Eastern News
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Wednesday OC TOBER 5, 2011 V O LU M E 9 6 | N o. 1 2 6
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILL. D A I LY E A S T E R N N E W S . C O M T WIT TER.COM/DENNE WS
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PANELIST
Students get educated
in sexual health issues By Kathryn Richter Staff Reporter
MIR ANDA PLOSS | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Elizabeth Smith, senior communication studies major, speaks on the importance of young women protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections Tuesday during "Letters to my little sister..." hosted by the Health Education Resource Center.
Women and men of all races gathered in Lumpkin Hall during “Letters to my little sister” to celebrate and educate the modern woman and the difficulties that they face, especially in sexual health. Topics that where brought up during the open forum ranged from questions such as “ Why do so many women allow men to have unprotected sex with them?” to “Do you think the media portrays an accurate picture of African American women?” to “Where do we go from here?” A board of panelists, including assistant professor of journalism Janice Collins; assistant professor of English and women’s studies Jeannie Ludlow; minority affairs director Yolanda Williams; and assistant director of student standards Shawn Peoples, guided the discussion that was sponsored by the Health Education Resource Center. Collins said she was asked to be a panelist and felt that the forum was necessary. She said she felt that HIV/
Student senate reps present billboard proposal to council Eastern’s student senate representative presented the City Council with the proposed measure to install eight electronic billboards on Eastern’s campus at Tuesday’s meeting. Blair Jones, a junior accounting major, said Eastern will sign a five year contract to display the proposed electronic billboards. Roughly the size of a poster board, the billboards will display national advertisements two-thirds of the time, and Eastern will have control of the remaining displayed content, she said. Jones said the top 25 percent of the billboard will belong to the University, displaying the time, day and Eastern’s logo at all times. If an emergency ever occurred, Eastern would get access to the boards 100 percent of the time. Jones said according to an online survey, 80 percent of Eastern students were in favor of the display boards; 90 percent said it was an effective way to advertise campus events; 80 percent said they would
• Hosted by the Health Education Resource Center in Lumpkin Hall • Panelists guided discussion about sexual health safety •Topics discussed included myths about African American women
AIDS is something that needs to be address. “To get a disease from making love is just tragic,” Collins said. The forum addressed why so many minority women engage in unprotected sex. “We don’t have that conversation,” Williams said. “We don’t communicate as women.” Ot h e r t o p i c s a d d re s s e d i n cluded how to diminish the myths about African American women. “ You know what the myth is. Why perpetuate it?” Peoples said. Elizabeth Smith, a senior corporate communication major, said she really enjoyed going to the forum. “I think this was a wonderful forum. We as women, no matter what race or size, need to en-
courage each other to be all we can be. Be beautiful, be successful and not to settle for anything else,” Smith said. The main goal Collins said she wanted to leave the attendees with was empowerment and education. “I want these women to take away the fact that they are in control of their own bodies,” Collins said, “I think women should have a choice, and women don’t have a choice in college.” Irvin Jean-Charles, a graduate student, said he attended the forum to listen to women share their experiences. “I felt like it’s important for African American men to support African American women,” Charles said. Before the forum ended, Collins had a fe w par ting words for the women in the audience. “Love yourself, respect yourself, and at all times try to be safe,” Collins said. Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or kjrichter@eiu.edu.
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CIT Y COUNCIL
By Sara Hall City Editor
“Letters to my little sister”
approve the appeal of campus; and 95 percent said it would be an effective way to advertise community warnings. Jones said she is in favor of execution of the electronic billboards. “I think it’s a good idea to take some advertisements and get the boards for free,” Jones said. “It’s still good to use them to advertise campus events.” Jo n e s s a i d t h e m o n e y r a i s e d through these billboards will be enough to pay at least one student intern to do the graphics for the billboard. Council member Larry Rennels addressed concerns over whether the billboards would be changing rapidly. Jones said the adver tisements would change between every 45 seconds and a minute and the boards would be on for 16 to 18 hours every day. Jones said other universities such as Northern Illinois University, Murray State and Washington University in St. Louis also display the proposed electronic billboards. Jones said the student senate will
give their support for the billboards at today’s meeting. She said the university hopes to have the boards implemented some time next semester. The council approved to place a resolution for amending building regulations of the Charleston City Code on file for public inspection. Mayor John Inyart said the council and city planner Steve Pamprin have been working through changes trying to find what best fits Charleston. Pamprin said Charleston is currently operating under 2003 building codes. The council proposes to update to the one and two family residential homes to 2006 codes. Pamprin said this measure is primarily the reason for updating the codes for the health and safety of the community. “ We’re implementing the new codes to keep up with the new rules and regulations to hopefully make things safer,” he said. “Engineers didn’t know things in 2003 that they know now.” BILLBOARD, page 5
Senate to present resolutions today By Kathryn Richter Staff Reporter
Two resolutions will be presented at today’s student government meeting. Student Senate Speaker Zach Samples, a sophomore history major, said one resolution that will be discussed at the meeting is whether they support having electronic billboards on campus. Peter Zizzo, a student senate member and sophomore mathematics major, said he is not sure which way he is going to vote regarding the electronic billboards. “I don’t mind (the boards), but I don’t see any true benefit,” Zizzo said. He said that for the past two weeks, he has been discussing the electronic billboards with students in order to best represent their views. Tommy Neirman, a student senate member and a senior management major, is one of the authors of the resolution regarding the electronic billboards. Neirman said the resolution took a week and a half to put together and he used “the power of Facebook” to promote a survey he co-created. He said more than 100 people re-
sponded to the survey and that the vast majority of students were in favor of the billboards. For the second resolution, the student senators will vote on whether the senators want to change the location of their meetings to the residence halls, which is titled the “Senate on the Road” program. Jenna Mitchell, a student senate member, said she is setting up a booth with the Student Outreach Committee today at the University Food Court in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to hear students’ opinions on the various resolution topics to be presented at the meeting. “We really want students to know what we do and what student government is about,” Mitchell said. Mitchell said she is in favor of the “Student on the Road” program because she feels the program is another good way to reach out to students. Mitchell also said she hopes the program will help students come to the student government meetings so they can voice their opinions. Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or kjrichter@eiu.edu.