastern compared to peer state institutions, the Faculty Senate bounced ideas off one another about how to make getting an education cheaper.

Jeff Stowell, a psychology professor, presented the issue as well as ideas of what might alleviate the heavy cost to attend and also drive people to enroll at Eastern.

He said he wanted to bring up the topic to get creative ideas flowing to fix the problem.

“Hopefully, it prompted some creativity in terms of solutions to the rising costs of higher education,” Stowell said.

His presentation stated that even though Eastern is ninth in enrollment compared to 11 other state institutions, the university still has a high net price to attend. Net price is the actual cost excluding the help of financial aid on average.

Eastern is ranked either second or fourth depending on the numbers.

Mary Herrington-Perry, the assistant vice president for academic affairs, said numbers estimated previously were higher estimates to the average cost of schooling including living in Charleston. She said they planned to be reduced for this coming fall semester.

In 2008, Eastern was ninth on the list of state institutions.

Stowell said several ideas could help out make Eastern more affordable in general. He said reducing total costs by 11 percent across the board might catch the eyes of the state as well as families intently looking at tuition costs. He said these costs could make people pay attention especially with most institutions raising tuition costs.

He added that might not be as feasible in the current economic climate with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed 30 percent cut to higher education.

He said tuition discounting might be good to help market Eastern to prospective students. Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor, pointed out one technique some private universities use is raising tuition costs and then discounting them to make it seem like the student is not paying as much.

He also recommended tuition cuts or freezing the market to students.

A 10 percent cut would mean 3 percent loss in revenue, Stowell said.

Stowell brought up having a 3-year program for students like EIU4, which is a program the pushes a student to get out in four years. One less year of schooling could be appealing to those who are heavily focused on the price of admission, Stowell said.

Using the summer more for schooling would allow the student to be able get out in three years. Using a degree from the psychology program, he pointed out it was possible. If students were to take nine credit hours during the summer, they could get much of their education done quicker.

Rebecca Throneburg, a Human Services professor and graduate coordinator, agreed this might attract students to the program. She pointed out that the more accelerated graduate program offered at Eastern has grabbed people. Students in this program take course from summer to summer, and then they move off for two years in internships.

Blair Lord, the provost and vice president for academic affairs, said as of now, summer classes also provide additional revenue to the university. He said originally, when he got to Eastern, online courses barely paid for the faculty to teach them

Minh Dao, an economics professor, was skeptical. He said having so many courses over the summer would not only be too taxing, but not many students would take advantage of the theoretical program.

Several senate members were also open to the idea of forming a think tank to bounce around creative ideas along with those provided from the administration to improve Eastern’s enrollment.

Stowell said many different faculty members have studied in various fields that could provide beneficial ideas.

The senate also tabled a discussion in regards to its constitution. Issues were brought up revolving around the necessity for non-senate faculty to have to petition to bring an issue to light, as opposed to senate members who do not need to, according to the language in the constitution.

A total of 15 constitutional revisions were approved including adding Unit B faculty as possible voting members to the senate. The language now only states they have to be full-time instructors.

The senate will meet again at 2 p.m. March 24 in the Conference Room of Booth Library.

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].