SENIOR DAY
The women’s soccer team honored their seniors with a victory over Chicago State Sunday.
UNTOLD TRUTH
RSO offers an outlet for students to express views and opinions on a variety of topics.
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Monday, September 21, 2015 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE 19 15- 201 5
VOL. 100 | NO. 21 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
BOT hears university fee concerns By Cassie Buchman Administration Editor | @cjbuchman The Board of Trustees heard concerns from the faculty regarding student fee increases and shared governance at their meeting Friday. Jemmie Robertson, Faculty Senate chair, spoke to the board on some of these questions and concerns the senate had. Robertson shared a story of a girl he met while in line for coffee who was visibly upset at the fact that she did not know how she was going to pay her student loans. “This is unfortunately a story for many graduates around the country now,” Robertson said. “However, I believe she will be successful in her investment and completion of a higher ed. degree will pay great dividends in her life both personally and professionally. Yet, are we doing all we can to contain costs for our students?” Robertson asked the board if they did all they could last spring to contain costs for student fees. “I believe, and many of my faculty colleagues feel strongly, that the answer to that question is a resounding ‘no,’” he said. “The mounting costs of higher education is a national concern, yet we must remember it is also an individual issue for each of our students.” Robertson also asked how they planned to uphold the principles of shared governance at Eastern. “Did we uphold those principles of shared governance when the board and president approved substantial fee increases that largely benefited athletics?” Robertson asked. “Please remember that last spring the Faculty Senate and the Student Senate both strongly opposed those increases, yet they were implemented anyway.” Robertson also asked if they were being fully transparent about how much revenue is being generated by those fees and where they are going. 78 percent of Grant-in-Aid fees goes to athletics, Robertson said. “As you will recall, the board of trustees approved a 50 percent increase in athletic fees last spring,” Robertson said. “However, when that was proposed, was it clearly presented to you that Eastern’s quote-unquote ‘comparatively low’ athletic fee did not include the revenue generated from athletics’ substantial Grant-inAid fees? Is that shared governance? Is that full transparency? If we can rescind an instructor’s contract, can we not rescind a fee increase?” Tom Michael, director of athletics, also spoke at the meeting during the president’s report to give a year in review for the athletics department. “We have had many successes in facing adversity, and dealt with everything with a very direct approach of finding a correct solution not only that is correct for the present time, but also thinking forward as to how it will impact EIU in the future as well,” Michael said. He said the student athletes have performed at a high level academically. In the fall semester, the overall GPA for all sports was 3.13. 16 sports had a team GPA of 3.0 or higher and 60 percent of all student athletes had a GPA of 3.0 or higher. In the spring semester, the overall GPA was 3.15, with 17 sports having a 3.0 or higher and 63 percent of student’s athletes having over a 3.0.
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SYDNEY EDWARDS | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
The Mattoon High School JROTC color guard marches down the parade route to present the colors during the singing of the national anthem on Saturday. The JROTC color guard consisted of cadets Sam Uphoff, Elijah Milligan, Trenton Bitting and Toni Enlow.
Olympians meet cartoon characters By Sydney Edwards Copy Editor| @DEN_News As the national anthem was sung during the annual Special Olympics Family Festival on Saturday, the Olympians waited to meet their friend-for-a-day buddies and favorite cartoon characters. Cheryl Cunico, a volunteer for the festival, said she takes pleasure in volunteering with the festival. “I saw an ad in the paper eight years ago, and have been volunteering ever since,” Cunico said. “I enjoy seeing the people. It’s a good time.” Cunico worked as one of the volunteer positions in the food tent during the event. Individuals can sign up to be a general volunteer where they can help with games or serving food. Volunteers can even be a friend-for-aday, which allows them to be paired with an Olympian during the festival. The Olympians got to pick whom they wanted as their friend-for-a-day. The festival volunteers put the Olympians
“I saw an ad in the paper eight years ago and have been volunteering ever since.” - Cheryl Cunico, festival volunteer in front of the group of volunteers and told them to pick whom they wanted to spend the day with. As soon as the Olympians chose their friends, they grabbed their hands with big smiles on their faces as they walked away. Many of the friend-for-a-day volunteers came from Eastern, and the festival committee gave special thanks for those who came out. The event consisted of many Special Olympians from all over the area and community. A few even dressed up as cartoon characters. The theme for this year’s festival was
“Toon Town.” Olympians at the event were able to meet cartoon characters from various shows and movies such as: The Cookie Monster, Woody from “Toy Story,” and Scooby-Doo. During the opening ceremonies, volunteers lit torches and released balloons. Olympians were treated to a parade, where they lined up and waved to participants. The cartoon characters, the Mattoon, Lake Land and Coles County police departments, the Mattoon fire department, and even Santa walked down the route to meet the Olympians with warm smiles. After the opening ceremony, the Olympians were able to go to different tents to play games, sing karaoke and get temporary tattoos. Special Olympics will take place at Eastern again in Spring 2016, and the Family Festival will take place at Lake Land College again next fall. Sydney Edwards can be reached at 581-2812 or at skedwards2@eiu.edu.
EIU Alerts warns of 4th robbery in 7 days Staff report Eastern’s emergency alert system notified students and faculty Sunday of the fourth onfoot robbery reported since the morning of Sept. 13. A robbery was reported late Sunday afternoon after an incident occurred at the Fourth Street basketball courts near the intersection of Fourth and Roosevelt streets. There were no injuries as a result of the crime, and two suspects were arrested. Eastern included a list of crime-prevention tips in the advisory email, which includes many tips implying an increased risk for dan-
ger when the sun goes down. *Keep your door locked when you nap or go to bed for the night. *Report lights that are out and any hazardous conditions immediately. *Remember the location of the emergency phones. Walking? Avoid traveling alone at night. *Confine walking to well-lit, regular traveled walks and pathways. Avoid shortcuts and keep away from shrubbery, bushes, alleyways, or any other areas where an assailant might be lurking. *Avoid the athletic fields after dark. The fact remains; Sunday’s occurrence is al-
ready the second afternoon robbery in less than a week. A student reported a robbery between the Lumpkin and Klehm Halls around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and was followed by another instance less than 12 hours later at the intersection of Fourth and Polk streets. The first of these four crimes took place on the south side of Booth Library last Sunday morning and is the only one of which is being reported as battery along with the robbery. Any information regarding the incident should be reported to the Charleston Police Department at 345-8422.