The president of the faculty senate stressed the importance of faculty’s role in making recommendations regarding the budget during Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting.

This year, the advisory committee for the budget and planning to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy consists of 11 people, seven of which are faculty.

“We have gotten to a point where we have very significant representation on the committee,” said Jack Girton, president of the faculty senate.

He said it is extremely important for the faculty to be aware of their important role and respond.

“We are hoping for input and ideas on how we can make [the budget] work better,” he said.

The provost is in charge of the academic areas of the university which accounts for 80 percent of the nonfixed budget, Girton said.

“This is where the real nuts and bolts of the academic budget planning is going to take place and I hope that the faculty will rise to the occasion and come up with ideas,” Girton said.

“We have asked for a seat at the table and we now have it,” he said.

Max Wortman, past president of the faculty senate, said the faculty were never offered this type of opportunity under the past administration.

“The faculty had never had any say about [the budget]. The students didn’t have any say about [the budget],” he said.

“This is a great eye-opener for the faculty.”

Two years ago, the faculty senate first appointed a member on Geoffroy’s committee, Wortman said.

“President Geoffroy is the type of man open to ideas,” Girton said.

There was not much discussion at Tuesday’s meeting between faculty senators regarding changes to the university calendar.

Last year, a proposal was made to possibly change the academic calendar.

The faculty senate will vote this year on whether to keep the current academic calendar or adopt a new calendar, which proposes longer classes, but reduces the semester from 15 to 14 weeks.

If a change is made to the academic calendar, students and faculty would have a longer winter break, but it would cut a week off of important sessions such as labs, Girton said.

Major discussion regarding the academic calendar will take place at the faculty senate’s next meeting on Oct. 14, Girton said. If the faculty senate is ready to vote on the issue, voting will take place at their Nov. 10 meeting.

Girton said the faculty senate was almost split in half on the academic calendar issue during preliminary discussions.

Other topics Girton told the faculty senate to look forward to this year include the organization of academic departments and faculty tenure.