The Board of Trustees will vote on approving a place to keep university funds and a resolution to encourage the state to pass a budget and fund Eastern at their meeting 1 p.m. Friday in the Grand Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Paul McCann, interim vice president of business affairs, said the approval of depository funds was important to him as VP for business affairs.

“There’s been some changes in the bank account that we use and we need to find another one,” McCann said. “That is important to me to get done so we can move forward.”

McCann said he wants to move forward before the account, which is currently with the Illinois funds, closes on February 11th, 2015.

The Illinois state treasurer ran the Illinois funds program as a money market account, and the federal reserve said it was not appropriate to run it that way so they are making the Illinois funds change what they do.

“We’re kind of caught up in that,” McCann said. “We’re just looking for a home and for somebody to do the processing of the checks. A lot of what we do is electronic deposits.”

McCann said some people transfer money to the university to pay their tuition.

“That whole process takes a while to get changed,” McCann said.

Eastern has found a new bank account by asking banks who would be willing to have the university’s business.

They have selected First Financial Bank as a recommendation to the Board.

McCann said First Financial Bank’s rates were better from a standpoint of service charges and from a standpoint of the interest earnings on the account.

McCann said the university needs to get out in front of that so they can keep the electronic deposits and payments flowing.

“This is really getting tight,” McCann said.

The Board of Trustees will go on record saying they think Illinois should have a state budget.

“This is the Board saying ‘please pass a budget,’” McCann said.

The resolution states that the budget impasse threatens to send students out of Illinois, “damaging Illinois universities, their communities, and ultimately the state of Illinois.”

The university is required to go over the income producing contracts for the 2015 fiscal year and provide a list of what they produce.

The income-producing contracts are things like grants, such as Pepsi, which gives the school money, or camps or conferences held on campus.

“It’s monies that we get,” McCann said. “It’s not usually a big deal, it’s more information for the board. They may or may not have questions.”

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]