Symposium reveals places of myth Page 2
Top stats from sporting events Page 7
Eastern News T
H
E
D
A
I
L
Y
“Tell t h e t r u t h a n d d o n ’ t b e a fr a i d . ”
Wednesday NOVEMBER 14, 2012 V O LU M E 9 7 | N o. 6 1
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
UNIVERSIT Y BOARD
FACULT Y SENATE
By Joanna Leighton Staff Reporter
Chick-fil-A, campus violence prevention
Students make dream catchers Perry addresses Feathers, yellow string and colored beads wove through students’ paper webs in the 7th Street Underground for The University Board’s Teach Me Tuesday. Each student at the event received a raffle ticket to be entered in a drawing for a professionally made dream catcher. Khalif Harris, a business administration major, led the activity and helped pass out supplies. Harris said arts and crafts are a way to relieve stress as an alternative to sporting events or going to the library. “Dream catchers are a window to your dreams. They are supposed to keep unwanted spirits away,” Harris said. Harris said people traditionally hang dream catchers outside of their homes as a source of protection. Harris also said the turnout at this session of Teach me Tuesday was pretty good in comparison to others. About 35 students came to make dream catchers. Most students chose feathers, beads and colored pencils to decorate their dream catchers based on their favorites or the color web they were given. Angela Davis, a sociology major, said the craft of making a dream catcher was not something she was used to. She was unaware of how to even start the craft. She chose the colors based off her favorites and went with the flow. After confusion soared through the room about how to start the craft, Darius Francis, a communication studies major and co-leader of the event, encouraged the participants to weave through the web as they saw fit. There were endless options to the patterns that could be made. No dream catcher would look alike. The opening in the middle of the web is where the bad dreams would be caught and spread through the strings, Francis said. Alexandria Hunter, a biological sciences major, said she did not believe in the power of dream catchers, but
By Stephanie Markham Staff Reporter
President Bill Perry submitted his response to the Faculty Senate’s resolutions pertaining to Eastern’s Chickfil-A franchise in the form of an email dated Nov. 9. He also addressed his plans for the steering committee for program analysis during the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday. In response to the resolution concerning student workers, which stated that students should be able to opt out of being assigned to work at the restaurant, Perry wrote that the current application process accomplishes this, and dining services would reassign workers who are unhappy with their assignment. Perry also responded to the resolution requesting the creation of a hate and bias-motivated crime policy. He wrote, “I am charging the existing campus violence prevention committee to conduct an analysis of current institutional policies and the existing campus violence prevention plan. The committee will recommend changes necessary for coverage of the issues raised in the resolution.” KRISTEN LE WIS | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Angela Davis, a freshman sociology major, made a dream catcher at the Make Me a Dream Catcher event hosted by the University Board Tuesday. Students made dream catchers using a variety of tools, including beads and feathers.
attended the event to accompany a stressed friend. Art majors Lindsey Phillips and Kirbi Eckerty attended the meditation and spirituality event the previous night and thought making a dream catcher was a good follow-up activity.
Phillips and Eckerty said they had never made dream catchers before and agreed that their purpose was the catch the bad dreams and let the good dreams in. Joanna Leighton can be reached at 581-2812 or jlleighton@eiu.edu.
AC ADEMICS
High-risk course report helps identify difficulties By Robyn Dexter In-depth Editor
In accordance with Eastern’s partnership with Noel-Levitz, the Committee on Retention Efforts has reported a list of courses that are deemed “high-risk.” Karla Sanders, the co-chairwoman of CORE and executive director for the Center for Academic Support and Assessment, said Eastern uses the definition of a high-risk course that is used nationally for Supplemental Instruction. “A high-risk course is any course in which 30 percent or more students earn a D, F, or withdraw from the course,” she said. “We have reported for departments so that they can determine courses where students could
benefit from tutoring or other academic resources.” According to CORE’s October 2012 newsletter, in Spring 2012, a total of 81 courses matched the highrisk course criteria. The newsletter detailed the number of courses by level, and the committee found that 18 of the classes were general education classes and 21 of the 81 had fewer than 10 students enrolled. Sanders said figuring out the numbers behind the high-risk courses will help professors figure out resources to help their students pass the classes. “Students should expect to work hard academically, but we want to make students aware of the resources to help them succeed,” she said. Students struggling in courses
should talk to their professors if they feel lost in a course, Sanders said. Jennifer Stringfellow, an assistant special education professor and a member of the committee, said the CORE committee is always looking to balance rigor with retention and recruitment. “We want to get students and we want them to stay, but we also want our coursework to stay at a rigorous level,” she said. “What we’ve deemed high-risk courses are the courses where there’s a high percentage of Ds and Fs and those tend to be courses that freshmen and sophomore are taking.” Stringfellow said reporting the courses has to do with the rigor and reputation of Eastern. ACADEMICS, page 5
The final resolution sent to Perry requested a change in Eastern’s contract with Chick-fil-A from an automatic renewal to one in which Eastern can either renegotiate the contract every year or have an open-bid process with multiple vendors. Perry went on to say that Eastern will not be changing Chick-fil-A’s contract, but will have a new evaluation process. “We will enhance our existing customer feedback mechanism for food court restaurants to assess quality, price and service, so that those results can be used in our analysis of contractual relationships in the food court,” Perry said, in the email. He also addressed the steering committee. Perry created the steering committee for program analysis in October to analyze the effectiveness of university programs in order to plan for the budget for the fiscal year 2014. “Their job is to develop a template, not to give budget advice,” Perry said. “Their job is to put together a tool for us to use to work on the budget in the future.” FACULTY SENATE, page 5
STUDENT SENATE
Last senate meeting to be reflective Kate Quill Staff Reporter
The Student Senate will have its final meeting of the semester at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Student Senate Speaker Mitch Gurick, a sophomore business major, said he was pleased with everything the senate was able to accomplish this semester. “We did good work and produced good results,” Gurick said. “It has been a really successful semester.” The accomplishments of each committee will be evaluated at this week’s meeting. Senate members will also discuss the Student Action Team’s Fall Training Day. Jarrod Scherle, the student executive vice president, has a bill on the table regarding travel expenses for the Student Action Team. This group includes Scherle and 10 senate members. “I wanted to bring young (senate members) to teach them how to do this,” Scherle said. The group will travel to Springfield to get a behind the scenes tour about navigating through the capital. Students will also get a chance to see offices.
This tour is scheduled to take place on Nov. 28. Students will leave early in the morning and get back to campus that afternoon. Justine Ryan, the external relations co-chairwoman and senior communication studies major, said she is also planning on sending care packages to soldiers and veterans. These packages will include a letter from a student and an application to Eastern. This would encourage soldiers to continue their education at Eastern and could possibly help Eastern’s enrollment rate. Sara Boro, the secretary for the Fair Trade for Global Justice Committee and second-year graduate student, will also attend this week’s senate meeting. Student Senate will also host Senate Outreach on the Road from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Online elections for Student Senate took place on Monday and Tuesday. “The unofficial results will be announced at the meeting this week,” Gurick said. Official results from re-elections for next semester will be announced on Nov. 28. Kate Quill can be reached at 581-2812 or kmquill@eiu.edu.