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T h u r s d a y, F e b r u a r y 2 5 , 2 0 1 6 | U s i s h i e l d . c o m | v o l . 4 8 i s s u e 2 3
New dean aims to ‘maximize abilities’ by Gabi wy news@usishield.com @ShieldsterGabi As an Englishman, James Beeby has always been fascinated w i t h America. Prov o s t R o n Rochon named Beeby the new Beeby dean of the College of Liberal Arts Friday. He replaces former Liberal Arts Dean Michael Aakhus, who retired in December. Beeby, who is originally from Northamptonshire, England, currently serves as chair of the History Department at Middle Tennessee State University. “When I was growing up, America was the place everyone wanted to go,” the history professor said. “People would watch Woody Allen movies and listen to western and soul music.” Beeby said a high school teacher helped him find his career path. “He really mentored me and was wonderful,” he said. “I went to the same university he went to and fell in love with American history. That relationship between a mentor and a student is really important.” Beeby loved American history so much he moved to Ohio for graduate school in 1993. He worked at Indiana University Southeast for seven years before working at MTSU. “I decided I wanted to come back to Indiana,” he said. “I really like living in this area of the country.” Beeby plans to move to Evansville over the summer, just in time to step into his new position July 1. “Everyone’s been very welcoming and interested in me,” he said. “I’ve been very impressed.” Beeby is married and has identical, 3-year-old twins named Guinevere and Rosamund. “I like to cycle, bake cakes and travel a lot,” he said. “I love the Ohio River. (Indiana) has a lot to celebrate with beautiful outdoors.”
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ALL I SEE IS CHRISTIAN
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Students seek melting pot, see unequal representation
Illustration by Philip Kuhns | The Shield
by gabi wy news@usishield.com @ShieldsterGabi President Linda Bennett announced at the beginning of the semester that the university will focus on the concept of “civility.” Bennett said this focus promotes healthy discussion despite critical differences in opinion, beliefs and culture. This week, The Shield explored religious civility on campus and asked students of varying faiths to reflect on the university atmosphere. A USI student often has to lock herself in her room. The sophomore identifies as spiritual, but doesn’t adhere to one religion. Her way of life contrasts from that of her religious suitemates. She said oftentimes she’s treated so poorly she has to separate herself from the people she lives with. While the university pushes for civility on campus this semester, the sophomore said she doesn’t know many people willing to have healthy conversations with her about religion. “In college, I expected to be able to have civil conversations with people,” the sophomore said. “I feel like I have to hide how I feel.” She chose to remain anonymous for her safety. The number of students who don’t identify with one religion has increased since 1971. According to a study by the University of California, 28 percent of the class of 2018 said they don’t identify with any particular
faith. The percentage indicates an all-time low in religious affiliation in the history of the study. Although more students in the nation are identifying with the sophomore’s beliefs, she said people at USI have a hard time accepting her worldviews. The sophomore said she has a discussionheavy communications class in which she feels personally attacked for her beliefs. “Even when what they say doesn’t necessarily sound hateful, it shows in body language,” she said. “They sit there, look directly at me and say people without religion don’t go to heaven.” The majority and the minority Sophomore Hank Burgher is part of the majority. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, he’s about a 15 on his passion for Christianity. However, Burgher doesn’t want to be spoken to as a Christian. Instead, he wants to be spoken to as a person. As part of the most prevalent religion on college campuses, Burgher said his discussions about religion have all been civil. He has the most options in terms of joining organizations to meet students like him. The only problem he identified on campus was others potentially changing conversation subjects when they learn of his faith. “When someone is discussing a topic with me, they may backtrack and assume I’m not interested because I’m Christian,” Burgher said. According to The Campus Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey released in 2015, 57 percent of college students identify with Burgher’s religion. The study refers to Chris-
tianity as the “worldview majority.” Although the majority of campus seems Christian, Burgher said, the university has a fairly good environment for talking about all religions. “I think people of other religions are accepted, but I don’t feel like they’re seen,” he said. “Part of me feels like the school should reach out to students of different beliefs, but I don’t know how they’d do that.” Fifty-eight percent of the worldview majority surveyed said they were satisfied with worldview diversity at their universities. However, only 29 percent of minority religions said there was enough religious diversity on their campuses. Endah Rosa is part of the religious minority and notices a lack of diversity in university organizations. As a Muslim, there are no religious student groups for her to join. “There’s no community club,” she said. “It’s all Christian.” The freshman international student said she has met quite a few Muslim students, but all have been fellow international students. Rosa said within the primarily Christian population, students ask her a lot of questions about Islam. While Rosa is open to talking about religion, she said she feels like she can’t really express herself within Islam on campus. “I was always taught America is a melting pot of diversity,” she said, “but all I see is Christian.” Of the 11 student organizations offered by Religious Life, 10 are solely Christian organizations. The other is the Secular Student Alliance.
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New dean, PAGE 2
Celebration of engagement to be more interactive
3 degrees approved
by abigail Suddarth
by nICK LEIGHTY
acsuddarth@eagles.usi.edu
ndleighty@eagles.usi.edu
Stephanie El Tawil is tired of going to professional development fairs and receiving handouts. “I actually want to talk to people and I want to see what’s actually happening,” said the senior program assistant for the Center for Applied Research. That’s why this year’s Celebration of Engagement is more interactive. “I want to be able to see, smell, touch, feel, talk to what you’re doing,” she said. “Let’s make it more tangible.” Outreach and Engagement will host the annual celebration March 1, beginning in the Fireside Lounge in University Center East and concluding on the second floor of the Performance Center. Each Outreach and Engagement department created a list of community partners they worked with this year and 700 guests, including Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, are invited. “It’s really awesome to see and meet the people you’ve worked with all year and be able to celebrate your successes together,” she said. El Tawil said she hopes 150-200 guests attend. The department will have 18 interactive booths, including a Jenga game for professional development, online testing for distance learning and virtual tours of off-campus spaces, she said.
Hoping to expand upon its current degree programs, USI has added three new programs to the Pott College of Science, Engineering and Education. The programs being offered are mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering and physics. The engineering degrees are offered as a Bachelor of Science, and physics is offered as either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts. All three of these programs will be added to the university starting in the Fall 2016 semester. Junior Cameron Gibson is one of the students currently enrolled at the university who plans to add the mechanical engineering major. “The (bachelor of science in engineering) is more general and a broad spectrum, while the mechanical degree is more focused,” he said. “It’s more of a specialization.” Gibson said he hasn’t found exactly what he wants to do with his degree, but he definitely wants to pursue a
Photo courtesy of Jenna Deisher
Members of the community celebrate last year during the Celebration of Engagement.
“It was really a time for us to engage the faculty that we do projects with and invite our community partners to see the impact that USI has in the community,” she said. El Tawil said she is most excited for the networking opportunities presented at the event and about the toasted ravioli, mini beef wellingtons and mini tacos they will serve at the reception. Linda White, president and CEO of Deaconess Health System, will be this year’s keynote speaker.
“We chose (White) because she is heavily involved with not only USI, but the community as a whole,” she said. “It almost seems like her personal mission.” White will speak on the opportunities offered in healthcare and education, possibly including the new (IU Medical School - Evansville), El Tawil said. “She presented to the (Romain) College of Business the question, ‘How can Deaconess improve health in the region?’” El Tawil said.
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career within mechanical engineering. “I like the quantitative and mathematical side of engineering and solving a problem,” he said. The goal of the new engineering degrees is to add new employees to the industrial area surrounding Evansville, said Engineering Department Chair Zane Mitchell. The mechanical engineering degree focuses on the design of anything containing moving parts, while manufacturing engineering focuses on how those products are built. These programs are meant to complement each other, yet be very different in design, Mitchell said. He said the programs have been a strategic focus for the department for awhile, but paperwork began early in 2015. The university was looking for new programs that would better help the students and since this was something the students were looking for, Mitchell said the time was right. He said the department has all the skills needed for the programs and the degrees directly address student needs.
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