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FORESTRY CLUB LOGS HOURS Kaitlyn Kirby, a junior from St. Joseph studying agriculture business economics, works her way through a log during the College of Agriculture’s Student Cookout Wednesday outside the Agriculture Building. The Forestry Club received national attention for their success in the past few years in such events like the crosscut, speed chop and even the tobacco spit. “It’s a great way to meet new people, and is really just a fun thing to come out and do,� said Kory Garrie, a senior member of the club. STEVE BERCZYNSKI DAILY EGYPTIAN
Faculty travels rocky road to tenure RYAN VOYLES Daily Egyptian Susan Patrick Benson has taught other professors across the nation, directed plays and traveled to Berlin to teach German actors speech techniques. Now she’s waiting to see whether she’ll remain at SIUC. Benson, an assistant professor in the theater department, is just one of the faculty members who is going through the tenure process, which allows professors to continue to pursue their academic research without fear of being terminated without credible reason by administrators, said Randy
Hughes, president of the SIUC Faculty Association. “It allows them to research or teach controversial topics ... in a way that’s independent from the influence of corporate donors or other administrative — all the kind of influences that could affect how the research goes; they can do things that may be unpopular among the higher-ups.� According to the association’s contract, a professor’s tenure application is judged by their effectiveness in teaching, research and creativity in projects outside the classroom and services done for the department and the university. Benson said she went up for ten-
ure because she loves the university. “If I didn’t want to stay here, I wouldn’t have gone up for it,� Benson said. “I would have moved on, because it’s just too much work.� But an upcoming report by the U.S. Department of Education said faculty in Benson’s position are on a downward spiral. The report, slated to be published this fall, will show how the number of instructors who are tenured or tenure-tracked has dropped drastically over the past three decades, from 57 percent in 1975 to only 31 percent in 2007. Interim Provost Don Rice said he felt the reports numbers were on the low end, but he understood
why the number of tenured professors was decreasing. He said nontenure-track instructors were often cheaper and able to teach more classes than a tenured professor. “When we don’t fill a vacancy because someone resigns or retires ... you still need to cover those classes, you still need to teach school, the program can’t disintegrate,� Rice said. “So we hire non-tenure-track faculty. From a financial standpoint, they’re not as expensive, and from a workload assignment, they teach more courses.� The tenured professors, though fewer in numbers than in the past, can then focus more on their students and the development of cur-
riculum, Rice said. He said it was vital for department balance and structure to still have tenured and tenure-tracked faculty on staff. The hiring freeze also highlighted the importance of having instructors either tenured or tenure-tracked. Out of the 1,412 full-time instructors, 880 instructors, or 62 percent, were either tenured or tenure-tracked, according to the 2009 SIUC factbook. The amount of tenured professors has increased from 492 to 523 between 2005 and 2009, while tenure-tracked faculty has gone down by only two. Please see TENURE | 8
Fitness at Thompson Point experiences renovation LAUREN LEONE Daily Egyptian Glenn Stine said most of the equipment at Thompson Point’s previous fitness center was 20 years old —the same age of some students at the university. Thompson Point celebrated its newly renovated fitness center at its grand opening Wednesday. Students who attended the grand opening said
they were impressed with the changes. “I’m really glad; the old equipment was so disgusting I didn’t want to touch it,� said Katherine Beckett, a junior from Quincy studying civil engineering. The old facility was never a bragging point for residents, said Shannon McDermott, a sophomore from Dekalb studying cinema and photography. She said she used the old facility a few times when she lived at Thomp-
son Point as a freshman. “I think there were about four treadmills, but only one of them really worked,� she said. After using the facility a few times, she said she opted to swim at the Recreation Center instead. The previous fitness center at Thompson Point was badly in need of renovations and new equipment, said Crystal Bouhl, assistant director
in marketing for University Housing. “The existing equipment was outdated,� she said. “And many of the replacement parts for those machines were no longer available or difficult to find.� Stine said the new equipment — including a wall-mounted flat screen television, a reception desk, storefront windows, a security camera and a card reader to check student IDs — cost
roughly $91,000. Most of the funding came from student housing fees as a collaboration between Recreational Sports and Services and University Housing. The fitness center is also freshly painted, with a large mirror that runs the length of the entire room, Stine said. Please see FITNESS | 8