OPEN SEASON
COMMUNITY CONCERT
The Eastern football team opens its season against Western Illinois Thursday. PAGE 8
The Coles County Barbershop Chorus performed Tuesday evening at Kiwanis Park. PAGE 3
THE
D aily E astern N ews
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
C E L E BRATI NG A CE NT UR Y OF COVE RA GE
19 15- 201 5
VOL. 100 | NO. 9 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Language Company expands facility, enrollment T’Nerra Butler Multicultural Editor | @DEN_news The Language Company, which is located in Thomas Hall, has expanded the number of students enrolled and its facility size since first opening last fall. Kendra Schubert, the director of the Language Center’s admissions, said two walls were knocked down to provide a bigger class size for students. Schubert said it took about a month for renovations to be finished. She said before renovations, the company contained 25 rooms and now they have 23 rooms. “It was just in case we get more students in each level,” Schubert said. “The class sizes only fit seven to 10 students and with our growing population, we needed larger classes.” Schubert also said it is convenient to have the company in a residence hall, especially Thomas Hall, because most students in the program are housed there. Schubert said because the company is in the heart of the school, it is easy for students to adapt to Eastern and the university’s culture. Yang Du, a language teacher for the company, said she was born in China with English being her second language. “When I teach English, I feel like I’ve shared an experience with my students, and I feel connected to them because I’m actually the only non-native English speaker teaching here,” Du said. She said she relates to her students knowing some of them share similar second-language backgrounds. Du said it is like she is learning with her students. Schubert said the company has had
T ’NERR A BUTLER | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Lauren Schuberth, the academic coordinator for the Language Company, talks to the Language Company students about organizations on campus Tuesday at the Language Center in Thomas Hall. The program is designed for aspiring students from other countries to learn English and to learn American culture.
84 applications this year and 44 have attended, 14 are enrolled for upcoming sessions and four have enrolled in the current semester. Lauren Schuberth, the company’s academic coordinator, said the program started with only two students and expanded throughout one year. Schuberth also said it has been a rapid growth since the program started in Charleston and on one occasion, the company had conducted a
test where 18 people showed up. She said numbers have gone up substantially, but numbers are not the only aspect they focus on. “Our goal is to provide not only educational, but a cultural experience. We try to integrate different cultures in our classes,” Schuberth said. “Our students are from a variety of places so we want them to be exposed and appreciate each other cultures.” Schuberth said the company start-
ed expanding with the hallways and then with a classroom. She said the company is up to seven teachers, and now the program has two sets of hallways, which are being filled with new classrooms. Russell Liu, a student at the center, said he has been in America for six months, and he is happy the company is on campus. He said all of the teachers are professional and patient while instruct-
ing him. “These students come here and they meet friends and they find people who care about them and want them to succeed not just financially, but personally.” Schuberth said. “I learn as much as I teach, because there is an exchange of cultures.” T’Nerra Butler can be reached at 581-2812 or tabutler@eiu.edu.
Faculty Senate discusses Landmark movie contracts, budget issues theater foreclosed
By Cassie Buchman Administration Editor | @cjbuchman
Provost Blair Lord and University Professionals of Illinois President Jon Blitz addressed the Faculty Senate and talked about the Departmental Application of Criteria at the meeting Tuesday. “The transition to a new president, new directions from the new president and new challenges that the president has faced; it was an eventful couple of months,” Lord said. Lord said President Glassman believed he saw a budget deficit in the $12 million to $14 million range, although he did not know for sure what was going on with the state. “He wanted the budget to balance as quickly as possible and assigned to each VP rather significant target budgetary reductions,” Lord said. Lord said they started to look at the level of flexibility they had in June. “There were some ACF contracts that were to be reissued that did not have to be honored if we had insuffi-
cient money from the state and enrollment,” Lord said. “It was already very late in the season and frankly, later than I would have liked to notify people that some contracts had to be rescinded.” This affected 29 positions with 26 contracts being rescinded and three being changed to part-time positions. “That created no end of chaos for you all, for your chairs and for a number of our students to try to reposition the fall schedules, and it was a great deal of work and a great deal of schedule shuffling,” Lord said. The contracts ended up being extended due to the Memorandum of Agreement. They were also extended because faculty members deferred their raise by a year. Lord said they had to look at civil service employees because of the target cuts academic affairs needed to achieve. “They have essentially a 30day notice requirement, but because of civil service rules, there can be no end of ping ponging around through bumping. And that process is chaot-
ic and we’re living through that chaos right now,” he said. “Something on the order of 65 or so civil service employees were identified, not that many in academic affairs. There were actually only 17 who received a layoff notice.” Because of people who were retiring and others that had become vacant, there were 30 positions that were identified in the academic affairs and civil service ranks. Lord said they reached about twothirds of the target budgetary reductions in academic affairs. Despite this, Lord said he enjoyed move-in day and Eastern had a wonderful start to the school year. “In the past, there have been times when we have had a relatively strong active faculty senate and times when faculty senate has been inactive,” Blitz said. “In our difficult time, I find it is especially important for our faculty senate to use its shared governance body to promote all faculty interest.”
SENATE, page 6
By Mackenzie Freund City Editor | @mgfreund_news
The Will Rogers Theatre on the Charleston Square is in the process of being foreclosed while the Majestic Theatre in Streator was sold to an Indiana bank. Katie and James Troccoli of Ottawa, and Tim Burke of Los Angeles, Calif., bought the Will Rodgers in November 2011. The application submitted by the Historic Preservation Commission was approved by the Charleston City Council to give protective landmark status to The Will Rogers Theater in May 2011. Katie and James Troccoli along with Burke planned to renovate the Will Rogers along with the Majestic Theatre. Katie Troccoli made a statement on the web page for the Will Rogers theatre about the closing of both theatres. Troccoli said Burke did not make
the mortgage payments he was supposed to be making on the Majestic after renovations were made, which caused foreclosure on both properties. Troccoli said the theatres were foreclosed because Burke’s name was on both notes for the properties. “I was up to date on the mortgage payments until the bank said they were taking the Will Rogers in January, because my name is on the deed,” Troccoli said. Troccoli said she has not heard from Coles County about when the Will Rogers will be processed, but she is expecting it to be about 14 months before the processing will be done. “My hands are tied at this point because I don’t know what will happen at the Sheriff ’s sale,” Troccoli said. Troccoli said the Majestic was sold at a Sheriff’s sale at the La Salle County Complex in Ottawa on Aug. 12 of this year.
THEATER, page 6