Julianna Keiter
Staff Writer
The first senate meeting of the semester focused on issues brought up in the April senate meeting and introducing everyone to the start of the new academic year.
Frank Gay, Manager of Parking, Transportation, and Security Services, spoke about multiple parking solutions that was brought up in the April Senate meeting. One solution was parking by seniority.
“Now, the other issue that was raised back in April was about parking issues, parking by seniority. We deferred to the parking assessment,” said Gay. “That parking assessment was pushed one year during Covid, so it was supposed to happen in 2024, but it’s actually going to be occurring this fall. So once that assessment is completed, we can look at our real numbers based on our or our current parking situation and our now 6,000 students that we can update based on those numbers.”
While parking by seniority is still in the works, the shuttle has had improvements to its efficiency. After reports of late arrivals in the shuttles’ routes, Gay and the transportation services investigated and, “spoke with East, our service provider. They spoke to their drivers. That has since improved.”
The shuttle times have also improved as one route starts at 6 a.m. compared to 7:20 a.m.
Along with concerns with parking, concerns with the signage for the one-way traffic on Centre Street was also brought up. Gay agreed that the signage was confusing and is looking into installing more signs to clearly indicate the one-way traffic.
Students have been repeatedly notified of the $139 increase to tuition approved by The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Board of Governors. President Kenneth Long spoke of a possible roll back of this increase.
“This summer, the Pennsylvania State System Board of Governors approved a $139 per semester undergraduate tuition increase. This is the first increase in seven years,” said Long. “While we still await the general assembly on a proposed 6.5% increase in the state funding for the state system, if that were to be approved, then the state system will roll back the $139 per semester.”
In the same report given by President Long, he detailed the total number of students enrolled in ESU as the total number of students enrolled in ESU is 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
“This reflects a 5.2% increase, or 290 students over the same day this time last year, a 6.1% increase with 361 students over the last year census numbers and a 3.1% increase, or 188 students of the made budget projections on the CPP,” said Long. “While these numbers aren’t encouraging, we note a decline in New York transfer and readmitted combined together.”
“In fact, permits are up, but transfer and new are down, and we’re looking at somewhere around 100 students being down in the three categories combined. That equates to about $2 million lost in our EMG revenue over a four-year period of time,” he continued. “Although the overall enrollment increase helps offset in the immediate financial pursuit, it does contribute to our structural concerns that we may be looking at and trying to address over the coming months to provide greater clarity on our financial situation.”
There is an official University Senate website that posts the dates of the meetings, the meeting minutes and other documents.
The next meeting will be held on Oct. 6, 2025.