TEAM REBUILD
DRAKE RELAYS
The men’s and women’s track and field teams will head to Iowa for the Drake Relays Thursday through Saturday. PAGE 8
The Eastern baseball team is currently 7-33 during its rebuilding season. The team has 14 games left this season. PAGE 7
THE
D aily E astern N ews
Thursday, April 28, 2016 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE E S T . 1 915
VOL. 100 | NO. 147 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Mumps breaks out on campus By Molly Dotson Assistant Photo Editor | @DEN_News Health Services has diagnosed a dozen student cases of mumps within the last two weeks. Eric Davidson, interim director of Health Services, said this is the second time an outbreak has occurred on campus this school year, despite a state law requiring students to present proof of mumps immunity in the beginning of the fall semester. The immunity law, however, excludes students who are granted a medical or religious exemption the university. About 10 percent of those who are vaccinated are still susceptible to the viral infection, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Davidson said he did not know if the affected students were vaccinated, but he suspected they were part of that 10 percent. “My guess is that the majority of them were (vaccinated) because of the state immunization laws,” Davidson said. The most common way to contract mumps is by sharing contaminated objects such as eating utensils and drinking glasses, Davidson said. Students can prevent furthering the outbreak by washing their hands regularly, avoiding unnecessary physical contact with others and covering their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing. “Many of the things that we would do to avoid colds and flus are the same things that we would do with this,” Davidson said. The first signs of mumps are non-specific symptoms such as a low-grade fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and loss of appetite, Davidson said. A person’s salivary glands in front of their ears will begin to swell about two days after the onset of those non-specific symptoms, Davidson said. “Sometimes it just looks like their jaws are really swollen, and that’s really kind of the telltale symptom,” Davidson said. Students diagnosed with mumps are strongly encouraged to isolate themselves for the five days that it is contagious. “Mumps is not one of the illnesses where we can legally quarantine somebody, so really all we can do is make a strong recommendation that they isolate,” Davidson said. If students think they have mumps, Davidson said Health Services prefer the student calls them at 217-581-3013 before coming into the clinic. “We have some protocols in place,” Davidson said. “We’re routing students who think they have mumps a little bit differently to try to minimize their exposure to the other students who are coming here.” Davidson said he attributes the spread of this viral infection to the large amount of people on campus. “We have a dense population that has a lot of opportunity to interact, and that’s a thriving ground for an illness,” Davidson said.
MUMPS, page 6
PHOTO ILLUSTR ATION BY JASON HOWELL
Alexandria Ward, a junior special education major, was hit in the crosswalk between Stevenson Hall and the Alumni Courtyard on Sept. 21, 2014, by Jose Garcia-Cardiel, of Charleston. Garcia-Cardiel was ordered to pay for Ward's medical expenses.
Student reflects on recovery, finding strength after accident By Stephanie Markham Editor-in-Chief | @stephm202 Having suffered a concussion from the incident, Alexandria Ward cannot recall the exact moment she was struck nearly two years ago as she crossed Fourth Street on her way to dinner one Sunday afternoon. It was Sept. 21, 2014 when Ward stepped into the crosswalk between the Alumni Courtyard and Stevenson Hall and suddenly became the victim of a hit-and-run. Though she later learned she was conscious the entire time, Ward, now a junior special education major, said she does not remember any sounds, what the vehicle looked like, or even being in the crosswalk. “The very last thing I remember was that I was wearing a tank top, and it was kind of cold out, and I remember thinking, ‘Before I go out again I’ll make sure to grab my cardigan,’” she said. Her next moment of consciousness was on the Life Flight helicopter to Carle Foundation Hospital, where she remembers looking out the window over her shoulder and feeling unsettled, disoriented and confused. She would not realize she was in pain, however, until the doctors began stitching up her head in the emergency room. Ward’s torn knee ligaments would require surgery that she said hurt 10 times worse than the stitches,
and the pain would only intensify when she first tried to walk again. In a recent status hearing, Jose Garcia-Cardiel, 46, of Charleston, was ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charge of driving with a revoked license. Garcia-Cardiel was accused of driving the green pickup truck identified in surveillance footage from Marty’s bar as the vehicle that injured Ward and fled the scene. His plea agreement included dismissal of the felony hitand-run charge against him. Ward’s attorney has helped her reduce some of the liens from her medical treatment, and she received $25,000 in settlement money from Garcia-Cardiel’s insurance, helping her to manage more than $90,000 in medical bills. “The Life Flight alone from Charleston to Champaign was around $25,000, which is about a year of tuition, to put that into perspective,” Ward said. While the legal process has seemed mostly out of her hands from the beginning, and the question still persists as to whether the settlement was enough compensation for everything she and her loved ones have gone through, Ward said she is glad she was able to get her medical bills covered.
RECOVERY, page 5
Enrollment initiatives, programs continue By Cassie Buchman Associate News Editor | @cjbuchman Despite challenges posed by the budget situation, initiatives and programs are being put in place to boost enrollment and encourage admitted students to choose Eastern. Kara Hadley-Shakya, interim director of admissions, said May 1 is the deadline for incoming students to make deposits to Eastern. She said the current class is a little slower moving, similar to last year, but now freshman numbers are projected to go up. Right now, Hadley-Shakya said, they have a rough idea of enrollment, but it is still early in the cycle to pin down a number.
“Some years, you have students who are ahead of the game. Last year we had people in May still deciding,” she said. “You even have people next week signing up for visits.” A month ago, the Admissions Office received multiple calls and emails a day asking about the state of Eastern without an allocation because of the state budget impasse, so they are trying to spread the message that Eastern is not closing. They do this by sending out budget updates to prospective students, and have been addressing calls and emails right away. “It has impacted all of the state universities, but it definitely did have an impact on our efforts,” Hadley-Shakya said. “Not getting our allocation will have an impact on our enrollment.
To what degree, that’s to be said, but it’s unfortunate I think because we’ve worked really hard and we have a strong education for our students.” Next fall on the 10th day, the Admissions Office will look at where the students who were admitted went if they did not go to Eastern. “If we’re down, why are we down,” HadleyShakya said. “Did they go out of state? Private? I think we’ll see an uptick in that just because of the budget. It’s hard, because that’s something that’s out of our control.” Hadley-Shakya said as a state university, one of Eastern’s goals for enrollment is access.
ENROLLMENT, page 5