Eastern News
Tuesday
“Tell th e t r u t h a n d d o n ’ t b e a fr a i d . ”
T
H
E
D
A
I
L
Y
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILL. D A I LY E A S T E R N N E W S . C O M T WIT TER.COM/DEN_NE WS
Panthers host final non-conference match
Page 3
Page 8 POLICE
Students involved in hit, run Friday
By Katie Smith Staff Reporter
DRAG SHOW, page 5
V O LU M E 9 7 | N o. 5 0
Students find unique, quirky costumes at thrift stores
DIVA DR AG SHOW
The queens of the Diva Drag Show displayed their femininity while encouraging individuality at the show’s 10th anniversary on Eastern’s campus Monday. “Diamonds are a Ghouls Best Friend” was hosted by EIU Pride and the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Services. Drag queen Ceduxtion Carrington started the event by thanking allies in the audience for showing their support. “I want to thank the straight people for coming out to experience something new, but I also want to thank the straight people for making gay babies because we can’t do it,” Carrington said. Ceduxtion also encouraged the inclusion of those who stray from the norms of sexuality. “I’m tired of all this discrimination in our own community,” she said. “We are a beautiful community of diversity.” Molly Ferris, a junior psychology major and coordinator of the show, said if everything went well there would be a lot of crowd participation and cheering. “I hope that everyone has a good time and wants to come back and looks forward to it every year,” Ferris said. “Every year, we try to make it bigger and better.” Ferris, the vice president of EIU Pride, said although the show’s theme changes annually, Pride makes a point to try to use the same drag queens each year. “The line up 10 years ago was slightly different than now, obviously,” Ferris said. “We love to keep the same queens, and they love to come back. Since it’s just for them, it’s really fun.” With names like Leiloni Stars, Ceduxtion Carrington, Calexus Carringon, Kelasia Karmichael, Amaya Mann and Sienna Mann, the majority of the night’s performers were from central Illinois.
OC TOBER 30, 2012
Staff Report
An Eastern student was hit by a car Friday while crossing Lincoln Avenue near Second Street. According to the police report filed on Friday, Kerstyn Jankovec, an art major, was crossing Lincoln Avenue going north when Jacob Jones, a kinesiology and sports studies major, pulled off of Second Street, turning left onto Lincoln Avenue and allegedly collided with Jankovec in the center lane. There is no crosswalk at that intersection. Jones was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence, and his
blood alcohol content is unknown. Lt. Brad Oyer said the BAC is unknown either because he refused testing or because they did a blood test, and the results have not been returned. The accident occurred at 1:29 a.m. According to the report, a witness said Jones was not driving fast when he hit Jankovec. Jankovec was transported to Sarah Bush-Lincoln Health System for treatment. Neither Jones nor his two passengers were injured. The current status of Jankovec is unknown.
PANEL
Community leaders, members address voting amendment By Robyn Dexter In-depth Editor
MIR ANDA PLOSS | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Leiloni Stars performs a Beyonce song during EIU PRIDE's "DIVA Drag Show" Monday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. This year makes the 10th annual DIVA Drag Show.
Community members assembled Monday to hear a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution requiring a three-fifths majority vote to increase a benefit of any public pension or retirement system. Six panelists gathered at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library to speak to the community about Amendment 49, which will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. The panel was made up of State Sen. Dale Righter of the 55th Legislative District; Alan Baharlou of the EIU Annuitants; Charleston Mayor John Inyart; Jim Littleford, the superintendent of the Charleston Unit School District; David Kuetemeyer, the financial consultant of the Charleston Unit School District; and Corrine P. D-Joyner of the Coles County League of Women Voters. The panel was cosponsored by
the League of Women Voters and the EIU Annuitant Association. Amendment 49 requires a threefifths majority vote of each chamber of the General Assembly and governing bodies of any unit of local government in order to increase a benefit for a public pension or retirement system. Righter spoke for the majority of the panel about his ideas surrounding the amendment and took questions from other panel members and the audience. “Illinois is wrestling with a serious problem in its public pension systems that cover elementary and secondary education, higher education, judges, members of the General Assembly and state employees,” he said. In Summer 2013, Righter said those systems will face an unfunded liability estimate of about $93 billion. AMENDMENT, page 5
C AMPUS
Lieutenant governor visits campus, talks to students By Zachary White Photo Editor
Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon spoke with 17 Eastern students about how they are putting themselves through college during the eighth stop on her College Affordability Summit Monday. The students met with Simon in the Edgar Reading Room of Booth Library and talked about financial aid funding, Monetary Award Program Grant funding and the American Opportunity Tax Credit. “I’ve been asking at every school ‘do you know someone who’s had to leave
school because they couldn’t afford to stay in?’—someone who’s academically able to stay but financially no longer able to make it’” Simon said. “Every hand in the room went up.” Students said Simon talked with them during the meeting about how they are paying for school and their degree. Sam Rosell, a senior special education major, said it was good to hear from other students about what they were going through. “We talked about how hard it is for students to get FAFSA money because some of us come from families that
make just enough that they don’t apply,” Rosell said. Discussion over MAP Grants also took up a portion of the meeting with how the awards are first-come, firstserve. According to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Simon is on a MAP Eligibility Task Force that wants to steer the MAP Grant away from a first-come first-serve basis that it is currently distributed through. Zach Samples, a junior history major and the former Student Senate speaker, said the question of whether or not the way that the grants are distributed
should be changed was brought up. Possible solutions that students addressed were making the MAP Grant distribution based more on merit or based on financial need. According to the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, the task force will be turning in a report to the general assembly by Jan. 1 that lays out a possible solution, one that they have yet to come up with. Simon said one of the goals of this tour is to come up with the solution through the help of students who need the grants. Samples said he could tell that Si-
mon had her own opinion on the issues, although she never said so. Kate Brown, a senior history major, said Simon did not seem to have a solution to the issues that they talked about. Simon also shadowed Jenna LaBuwi, a senior special education major, during her work-study job in the Booth Library archives while LaBuwi worked on scanning pictures from the Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan to put on the library server. Zachary White can be reached at 581-2812 or ztwhite@eiu.edu.