FOOTBALL BLANKED
The Eastern football team was held scoreless for the first time in 12 years Saturday against Northwestern. PAGE 8
PRESIDENTIAL DEBUT
President Glassman to meet with students during “Premiering the Prez” Tuesday. PAGE 3
THE
D aily E astern N ews
Monday, September 14, 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. 16 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
CUPB elects chair, staffs committees By Cassie Buchman Administration Editor | @cjbuchman The Council on University Planning and Budgeting elected their chairman and staffed subcommittees at their meeting Friday. David Emmerich, the current chair of CUPB, was elected to continue serving. Kathlene Shank, the department chair of the special education program, said she did not see anything in the bylaws that prohibited Emmerich from doing so. Emmerich said he would be willing to serve and his term will be up in one year. The different subcommittees such as: academic affairs, business affairs, student affairs, university affairs and the president’s area. During the facilities update report, Tim Zimmer, the director of facilities planning and management, said he had received questions on the status of the elevator projects in the Student Services Building and McAfee Gym. The elevators are ready, but are completely dependent on the passing of a state budget. Zimmer said they also have successful projects in the Physical Science Building and are in the process of signing contracts for the chemistry labs. In his administrative reports, Eastern President David Glassman said there was not a great deal to discuss, as they still did not have a budget for the 2016 fiscal year. The legislature has passed a reduction of 6.5 percent for the university, which has not yet been signed by the governor, who initially suggested a reduction of 31.5 percent. “We will not have a budget that we can plan off of and strategize off of until we receive our allocation or know what our allocation is from the state,” he said. “There has been no movement that we are aware of to date.” A number of budgetary areas have been passed and signed with the exception of social services and higher education. “The legislature and governor are spending in the state at a rate that has been estimated to be a $5 (billion) to $6 billion dollar deficit,” Glassman said. He said the worst-case scenario was that they would work on cutting higher education more. “Any percent greater than the 6.5 percent, any percent additional to what we have budgeted thus far, is equivalent to approximately $400,000 dollars,” Glassman said. Glassman said he would remain optimistic and continue doing his job advocating for higher education with the state, legislature and governor. Although Glassman said they knew enrollment would go down because of the large junior and senior classes, the multi-year trend of freshman enrollment going up is significant. “So we’re not just looking at those things that are cost-cutting, but also things that might produce a little bit more revenue for us this year to be combined to beat that deficit that we have at hand,” Glassman said. Blair Lord, the vice president of academic affairs, spoke about enrollment as well. “Freshman enrollment is up by 2 percent, transfers is where our challenges are, and they remain for most of our sibling institutions as well,” he said.
CUPB, page 6
MACKENZIE FREUND | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Memphis Jaxon, 3, paints his name on a T-shirt with the help of his sister Kiari Sanders, 14, at the Kids Art in the Park day Saturday at Morton Park.
Kids create pieces for annual art day By Mackenzie Freund City Editor | @mgfreund_news Families gathered in Morton Park Saturday morning for the annual Kids Art in the Park day, hosted by the Coles County Art Council. Kids were able to go to stations where they could paint a picture, make a wood sculpture or learn a dance. Josh Stewart, 5, painted a picture with water color paint. “I’m just mixing all of the colors, and that one is a frog jumping on a log,” Stewart said while describing his picture. Tesa Brown, 11, and Brynn Logsdon, 11, made benches and chairs at the wood sculpting station. Logsdon said she likes art and building things out of different materials. “I like being able to walk around and see my friends,” Brown said. Nissa Larson, 16, has volunteered for the Kids Art in the Park day for three years with her mom Yvonne Larson. Nissa said some kids come and build towers, and some come with more abstract ideas. “We had a racecar track that didn’t totally look like one,” Nissa said.
Yvonne said her favorite part was the kids that come back for the art day every year and add pieces to their collections. Yvonne said she is a member of the Coles County Art Council and has been volunteering for the scrap art station for about four years. Yvonne said the scrap art table relies on donations from people who own wood working shops, or anyone who does wood based projects.
“We want to make sure kids have access to real art materials.” -Debbie HershbergerKidwell, visual arts chair and board member Frank Monier, a sophomore theatre major, and Jason Tague, a senior theatre major, volunteered to help paint kids’ faces during the event. Monier said he and Tague are part of the
Alpha Psi Omega theatre fraternity, and thought volunteering would be a great way to help out the community. “My improvisational art skills got a lot better,” Monier said. Debbie Hershberger-Kidwell, the visual arts chair and board member for the CCAC, said the council has put on the art day for at least 20 years. Hershberger-Kidwell said most of the stations have been repeated over the years, but the story-telling station was new. “The reading circle was a fun thing to add this year,” Hershberger-Kidwell said. “We tried to keep it away from the drums, which they’ve been having fun making music.” He r s h b e r g e r - K i d we l l s a i d t h e re w a s something for everyone who wanted to participate during the art day. Hershberger-Kidwell said most of the materials used during the day were supplied by the CCAC, but some of the artists bring their own materials. “We want to make sure kids have access to real art materials,” Hershberger-Kidwell said. Mackenzie Freund can be reached at 581-2812 or at mgfreund@eiu.edu.
Steeples’ sentence alteration denied By Mackenzie Freund City Editor | @mgfreund_news New evidence was introduced by Judge Mitchell Shick at the beginning of the sentencing hearing for Larry Steeples Friday. A letter that was received by the courthouse from Steeples’ ex-wife, Roxanne Steeples, was handed over by Judge Shick to Lupita Thompson, Steeples’ lawyer, and Brian Bower and Robert Scales, the State’s Attorney and Assistant
State’s Attorney. “The letter contains some of what she testified (on Sept. 4),” Shick said. “It provides the court with background information on Mr. Steeples.” Thompson submitted the paperwork to have the sentence reduced. Judge Shick denied the motion to reduce Steeples’ sentence. Thompson said she would be filing a notice of appeal through the state appellate court to get the case reviewed.
The court reminded Thompson that she would need to make an appointment with the appellate defendants office to represent Steeples. Steeples was convicted of first-degree murder on Aug. 7 and was sentenced to a minimum of 45 years to natural life in prison on Sept. 4. Mackenzie Freund can be reached at 581-2812 or at mgfreund@eiu.edu.