WELCOME HOME, PANTHERS! HAPPY 100TH YEAR OF EIU HOMECOMING
THE
D aily E astern N ews
Friday, October 23, 2015 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE 19 15- 201 5
VOL. 100 | NO. 44 W W W . D A I L Y E A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS FOR HOMECOMING Friday •
7 - 9 p.m. McAfee Gym South Yell Like Hell “Panthers Requested Live: 100 Years Edition” Pep Rally
Saturday •
9 a.m. 16th Annual Homecoming 2.5k Race
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9:30 a.m. Sixth Street to Division Street 2015 Homecoming Parade
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11 a.m. - 1 p.m. O’Brien Field Parking Lot Billy’s Backyard Tailgate
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1 p.m. O’Brien Field 2015 Homecoming Game: Eastern vs. Tennessee Tech
Check out Section B and read about more events in The Verge. MOLLY DOTSON | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar introduces David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIUC, during the Edgar Speaker Series in Buzzard Auditorium on Thursday.
Edgar talks state budget issues By Cassie Buchman Administration Editor | @cjbuchman
Not having a budget passed for Illinois is a pressing issue for many who live in the state. Someone who has been vocal about his concerns is former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, who recently came to Eastern for the Edgar Speaker Series. “There’s a lot of things that are not being funded, prime example is higher education,” Edgar said. Edgar said some universities can deal with the lack of funding more than others, for example the University of Illinois, where he is a distinguished fellow of the Institute of Government & Public Affairs. “They’ve got reserves,” Edgar said. “Smaller universities like Eastern are at a disadvantage; it
puts very serious pressure and can do some serious damage.” Edgar said he believes higher education is important. “It’s important for society, as you want people who have a well-rounded in-depth education, specifically we need people with higher education for our economy,” Edgar said. Edgar cited studies that showed higher education as being crucial to becoming a member of the middle class. “People coming out of universities, those are the key folks in a lot of companies,” Edgar said. “If you don’t have those kinds of people, those companies aren’t gonna do well.” For the state, it is important because having universities produces people who are going to be in the workforce, who also can do research and
help businesses. “You talk to the major corporations, and that’s one of the things they look for, a partnership with the universities,” Edgar said. “Most importantly, they look for good workers.” Edgar said those from the top ranks usually come from higher education. “One of the things that’s giving America an advantage over other countries is we’ve had a good higher education system that millions of people have access to, not just the rich,” he said. “We want to be very careful we don’t lose that as we go ahead.” He said even if these universities do get a budget in two months, they might have students who have left or programs that have been disbanded. EDGAR, page 5
Homecoming brings rich Eastern history By Liz Dowell Copy Editor | @DEN_News The first Homecoming in 1915 consisted of Chapel exercises, a football game, a parade and even a dance. There was not a Homecoming Queen or King that year, which was also the same year The Daily Eastern News had its first publication. Historically, Homecoming did not have a set of traditional activities, which was why this year, members of the Homecoming committee want to start something. Alexandria Neff, a Panther pride committee member, said because it is the 100th Homecoming, the committee is trying to engage in a tradition that would be new to current students, a bonfire. “We wanted a bonding experience for our
students,” Neff said. “We were just trying to think about how to make this Homecoming special and make our mark.” Neff said the committee wanted to come up with something that the next Homecoming committees could do 100 years from now. Homecoming also had an annual dance and meal, but those events ended for unknown reasons; in fact, there was not even a Homecoming King mentioned in the Warbler yearbook until the 1980s. Tavia Fuqua, a Homecoming co-coordinator, said she feels like there is more student involvement, and she has been hearing a lot of good feedback from the student body. Fuqua said the feedback is making it easier to improve on different things concerning Homecoming and she really appreciates the comments.
The feedback also helps the committee to come up with new ideas from different students. “It seems more lively to me,” Fuqua said. “I mean we decorated the campus and which it was different than last year. I didn’t see a lot of decorations.” Fuqua said they also got the community involved too and little things just to make a difference year to year. “We’re going to do a bonfire,” Fuqua said. “We’re going to try to keep that tradition every year. As far as traditions, Eastern doesn’t have any.” There have been a lot of changes to Homecoming; in the beginning it was only a weekend celebration—now it is an entire week. All of the following historical information regarding Homecoming came from old editions of the Warbler yearbook.
In 1924 there was an annual Homecoming dinner and dance, a football game, activities such as political speeches from Andy Gump, elephant acts and the “Unusual Family” was impersonated by some of the men in the sophomore class. In 1934 Katherine Hall was crowned Queen; there was a bonfire and Will Rogers show and “Stunt Night” replaced the former Homecoming play. In 1944 Thelma Whiteleadther was crowned Queen during the 30th Homecoming celebration. In 1954 Earlene Petty was crowned Queen. In 1964 Judith Bartlell was the Homecoming Queen, The Smothers Brothers visited the campus and they had another bonfire.
HOMECOMING, page 6