MAKING THE GRADE VETERANS’ VALOR The News’ sports team ranks the different eleCheck out the photos showcasing Eastern’s Veterans ments of the Panther football team. Page 8
Day celebration ceremony. Page 3
Dai ly Eastern News
THE
WWW.DAILYEASTERNNEWS.COM
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013
VOL. 98 | ISSUE 61
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
Senate to discuss pension, calendar Staff Report A proposed resolution to pension and retirement systems will be discussed by Eastern’s Faculty Senate at their meeting Tuesday. The resolution, which was made by the Faculty Senate at Northern Illinois University last month, deals primarily with funding for the State Universities Retirement System (SURS), calling for “sensible, equitable reforms” to be made in the ongoing changes to the pension system. According to the resolution, the tiered pension system that was implemented on Jan. 1, 2011 negatively affects the “ability of universities to attract and retain faculty and staff hired on or after this date.” “The ramifications for recruitment, retention and the quality of higher education need to be taken into account when making additional changes to the pension plan,” the resolution states. “We do not want to see Illinois ranked 50th among the 50 states in quality of public higher education.” The proposed resolution lists a number of principles by that “any prudent and ultimately successful solution will need to observe,” notably that any existing and unfunded liabilities remain the responsibility of the State. The resolution also asks that all current benefits to participants in the pension program be maintained, as guaranteed by the Illinois Constitution, and that the state provide guarantees that future payments will be made on time. The Senate will also set aside a brief portion of its meeting time to discuss the email sent to Eastern faculty from Bill Perry, the university’s president. Jonathan Blitz, a chemistry professor who also requested that Perry’s email be discussed, called Perry’s letter “sobering” due to it “seeming warning that more cuts should be expected.” In an email to Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor and chairman of the Faculty Senate, Blitz requested the letter be examined by the Senate, noting the university’s lack of tuition recovery program as concerning due to the reallocation of budgets between departments. The Senate will also look at the proposed academic calendar for the Fall of the 2015-16 academic year, as well as vote on Senate meeting dates for the Spring of 2014. The meeting will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Conference Room 4400 of the Booth Library.
Amanda Wilkinson | The Daily Eastern News
Brandal Miles, a senior kinesiology and sports studies, practices his introduction during the Essence of Man rehearsal Monday in the Loft of the 7th Street Underground of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Male pageant to focus on ‘Rise of Kings’ By Marcus Curtis Entertainment Editor | @DEN_News The Black Student Union will be hosting their 12th annual “Essence of a Man Pageant” show at 6 p.m. Nov. 20 in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. The Essence of a Man is an allmale pageant, and this year there will be five African-American students competing to win prize money in the form of a scholarship to go toward their education. This year’s “Essence of a Man”
pageant theme is “Rise of the Kings,” to symbolize the power of a young African-American male, David Groves, the coordinator of the pageant, said. The idea for the pageant originated from the “Miss Black EIU” pageant, a pageant that has been around for almost 40 years, according to Groves. Groves said this was an opportunity for the males on the campus to be uplifted and viewed positively. Kevin Hall, a junior journalism major, said the theme of this year’s pageant is what influenced him to
participate in the competition, as well as the scholarship money. “(The theme) speaks a lot about where we should be as men,” Hall said. “I also thought it would put me in a leadership role on campus.” Despite the fact that the five young men are competing to receive a $500 scholarship they all have a huge amount of respect for each other, and show this respect by calling each other “Pageant Brothers” or “P.B.” for short. Travon Moore, a sophomore pre business accounting major and a
contestant of the pageant, said part of the respect they have for one another comes from witnessing each other’s life experiences in practice. Hall said each topic that the contestants will talk about in their creative expression portion of the pageant will be different but will stand out in their own way. “Each topic will touch you and stimulate your thoughts,” he said. “Audience members can gain knowledge. I am speaking on a piece everybody isn’t familiar with.”
KINGS, page 5
Student Senate elections are now online Staff Report Elections for the Student Senate positions the next year are now available online on the students Panthermail account. The senate position is a yearly term. Some for current senate members who are candidates for the next election had to be appointed for the Fall 2013 semester. Appointed terms only last one semester.
While the senate has 30 senate member positions available, there are only 19 students who are candidates for the next semester. Anyone interested in joining student senate who did not apply for candidacy would have to be appointed by the Student Senate Speaker. Jesse Green, the current speaker, said he would not run for re-election for the next semester. The online elections will be closed
at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. The unofficial results will be announced at the senate meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. The official results will be announced at the senate meeting the following week at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room in the Union. This allows students to file grievances towards the results.
Student Senate election EIU Student Government is sending voting information to current students through their Panthermail accounts. Voting is currently open and will close 11:59 Tuesday.
Admissions search for more tour guides By Jarad Jarmon Student Governance Editor | @JJarmonReporter The Admissions Office is looking for tour guides, and will accept any applications, however they are hoping for more male applicants. The reason for wanting more male applicants stems from a lack of male tour guides currently. There are only two male tour guides out of
the roughly 20 students guiding tours for Admissions. Lou Hencken, the interim admissions director, said he was unsure of the reason why there were so few male tour guides but the female-to-male ratio probably had contributing factors. He added 60 percent of the student body is female and he thought it was interesting, not even 30 to 40 percent of the tour guides were men. “I could very honestly say I want to hire 10
more tour guides and hope a number of them are men, and after doing the interviews, the best candidates are women,” Hencken said. “Everybody could apply and their best candidates were women.” It does not matter in the end as long as the guides are the most qualified for the position, Hencken said. Omar Solomon, an admissions counselor, said they are just looking for the best candidate.
“We are just looking for students who want to showcase our campus,” Solomon said. “They need to be passionate about the campus.” Solomon said they want to advertise for more tour guides because some of the students are graduating. He added it is a normal process of tour guides leaving and tour guides joining. TOUR GUIDES, page 5