PANTHER ROAD TRIP The men’s soccer team heads to Wright State tonight as it continues its three-game road trip. PAGE 7
CULTURAL CREATIVITY
Students learn more about diversity while tie-dying t-shirts on Tuesday. PAGE 5
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D aily E astern N ews
Wednesday, September 21, 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
Chinese political candidate to speak at Eastern Staff Report | @DEN_news One of three candidates for Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, will be giving a speech 7 p.m. Wednesday in Roberson Auditorium in Lumpkin Hall about the role of Hong Kong in world politics. Tsang, who over the past eight years served as president of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and Speaker of the Hong Kong Parliament, announced his candidacy last July and is likely to win the election, according to an annual survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong. The election will take place in March. According to the survey, Tsang is the city’s most popular lawmaker. He was also featured in the Sept. 12 cover story of Time magazine (Asian Edition). According to the article, Tsang is a bridge builder among pro- and anti-Chinese forces in Hong Kong and is considered to be the city’s best hope. Tsang, who is also a founding member of Hong Kong’s largest political party (the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong), is trying to fix the rift between Hong Kong and China, said the article. Eastern President David Glassman welcomed Tsang Tuesday in Chicago and traveled with him while meeting with state officials. Glassman said he is looking forward to hosting the event, and it should be a very interesting lecture. Ryan Hendrickson, the interim dean of the graduate school and a political science professor, said Tsang’s lecture is an opportunity for the Eastern community to hear from a distinguished international leader. “Students and the community will definitely benefit from his presentation,” Hendrickson said. Ping Chen, director of Eastern’s Public Policy Institute, worked hard to bring Tsang to Eastern, he said. The lecture is scheduled to be 20 minutes and is set to be followed by a question-and-answer session. A reception will also take place from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Lumpkin Auditorium foyer. Admission to the lecture is free and open to the public. The News staff can be reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@gmail. com.
VOL. 101 | NO. 22 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Voter Pride
MOLLY DOTSON | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Cerys Boston, a junior elementary education major, puts an “I registered” sticker on her shirt after registering to vote in Coles County Tuesday outside the food court of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Although Boston said she thinks voting is important, she said she likely would not have taken the time to register if registration was not available on campus. Students will have the opportunity to register again today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Taylor Hall and tomorrow from 12 to 3 p.m. at the Doudna Steps.
Faculty Senate shares concerns about new Vitalization Project By Samuel Nusbaum Administration Reporter | @DEN_News At its meeting Tuesday, the Faculty Senate discussed concerns about the Vitalization Project Eastern President David Glassman introduced during his State of the University Address. The project is designed to guide the budget and planning decisions when it comes to allotting resources to different programs and services. Different workgroups will recommend increasing resources for a program or service, changes to increase the program’s student enrollment and marketability, a plan for programs to improve their efficiency and programs that can be deleted. Workgroups one through six will analyze the efficiencies, viability and sustainability of existing services and programs. Workgroup seven will assess Eastern’s academic undergraduate and graduate programs. Eight is in charge of program development and nine is in charge of Eastern’s organization of colleges, departments and classes. These workgroups will analyze student services, technology, enrollment
management, intercollegiate athletics, facilities, marketing, university branding and academic programs. Jemmie Robertson, the faculty senate chair, said the nominations for the workgroups, whether they are selfnominations or nominations of colleagues, will go directly to the president. Robertson said the Council on University Planning and Budgeting will be serving as overseers of the work groups. “What Glassman wants to work on most is the faculty-to-student ratio and the staff-to-student ratio of the university,” Robertson said. Robertson also said that Glassman wants to achieve this by gaining more money with greater enrollment numbers. Senate member Amy Rosenstein said that by January, the committees need to make a decision on what they recommend for the programs and services. She said it reminds her of schools being treated according to their assessments, where a good school is left alone and a bad one has specialists come in and is monitored then to see if it will stay open or not.
Senate member Billy Hung said he felt similarly when he read the terms of the project. “My sense is workgroups one to seven are supposed to focus more on the dollar sign, including the cost benefits of academic programing, then eight and nine are supposed to come up with a more broad-based academic vision of the school,” Hung said. “It is not clear to me how the two sides are melting together. To me it seems like President Glassman is looking for two streams of input; one on the business side and one on the teaching side.” Senate member Teshome Abebe said when making decisions, the focus should be on whether or not the actions they take follow the constitution of the senate, and senate members should make sure they have the opportunity to say something when the recommendations come in. Abebe said the faculty senate should be involved in the reviews because they may have to say something at the end of the Vitalization Project’s process. “We may decide to have our own plan to present to suggest to the presi-
dent,” Abebe said. “I don’t think we can, given the time and shortness people have talked about…These things can go in many different directions, and someone is going to get gored.” Besides this concern, Abebe said the institution is trying to do the best they can for everyone and he supports their efforts. Abebe said it is important to have a transparent and mature process. Senate member Grant Sterling said he has been an advocate for these steps to happen for years. “I am optimistic in the sense that this had to be done,” Sterling said. During the meeting he told the senate he had been through something like this twice before with the university years ago. He said a plan had been drawn but nothing happened after all the work. Sterling said he thinks Glassman has the will to make the tough decisions this time. The senate decided to table the discussion until their next meeting to think about their next move. Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or scnusbaum@eiu.edu.