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Thursday, March 10, 2016
Northern Star
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Students should be prepared for server maintenance over break
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Perspective
Cuts made at other universities mirror NIU
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Kaylyn Zielinski Columnist
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Faith Mellenthin | Northern Star
Students should make spring break useful Students should keep social media clean over break
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Kara Mercer Columnist
Students should use their spring break to be productive and prevent later stress. If students get bombarded with work, it could take away from the other opportunities that spring break allows so it is best to plan things out at a pace that suits the individual student. Homework “When I think about spring break, one of the big things I hear, especially from students who are feeling stressed out before spring break, is that they want to use it as an opportunity to like get caught up on everything,” said Angela Daigneault, licensed clinical social worker for Counseling and Consultation services. Teachers should be aware that assigning too much work over break could lead to the exact opposite of productiveness. “I think that teachers give us too much work for spring break. They’re like ‘Oh you have a full week, here’s all this homework.’ But with all of them giving us all of that homework on our break, I don’t think there’s enough time to do what is expected of us,” said Kelsey Conrad, junior elementary education major. The bright side is that students do in fact have a whole week to
NIU students need to stay informed on other state universities and their changes to higher education due to state budget cuts as an example for what their future may look like. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Fiscal Year 2016 proposed budget includes a reduction in funds to NIU’s $93 million in allocations for FY 2016 to about $64 million, according to a March 3 Northern Star article. Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker cut $300 million from the University of Wisconsin school system. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, was hit with a $1.2 million budget cut, the largest cut the university had ever seen. “The cut, just the first year alone, would amount to the elimination of an average of 126 faculty positions, and a loss of 24,892 classroom seats – or the elimination of 152 staff and administration positions,” said Bob Nowlan, UW-Eau Claire English professor.
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We didn’t understand how much these changes would affect us ... . It’s scary to see how much has changed that we didn’t know was coming for us.” Trace Osborn Senior history major at University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
Hanna Markezich | Northern Star
get work done without the burden of classes. Apply Working on scholarship, job and internship applications can take time that students may not have over the course of a school year.
focus on scholarships. Students can apply for summer internships or jobs. Students who are close to graduation can take the time to contact certain employers they may be interested in working with over the summer.
Choose your own pace This week allows for students to I think that teachers give plan out exactly what they feel like us too much work for getting done rather than the set spring break. They’re like schedule they are forced to follow ‘Oh you have a full week, the rest of the semester. here’s all this homework.” “People always talk about how they don’t get a chance to read Kelsey Conrad anything they really enjoy readJunior elementary education major ing, or they really wish they could go exercise ... take that time to “ ... [Students should be] working recharge and reenergize so that on organizing projects, or getting you have more energy and ability yourself prepared for stuff that is to focus when you need to coming coming up at the end of the semesup in the last few weeks of the ter, or maybe even looking into semester,” Daigneault said. something that will get you prepped Spring break is a time off, which for summer internships, or things means everything can be done at like that,” Daigneault said. a comfortable pace rather than Spring break is a good time to rushing to meet a deadline.
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Similarly, because of the Illinois budget impasse, NIU still had 228 positions unfilled because of 389 terminations or retirements, and only 161 new hires for all staff at NIU as of September 2015, according to a Feb. 15 Northern Star article. A change to the staff, student ratio happened at UW-Eau Claire in less than six months after the budget cut. Trace Osborn, senior history major at UW-Eau Claire, has seen a decrease in the number of classes at UW-Eau Claire, and an increase in class sizes. “The university isn’t hiring professors for the next three years. One of my history classes last spring had 14 students in one section ... this spring semester, the same class had 33 students,” Osborn said. Osborn said UW-Eau Claire students were not aware of the changes that would be occurring. “We didn’t understand how much these changes would affect us ... . It’s scary to see how much has changed that we didn’t know was coming for us,” Osborn said. Chicago State University made similar cuts prior to the announcement of its closing after this academic year.
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