IT’S ALL POLITICAL
KEEP IT STEADY
The Political Science Association hosted a caucus to help bring attention to students about political issues.
First year head football coach Kim Dameron looks for steady play from the Panthers’ offense and defense.
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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, Sept. 10, 2014
VOL. 99 | NO. 13
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
General education goals evaluated By Debby Hernandez Administration Editor | @DEN_News
K ATIE SMITH | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Eastern faculty members debate admission standards during the presidential search forum Tuesday in the Charleston/Mattoon Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Suggestions given for presidential search Campus community voices opinion on new president qualities By Jarad Jarmon Associate News Editor | @JJarmonReporter St u d e n t s , f a c u l t y a n d s t a f f h a d t h e chance to point out what they believed were crucial qualities and concerns regarding president search for 2015-16. In two separate meetings on Tuesday, one for faculty and one for students staff, campus members voiced what they believed the president to fill Bill Perry’s shoes should be able to handle. In the student and staff meeting, roughly 30 staff members, from across the campus trickled to make sure David Mead-Fox, Eastern’s presidential search consultant, knows what they wanted in a president. Other than being able to handle the cur-
rent budget crisis and the reduction of staff, some in the audience believed the person should want to be at Eastern. Many wanted to make sure they can handle the small town environment. The participants in the crowd said it was important the presidency would not be just a form of promotion. “It is usually not enough to be OK with living somewhere. You have to want to,” Mead-Fox said. “This isn’t just a job, it is your life.” Some also said the president should be a business-minded person. Hardships involving the lack of state funding have required Eastern as well as the other state schools to focus on getting revenue from increased enrollment instead of hoping for the state’s money. Some in the audience also want the president to have the personable, open door policy vibe Perry has practiced during his presidency. Tim Zimmer, the director of Facilities
Planning and Management, said he hopes the prospective president will eventually be as renowned as Perry. “Something I have appreciated about Perry is his relationship to the students. He has almost a rock star status when he walks around the campus,” Zimmer said. Mead-Fox said unlike in the past, presidents now have to wear several hats, and he plans to focus on those who can handle each one. Mead-Fox also gave a basic overview of how the search would play out over the next year. After finishing his 30-page assessment of the area and the needs of the campus, he said the search committee and the Board of Trustees would review and eventually approve it too be sent out to the public. “It is kind of an expanded job description,” Mead-Fox said, “It is a blueprint for the search.”
SUGGESTIONS, page 5
New locations, same services for SACIS By Katie Smith Online Editor | @DEN_News Since Charleston’s Sexual Assault Counseling and Informational Services (SACIS) has settled into its new off-campus facility, its counselors have noticed a positive response from the both their community and university clientele. In May SACIS made the move from the basement of Lawson Hall to their new 18th Street location across from Pilson Auto Center. Counselor, Erin Walters, said the organization’s new building makes it better-known that SACIS’ services are not exclusive to Eastern students.
“We are still seeing the university students as much as we were before and what we can do is we can make accommodations to see them close to campus, or they can come here,” she said. “We want to always make sure that we’re not moving away from the campus.” In addition to Coles County, Charleston’s SACIS also serves Cumberland and Clark Counties. Walters added that non-university members make up a majority of the group’s clientele, with 1/3 of their clients generally identifying as a student, staff or faculty member. “You have to take into consideration how many counselors we have,” she said. “We have more children’s counselors than we have adult counselors. Child sexual abuse affects so many
kids, there is a greater need for that.” While the new building serves as a platform for SACIS to make its presence known, Walters said the move has enabled the organization to shed light on the sexual assault in more ways than one. “We have windows, which was a new thing for us,” she said. “Being in the basement for so many years has been difficult in the sense that we’re sort of hidden and out of sight and when there’s out of sight there’s also out of mind, I suppose on a number of levels.” Walter drew parallels between SACIS’ former location and a general tendency to brush over sexual assault as a societal issue.
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The Faculty Senate debated critical thinking in general education courses and received two members from the university learning goals committee Tuesday. Rebecca Throneburg and Rich Jones, co-chairs of the university learning goals committee, reviewed learning goals and general education committee plans for the semester. Throneburg said committee members received feedback from faculty members who teach general education courses on which of the learning goals they are already targeting. “95 percent of gen. ed. classes say they are already working on critical thinking,” she said. “But critical thinking outcomes is one of our biggest concerns.” Throneburg said the general education committee would consist of learning goals members, CAA members and faculty with general education classes. Faculty Senate chair Grant Sterling said faculty members do not seem to take the situation seriously. “I know there are many faculty in many departments whose basic attitude towards all this is, ‘We are fine; we’re teaching critical thinking in our classes, so if you’re saying there is a problem, that means those departments need to catch up on us,’” he said. Sterling added that many faculty members do not see a lack of critical thinking in their teaching. “My biggest concern is for a lot of faculty on campus, they have not bought into the idea that there are any problems with them or with their departments, so they are not going to change anything,” he said. Sterling gave learning goals members input on what could be done to help resolve the issue. He said they should focus on convincing faculty in general education courses that they will have to do things differently. Senate member Steven Scher added that targeting the problem will be a difficult task. “I think most faculty are truly invested in wanting to help their students and meet these goals, but how do we convince them that it is not working?” he said. During summer symposium, learning goals members discussed ways to guide general education for this academic year, including how many of the learning goals should be implemented into the general education classes. Throneburg said members decided that an average of two learning goals should be implemented into general education courses. As part of the senior seminar, 100 students are randomly selected to take the Watson-Glaser critical thinking test to assess their skills, survey their global citizenship and test their speaking skills. Freshmen are also randomly selected to take the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which tests the same things. Scher said critical thinking assessments need to be in the form of pre and post tests. Since some students come in knowing more than others, it is important to have pre and post tests to better analyze the success of the departments, he said. The Faculty Senate will review vacant positions in the Library Advisory Board in its next meeting. Debby Hernandez can be reached at 581-2812 or dhernandez5@eiu.edu