News
Thursday, October 30, 2014
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Students prepare for Halloween at Poe and Coe
Alexandra Meyer | Northern Star
Adrienne Decker, graduate industrial and systems engineering student, looks at information about a study abroad trip run by the International Studies Abroad organization in the Study Abroad Office Wednesday afternoon.
Ebola fears may delay Sierra Leone study trip Caleb Lawrence Staff Writer
DeKalb | The spread of Ebola in West Africa may delay a study abroad trip to Sierra Leone, with a decision on the trip’s fate to be made in mid-November. In March, doctors from the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea. From there the virus spread into neighboring countries Sierra Leone and Liberia. More than 3,700 cases of Ebola have been reported in Sierra Leone as of Oct. 19, according to a Tuesday Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Study Abroad Director Anne Seitzinger is optimistic about the future of the Sierra Leone trip, which was planned for the summer. “If the program is postponed for the 2015 academic year we will certainly look into the possibility of offering it in 2016,” Seitzinger said. The study abroad program is offered in more than 75 countries, and Sierra Leone has been one of them since 2010 thanks to associate sociology professor Abu Bah. Bah, a native of Sierra Leone, created the Sierra Leone program with the Study Abroad Office as well as the University of Sierra Leone. Bah sponsored programs in 2010 and 2013 and is sponsoring the 2015 program.
“If the program is postponed, the reason put simply is due to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone,” Bah said. “Our biggest focus is student safety, and due to the health infrastructure being stretched so thin over there we are very concerned. The study abroad department and I spoke to other universities with similar programs and adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach.” Mike Mucci, first-year psychology graduate student, said Americans thinks life-threatening diseases can quickly become epidemics but think cases in the United States are isolated incidents. “I think now that Ebola has become mainstream [NIU] should extend their decision timeline; November might be a little too fast to make their decision,” Mucci said. “This program sounds like something worthwhile for students.” No matter what the decision may be, Bah and Seitzinger said they have received positive responses from students who have participated in the Sierra Leone study abroad program. “It really touched my feelings a lot, the students who went mentioned how it was an extraordinary experience, a transformation experience,” Bah said. “You could see they were deeply, deeply touched by all they learned from it.”
Would you travel to Sierra Leone?
Polly Peebles Junior business major
Alexandria Barajas Senior rehabilitation services major
“I don’t mind traveling to Sierra Leone ... . This whole disease has been going around for years and just when it hit the U.S. was when people started really just going crazy about it.”
“No because I don’t want to risk my health. If Ebola wasn’t there I would go or if they got rid of it, but I don’t want to risk my health.”
Jonathon Schroh Sophomore nursing major
Roberto Aguilar Sophomore business and art major
“No because I don’t ... want to take the risk because that’s where Ebola is and I don’t want to contract that. I don’t believe everything that the government is saying, but I do believe there is still a risk ... “ “Yes, I would, depending on where I am going. Like if I am going to the city where I know ... Ebola is not there then I would go.”
Suresh Vakati | Northern Star
(Left to right) Junior anthropology major Brenna McCormick and senior English major Brittney Heath watch as senior English major Lena Grace roasts a marshmallow Wednesday at the Poe and Coe event at the fire pit adjacent to the East Lagoon. Poe and Coe was an Edgar Allan Poe-themed gathering hosted by NIU’s chapter of the International English Society, Xi Delta. Students gathered to exchange ghost stories, read scary original poetry and eat s’mores.
Faculty Senate endorses gen. ed reform hesitantly Margaret Maka Staff Writer
DeKalb | Faculty Senate endorsed a program that will reform gen. eds, but its members also expressed concern about the program’s pace and implementation plan at a meeting Wednesday. Progressive Learning in Undergraduate Studies aims to reform general education requirements for incoming students so the classes promote breadth, depth and practice. The proposed implementation date is fall 2015. Although a motion to have Faculty Senate endorse the proposal passed, a second motion was proposed and passed in which the Faculty Senate expressed its concerns regarding the implementation process. The second vote was passed by a vote of 25 approving, six disapproving and two abstaining. Faculty Senate members from the science departments were the first to speak up about their concerns regarding the removal of the lab requirement for general education. “I think this is very short-sighted,” said Paul Stoddard, geology and environmental sciences professor. “I think we are essentially dumbing down the program to make the students happy. And I feel that that’s a huge mistake and I am not going to vote in favor of this with the way things stand now, under any circumstances.” Members of other departments also expressed concerns about endorsing NIU PLUS: Robert
Gavin Weaver | Northern Star
Faculty Senate President Bill Pitney helps NIU President Doug Baker answer faculty-submitted questions regarding the future of NIU Wednesday at the Faculty Senate meeting in the Holmes Student Center. During the meeting, Pitney suggested the Faculty Senate express its concerns about gen. ed reform through an amendment to the group’s endorsement of the plan.
Schneider, professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, said his school has created 12 measures to take part in NIU PLUS’ curriculum reform movement. Schneider said the deadline for getting these measures approved through the curricular process for the fall 2015 semester is fast approaching, but the proposed budget the PLUS Task Force submitted to the provost has yet to be approved. “We feel somewhat as if we are being asked to dive off a high board without being fully certain that the swimming pool will be full of water when we arrive,” Schneider said. English professor David Gorman, who sits on the NIU PLUS Task Force, said that although the committee achieved its goal of a 50-item list of proposed changes, it still hasn’t fully addressed implementation issues. “Most of the worries that have
Baker’s comments At the Faculty Senate meeting, Baker said the university needs to cut expenses and raise enrollment to save money. To read more, go to bit.ly/1zgJ8Ix. been raised have had some sort of implementation component. So now the question becomes, how do we get from here to there?” said Gorman. Faculty Senate President Bill Pitney suggested an amendment to address the Faculty Senate’s concerns. Following the approval of the motion to endorse NIU PLUS, a second motion was passed expressing the Faculty Senate’s concern over the modalities of the implementation process of NIU PLUS, specifically its implementation plan.