JOB WELL DONE
POOR SHOOTING
Eastern men’s soccer player Zac Medawattage earned a spot on the 2016 Academic All-League team for his hard work in the classroom.
The Eastern women’s basketball team lost 66-56 Wednesday to Clevand State after shooting just 28.8 percent from the field. PAGE 8
D aily E astern N ews
THE
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Thursday, December 8, 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. 101 | NO. 73 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Student senate reflects on semester
Supporting dogs with shirts
By Samuel Nusbaum Administration Reporter | @DEN_News
PHOTOS BY OLIVIA SWENSON-HULTZ | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Erin Murphy, a sophomore psychology major, cuts a T-shirt into pieces that will be twisted together to form a roped dog toy during a Cause for Paws meeting Wednesday night. The group participates in projects to benefit animals and animal shelters.
Stephanie Spoerl, a junior elementry education major, braids T-shirts together Wednesday night at a Cause for Paws meeting. The T-shirts were donated during a T-shirt drive to help create roped dog toys that will be donated to the local animal shelter.
Hannah East, a senior communication disorders and sciences major, cuts apart a T-shirt Wednesday night.
CAA to vote on new criminology major By Analicia Haynes Managing Editor | @DEN_News The Council of Academic Affairs will be voting on a new criminology major as well as new criminology courses at its meeting 2 p.m. Thursday in Room 4440 of Booth Library. The department of sociology and anthropology proposed the creation of a new degree program in criminology and criminal justice, according to the proposal. It is being structured in collaboration with other academic departments on campus such as political science and philosophy and Lake Land College, the proposal read. According to the rationale for the new major, the reason for its creation is because of student demand.
“Over the last few years both the Office of Admissions and the department of sociology and anthropology have been consistently asked by both potential and current students about the availability of a criminology and criminal justice major at (Eastern),” the rationale read. According to a recent departmental recruitment data report, 213 freshman inquiries, between 2014 and 2016, said criminology was their primary academic interest, according to the rationale. “Equally impressive is the data from transfer students, with 333 potential transfer students, between the years 2013 – 2016, indicating that criminology and criminal justice is their primary academic interest,” the rationale read. Although Eastern has a minor in criminology, which was created in 2006, the proposal said it
is an “appropriate time to move forward with an interdisciplinary major in criminology and criminal justice.” Also, the rationale said with a program like this, Eastern will remain in competition with other state universities such as Western, Illinois State University and Southern Illinois University who already have degree programs in criminology or criminal justice. 120 semester hours are required for the degree and 49 semester hours are required for the major. Along with the new major, the CAA will vote on the approval of two new criminology and criminal justice courses: CRM 3650, Criminological Theory, and CRM 4700, Contemporary Topics in Criminology and Criminal Justice. CAA, page 5
The Student Senate listened to two speeches reflecting on the fall semester and reports of current and future plans Wednesday night, wrapping up the final meeting of the semester. Student Body President Catie Witt updated the senate on the “It’s On Us” campaign, which will take place during April. She said the campaign committee is working with the University Board to plan events for next semester. Witt gave her State of the University Address, and said she liked how the senate reacted to changing “First Night” from the South Quad to O’Brian Field. She is finalizing her plans for the campaign, saying the planning has moved slower than she expected. Witt said the “Voter Registration” campaign, led by the student vice president Maralea Negron, was a success. More than 350 students registered to vote. Witt also brought up the “Call Your Legislator” event, also led by Negron, and students contacted 20 legislators about Monetary Award Program grant funding. Witt said “Pantherpalooza” had 120 registered student organizations in the union. She mentioned that Derek Pierce, the student vice president of student affairs, did a good job moving the event from the south quad to the union. “I remember seeing him that day and his eyes were red because he barely slept because he got there really early in the morning and set up everything for the RSOs,” Witt said. Hailey Tellier, student speaker of the senate, said the executive board decided to postpone the speaker of the senate elections until next semester. “We are losing a lot of senators due to focusing on school work, so we just want to make sure when we come back we have a strong senate,” Tellier said. She said executive board wants to give the senators who will join in the spring a chance to vote as well. Witt said the senate may have started slow, but they should feel motivated to fill the 17 vacant seats in the senate and keep up the good work. Tellier gave her State of the Senate, and said the strengths the senate has are brainstorming, cross committee support and helping to plan events they put on such as the academic affairs bowling activity. Tellier said one of the areas the senate can improve on is preventing the loss of senators. She said overall she is proud of all the work they have done over the course of the semester and she hopes it will continue. Luke Young, student vice president of academic affairs, updated the senate about what happened at the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday afternoon. Young said the senate moved their meeting up because the recommendations from the vitalization project workgroups become public on Jan 20. “They have bumped their meeting up to Jan. 10, so they can try to give the president a little feedback,” Young said. Young also brought up the potential of “performance based funding,” which was brought up during Tuesday’s meeting. This would mean the Illinois government would give money to universities based on how its students perform. He said it is something the senators should pay attention to. Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or at scnusbaum@eiu.edu.