BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
VEGAS, BABY
Hannah Miller juggled soccer, maintained a 4.0 GPA and was named to the second team Academic All-Region V.
Students imitated favorite celebrities from past and present at a performance on Wednesday.
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Dai ly Eastern News
THE
W W W .D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S. C O M
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014
VOL. 99 | NO. 57
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
Hunger issues portrayed through activities Forum to examine diversity
By Roberto Hodge Multicultural Editor |@BertoHodge A 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman has to survive off $20 in order to feed her three children and husband. Sana lives in a rural area with conservative religious laws and cultural prejudices, which limit her opportunities as a woman. Sana was portrayed by Zach Booth, a sophomore communications studies, for the Hunger Banquet Wednesday in the Newman Catholic Center Basement. Booth said Sana goes out of her way to try and sustain her way of living. He said so far everything has gone decently, but he is unsure of how things would go when the children get hungry again, and that it is a never ending cycle. This is the first time Booth has come to the hunger banquet and it is an experience he was not ready for. “ They’re not even eating (meals). It’s just something to get you by—I’m eating three meals a day and they’re eating portions,” Booth said. Booth said this event tells a different story showing people must do whatever they can to get through life. He added he even had to steal to get food. “ That’s a lesson within itself,” Booth said. More than 100 students participated in the banquet, which had a Hunger Games theme with each marketplace stall being called a district and number. The stalls went up to district eight each serving a different food such as fruit, chicken, or rice. Students who worked the stalls were dressed in garb similar to those who live in other countries such as head wraps and long thin skirts. Throughout the market, there were signs all over with hunger statistics; even a sign stating stealing would result in a $1 fine. Students who participated were also divided into groups holding passports each with a different identity to portray for the night. For the hour, Ranjani, a 40-year-old Indian woman, was portrayed by Jay Garfield, a senior family consumer sciences major. Ranjani’s story was different than that of Booth’s character, Sana. Ranjani
By Bob Galuski Editor-in-Chief | @BobGaluski
JORDAN GAY| THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Kelsey Flood, a sophomore kinesiology and sports major, with her newly bought bananas at the “Hunger is Not a Game” banquet Wednesday in the Newman Catholic
lives in a home with servants with her children attending India’s best private schools with the hope of moving to the United States. Garfield said the banquet was not what
he was expecting. He said he thought the event was going to be more education al than interactive. He said if he were not graduating he would have attended again.
HUNGER, page 5
In order to get a feel for the diversity climate on Eastern’s campus, and in the city of Charleston, the Diversity Committee of Student Senate wants input from students, administrators and others. The input will be given during the “EIU Diversity Round Table” at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Greenup Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Throughout last week, committee members have been handing out surveys to Eastern community members to help gauge their feelings about diversity on campus. Questions such as “On a scale of 1-5, how diverse is Eastern?” and “Have you ever felt discriminated against or harassed on campus?” are available for community members to answer in order to get the discussion going Tuesday. Yazmin Rodriguez, the student vice president of student affairs, said the forum would be an opportunity to see how the campus feels about its diversity. “It’s about finding diversity. We want to see students thoughts and feelings about the community,” Rodriguez said. Surveys will continue to be handed out from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Thursday outside the Food Court of the Union. So far, 278 surveys have been filled out and handed back in. The committee also invited various groups on campus, which included the National PanHellenic Executive Board, the African Student Organization, the Black Student Union, the EIU Society of Free Thought, EIU Pride, the Latin American Student Organization, the Muslim Student Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of Colored Women’s Club: Women Changing Lives Chapter. Rodriguez said LASO, the Black Student Union and Women’s Empowerment League were among the groups that had already responded back, saying yes to the invitation to the forum. DIVERSITY, page 5
Language center to help teach students English Roberto Hodge Multicultural Editor |@BertoHodge Students who may not traditionally be proficient in speaking English will now be able to learn the language through intense four-week sessions on the first floor of Thomas Hall in the newly opened language company center. Kevin Vicker, the director of international students and scholars, said getting The Language Company on campus was a three-year process and has been a joint effort from his office, the International Education Council, and the administration of Eastern. Part of the process of bringing the company to campus was having talks with administration, interviewing companies to find one that fit with Eastern, and making sure those companies were accredited, Vicker said.
“The idea is to help the students also (feel) welcome in Charleston, stay and get their degree,” Vicker said. Vicker said a center similar to this was on campus, but it was not sustainable and closed in 2004. He said faculty has been pushing for extensive English courses to meet the growing need from students. “It makes us competitive with other institutions,” Vicker said. Vicker said students who are proficient at speaking English could get involved with The Language Company from 3:10 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for its Café Conversation Hour. Students participating in the hour could have informal conversations with those who do speak English, which is another way of helping them speak the language, Vicker said.
The center’s goal is to provide intensive English courses that will prepare students for success in a university setting. It can also assist students with housing. Brenda Robati, the president of The Language Company, said it would provide English as a second language from a level of zero to whatever is necessary for them to succeed in graduate level studies in American schools. Students must go through nine levels, and for Eastern, students must have completed the ninth in order to be fully admitted; however, students who are not proficient in the langue to that level will be admitted on a “conditional” basis until they complete level nine. Robati said two students are currently in the lower levels of the program and they must complete a total of 32 weeks, which
is 700 hours of instruction, and 25 hours a week in class in order to complete the ninth level. Students will be able to take courses in reading, writing, grammar, speaking and listening. “It’s very intense,” she said. The students must apply, go through The Language Company and take a placement test, which is where they will find out what level they place. Level one is basic English survival skills such as asking for help, counting and directions; level nine is a research paper on any topic of their choice, Robati said. Robati said students who complete the nine levels may also take advanced levels of English, which will prepare them for graduate school. LANGUAGE, page 5