Faculty Senate will discuss their concerns with the number of faculty in their meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the Witters conference room in Booth Library.

Another concern they will discuss is campus safety while having people in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Senate is expected to choose a theme for the next year which will give guidance on goals and priorities as the year progresses.

The proposed options for the 2021-22 theme include “Rebuilding a Faculty Culture” and “Moving for the Survival Era to the Investment Era.”

The senate will also have discussions about what guest speakers to have at meetings throughout the year.

There are still a few issues remaining from the 2020-21 school year.

The first is deciding whether the Faculty Senate needs a committee on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

If the Senate decides they do need that committee, they also have to make a decision on whether they should have their own committee or if they should have a joint committee with the staff and student senates.

The senate will also receive an update on the decision-making process about possibly renaming Douglas Hall.

This potential name change has been debated over the last several years because the hall was named after Stephen Douglas, who is historically associated with his support for slavery.

Last year, Eastern’s naming committee held forums with several different groups, including faculty members, on their feelings about the hall’s name.

Seven faculty members spoke in the forum, and a majority were in favor of a name change.

Bonnie Laughlin-Shultz, associate professor of history, said he was in support of renaming the hall and that renaming would not diminish the historical element of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

“I think that the debates are commemorated here. They’re commemorated at the fairgrounds, we have those statues of Lincoln and Douglas debating that appear in the other debate cities as well with a museum,” Laughlin-Shultz said. “So I don’t think that they also need to be commemorated on campus.”

Camden Burd, a professor of history, said “commemoration as an act is done in the present, not in the past.”

The faculty senate meeting will also include a report from the provost and reports from committees including

• Exec
• Elections & Nominations
• Student & Staff Relations
• Faculty Forum
• Awards
• Parliamentarian

Luke Taylor can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].