A HELPING HAND
PRACTICE TIME
Resident creates fund to benefit children, babies
Long layoff leads to more practice time
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Dai ly Eastern News
WWW.DAILYEASTERNNEWS.COM
THE
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
VOL. 97 | ISSUE 77
WEDNESDAY, January 9, 2013
FACULT Y SENATE | TOBACCO BAN
Tobacco resolution passes Faculty Senate
out of 738
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HOUSING | RESIDENCE HALLS
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GR APHIC BY NIKE OGUNBODEDE
Residence hall decrease affects funding, services Housing staff works to provide same living experience By Chacour Koop Special Projects Reporter The number of students living in Eastern’s residence halls has decreased 23 percent over the past five years — forcing university housing and dining director to provide the same services with less funding. Director Mark Hudson is now working for ways to lessen the effects felt by students. As Eastern’s enrollment has decreased over the past few years, so
has the income for the Housing and Dining Services. The income – student room and board bills – dropped from about $31.2 million in 2010 to about $29.7 million in 2012. Hudson said fulfilling the needs and requests of students is ongoing challenge. “They pay a lot of money to stay here, though it’s cheaper than most in-state universities,” Hudson said. Based on results from student evaluations and surveys, Housing and Dining has been continuing to provide students with quality living arrangements. Last year, 94 percent of students reported an “overall enjoyment” of on-campus living. O c c u p a n c y l e v e l s i n Gr e e k
Court, University Court and University Apartments have remained steady over the past five years. Housing and Dining has also completed multiple large-scale renovations in Lincoln and Douglas halls along with Stevenson Tower from 2008 to 2010. A $1.5 million renovation was completed in McKinney Hall this past summer. There are two funds that allow Housing and Dining to keep funding more expensive projects: the project directors account and a bond entity between Housing and Dining Services, the Student Recreation Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
FUNDING , page 5
The Faculty Senate passed a resolution to support banning tobacco use on campus during its meeting Tuesday. Members passed the resolution with seven supporting votes, one vote against and two abstentions. Gary Bulla, a biology professor and Faculty Senate member of the Tobacco Coalition, said the proposal would benefit the entire university. “Our contention is that, for the benefit and the health of the university as a whole, we think that it’s to our advantage to make the university tobacco-free,” he said. Bulla said nicotine gums, nicotine patches and artificial cigarettes can help curb current smokers’ addictions, and coaches are available through the Health Education and Resource Center to assist students in reversing their habits. “Our surveys confirm that 8 percent of students start smoking once they get here, and 16 percent increase their habits,” he said. “Anything we do to promote smoking by allowing it in various areas we think is a detriment to their long-term health.” Bulla also said 830 universities in the United States have become smoke-free or tobacco-free as of December. Jeffrey Ashley, a political science professor and Faculty Senate member, said smoking on campus is an issue for building service workers who have to spend time picking up cigarette butts. “I’m not one to tell somebody how to behave or what they can and can’t become addicted to, but when it comes to institutional cost in terms of maintenance to pick up after this, it becomes more of a problem,” Ashley said. Ashley also asked if banning tobacco would be comparable to banning trans-fats. Bulla said that, unlike eating, tobacco use is not necessary. “Trans fats don’t even come into
the same ballpark as the negative effects of smoking,” he said. “Trans fats have an effect to be sure, but the effect is much milder than anything you would compare to smoking.” Kiran Padmaraju, an education professor and Faculty Senate member, asked how the rule would be enforced. “We’re looking for a policy of a soft-nudge approach,” Bulla said. “We implement the policy, we publicize it very well, post some signage and let everyone know that this is a tobacco-free campus. Then, if we see people abusing it, we simply have people from the HERC hand out pamphlets to remind them.” Bulla said other universities that use the “soft-nudge approach” have been widely successful in enforcement. “If they abuse too much, then we cross that road when we come to it, but there’s no reason to anger people by trying to shove them off campus,” Bulla said. He said members of the coalition has presented the proposal to the Civil Service Council, Student Senate and Staff Senate, but they are awaiting responses before bringing the proposal to the Council on University Planning and Budget. The CUPB would then take the proposal to President Bill Perry for approval. The Faculty Senate also debated on how to respond to questions from Chicago State University’s Faculty Senate. Faculty Senate members of Chicago State University sent an email asking for input regarding the investigation of President Wayne Watson’s recent hiring process. According to an investigative report conducted by the shared governance committee of Chicago State University’s Faculty Senate, Watson neglected to follow the university’s procedure when he hired three new faculty members in the criminal justice department.
TOBACCO, page 5
C AMPUS | PRESENTATION
Age of wonder comes to end with visiting scholar By Bob Galuski Entertainment Editor In a world that relies heavily on technology, a cultural anthropologist turns his attention to what society loses in the process — a diminishing era he calls “the age of wonder.” Michael Wesch is coming to Eastern to present his case for why society as a whole should not depend so much on technology and social media.
His presentation, “The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever,” will take place from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m Thursday in the theater of the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Wesch said one of the best ways to describe society now comes from a story about Seymour Papert, a man who wanted to know how giraffes sleep. Pa p e r t , We s c h s a i d , l o o k e d through his books to find the answer but became more interested in how
he found the answer. “(Papert) imagined a machine that would allow even small children to use speech, touch or gestures to quickly navigate through a knowledge space much broader than the contents of any printed encyclopedia,” he said. Wesch said society has become a “knowledge machine." “We now live in the age of the knowledge machine, but it enters our classrooms as a distraction device,” he
"The key is that the knowledge machine runs on Michael Wesch, cultural anthropologist wonder." said. “The key is that the knowledge machine runs on wonder.” Wesch said advancing social media and technology have diluted the classroom and while they are useful tools, they need “wonder to run.” “We have to retool our class-
rooms to inspire our students to wonder, to ask questions they have never asked before, to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions, and to never stop asking,” Wesch said.
KNOWLEDGE, page 5