MARCH MADNESS BEGINS IN NASHVILLE The Eastern men’s and women’s basketball teams head to Nashville, Tenn., for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, trying to punch their tickets to the big dance. The men take on Southeast Missouri, while the women face off against Eastern Kentucky.
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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
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
VOL. 98 | NO. 113
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
Who let the dogs out?
Student affairs proposes cuts to athletics By Jack Cruikshank & Jarad Jarmon Administration Editor & Associate News Editor | @DEN_News
in the future. There would be more certified training. He said there were also grants to be utilized, even though they are few and far between, “they are out there.” Voudre wanted to focus on having officers in the sheriff ’s department go for professional training. Voudre added many other progressive departments send their staff to these programs, but Coles County has never sent one. Voudre as well as Ervin have been enrolled in the one of these programs and Voudre said more officers enrolled in these programs would be beneficial to Coles County.
During the Council on University Planning and Budget subcommittee for student affairs meeting, it was suggested that athletics and much of student life do not relate to the university mission statement. This would warrant significant cuts to these departments. Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor, said athletics were not as crucial to the mission statement as academics. President Bill Perry said the council should be looking for programs and things that do not fit in with the mission statement. “We have to make $8 million worth of cuts,” Sterling said. “If academics is more central to the university then athletics, then athletics has to be cut before academics.” Dan Nadler, the vice president for Student Affairs, said it was not as easy as cutting much of the athletics department. The school actually receives funding from the NCAA for being a Division I school, and if they drop down they lose significant funding, Nadler said. He added this would also severely affect much of the student body and not just the 450 students involved in the department. The subcommittee decided they will offer the council two options related to athletics. Those options include cutting all ledger one funding or cutting 10 to 20 percent of the appropriated funding. The appropriated funding is all funding the university receives through state funding and tuition costs. After determining a ten percent cut to athletics would equal approximately $190,000, the subcommittee moved on to discuss student life. The subcommittee brought up cutting some funding for programs within student life around campus, such as the University Board. Nadler said the majority of the appropriated funding for student life is for salaries. He then said he sees those programs as having “lean” budgets already, and he said it would be very difficult to cut them without compromising the integrity of the programs “Some of the things, it is either you do it or you don’t, there really nothing in between,” Nadler said.
SHERIFF page 5
CUTS page 5
Jason Howell | The Daily Eastern Ne ws
Lauren Hayes, a senior art major, plays on the Library Quad Tuesday with her dog, Charlie, a mixed breed. Hayes said Charlie had been cooped up for too long because of the weather and decided to brave the snow and play outside.
Sheriff debates focuses on budget
By Jarad Jarmon Associate News Editor | @JJarmonReporter
Experience and financial budgeting abilities were key themes throughout the Coles County Sheriff debate Tuesday. Other than James Rankin, a republican candidate who was recovering from surgery, George Voudre, a democratic candidate, John Clough and Randy Ervin, both Republican candidates, were present in the Grand Ballroom touting what they have done in their past to prove their worth for the sheriff seat. Ervin said he plans to strengthen the communication with community leaders, having weekly meetings allowing for face-to-face with much of the constitu-
ents. While the communication has not been terrible by any means, it could be improved Ervin said. “People are less reluctant to pick up the phone and call and talk to you about a problem, ask a question, express a concern if they don’t know you personally,” Ervin said. “I am a big believer in getting out of the office, getting out and talking to people, meeting with people.” He said he has adopted these principles through working the Lakeland College Police Department. With the lack of state appropriations plaguing not only the sheriff ’s department but also other departments in the state, Ervin said he would start off looking at a comprehensive budget and then
go and prioritize finding what needs to be cut. He said he would talk to the lowest ranking deputy to the higher-ranking officers to see what the priorities are. He added it is not what people want to do, but it is what people can afford to do. Ervin has worked for two years on the Mattoon City Council, working with the council on the city budget. Clough and Voudre both focused on enhancing the amount of time and effort put into training. Clough planned for overall training enhancements. He said this would be possible by using the various revenue streams for training. With that training, it would be possible for those trained to in turn teach those