DROPPING THE BALL
PANTHER MOMENTUM
The men’s tennis team lost both matches this past weekend.
The Men’s baseball team will be on the road this week against Saint Louis.
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Tuesday, April, 04 , 2017 C E L E BRATI NG A CE NT UR Y OF COVE RA GE E S T . 1 915
VOL. 101 | NO. 129 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Workgroup No. 9 finalizes report By Angelica Cataldo Managing Editor | @DEN_News
Kalyn Hayslett contributed to this story.
Workgroup No. 9, Academic Visioning II, has nearly completed its final report for the April 14 vitalization project deadline. T h e w o rk g ro u p i s c u r re n t l y working on formatting and stylistic edits and plans to send the final document to English professor Suzie Park for her to finalize and publish the report into a PDF document. The report draft includes ideas the subcommittees presented on organizing academic colleges, differential tuition models and variable learning models during various town hall meetings this past February. The workgroup has narrowed down its final list of recommendations to about seven ideas. Those ideas include reorganizing the academics on the Eastern website; creating a task force to developed and establish a university college considering the reorganization of the structure of academic colleges depending on Eastern’s mission and marketing needs; encouraging, developing and enhancing interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs; expanding the undergraduate online learning opportunities with necessary administration and staff support and resources; creating a task force to evaluate and implement a new academic calendar and to provide support to departments for sharing and/or providing tuition discounts and premiums where appropriate. Du r i n g t h e m e e t i n g , Wo rk group chair, Melinda Mueller, a political science professor, said the report draft also included a Microsoft Excel spread sheet of the different colleges the group studied for people to see everything that was collected. The tuition models portion will include tuition models and outline of national trends and issues from other institutions with similar systems compared to Eastern. There were also additional suggestions regarding “prime time scheduling” to give students extra time to earn credits, reducing penalties for team taught courses and ideas about centralized administration units within colleges. The final report was also said to include an evaluation and reaction from the feedback the workgroup received during the town hall meetings.
Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or achaynes@eiu.edu.
Workgroup, page 6
K AYLN HASLET T | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Members of Sigma Chi compete in ‘tugs’ at the campus pond Monday afternoon for Greek Week. Sigma Chi lost to Delta Chi in 2 minutes, 14 seconds.
Delta Chi wins tugs round one Phi Kappa Theta win still up in the air By Analicia Haynes Online Editor | @Haynes1943 Four fraternities faced off as they slid through the slick and wet grass Monday afternoon during this year’s Tugs Competition kick off. However, confusion flooded the area by Campus Pond due to a technical call that left the winners of the first round uncertain. Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Phi Kappa Theta were the first contenders to see who would tug again on Friday for a chance at first place. When Scott Sheahan, the “front man” at the head of the rope line for Phi Kappa Theta, was waist deep in water, it looked like it was over. “Just try to fight back through it,” Sheahan said when he recalled the moment he walked into the pond. “Like even if you’re down, you have to have the will to win. Like that’s just been a mindset for me for a lot of things.” He s a i d a t t h a t m o m e n t h e knew what he had to do to get out of the slippery situation by twisting his body and digging his feet into the murky surface to regain his footing. As Sheahan marched his way out of the water, the team’s mor-
al was “felt throughout the rope,” and the team tugged further back until the victory horn was blown in favor of Phi Kappa Theta. “In a sad sort of way it felt natural to turn around and say, ‘no I’m not going to be in here any longer,’” Sheahan said. The call to end the tug was made by Ceci Brinker, director of the office of student life, who said she called it because of an apparent safety issue on behalf of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Brinker said once the anchor or the person at the end of the rope comes off the rope, then the tug is over. “I’m not willing to let people get hurt over a win,” Brinker said. Yet despite the call, there was some debate from members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and their supporters. “I would like to know who has the authority to call that tug,” Colton Woolsey, one of the members and a tugger, said. Woolsey and others argued that though it looked like they were going to lose at a certain point, just 46 seconds earlier it looked like Phi Kappa Theta was losing, since Sheahan was already struggling to get out of the water. “So that’s why we’re curious,” Woolsey said. “ We’re fine with losing, but we want to lose the right way.” Megan Cress, member of the rules committee, said they were just making it fair for each team. She said the members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon felt that the
call was not in the rules and it was made too early, so therefore it was not fair. Despite the confusion, Phi Kappa Theta still celebrated a win, but other members of the rules committee declined to offer further comments regarding the incident after the event. But in a tweet posted by EIU Greek Week 2017, it stated that the teams will tug again after all the sororities compete on Wednesday. T h o u g h t h e t we e t h a s s i n c e been removed, the committee did, however, say that the teams would be notified on whether or not they will compete again on Wednesday. Whether it was a win or not, Ian Stanley, the captain for Phi Kappa Theta, said his team has practiced since February, and he was confident his team would win. Stanley said he wants to encourage his team to keep the energy going, but he said that does not mean it is time to relax just yet. Sheahan said he and his older brother have been attending Eastern a combined total of ten years and neither of them has won Tugs before. “So for me honestly, I get to have a one up on my older brother now,” Sheahan said. The second round of Monday’s Tug competition ended with a first win for Delta Chi since they re-charted two years ago. Delta Chi defeated Sigma Chi in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. Cameron Kay, the vice president for Delta Chi, said he and
the other members and coaches knew that they were coming in as the underdogs, but that did not stop them from trying their best. “I’m just proud of my brothers, they were there just busting their butts every day,” Kay said. “We just wanted to try our best, really, and it turned out well for us.” Coach Robert Lever said they have been practicing at least five days a week and at least an hour each practice because they just wanted to improve from last year. “I think we’ve done that,” Lever said. Kay said as of right now the team is just going to keep practicing and will see where they can go from here all the while having fun along the way. “ T h a t’s t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t part,” Kay said. Coach Imani McDaniel said this year was amazing to finally see the team accomplish all that they worked for, because she said she knew just how hard they worked for it. “They definitely deserved it,” McDaniel said. “I love these guys and obviously I’m not in their fraternity, but they’re some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life. And I wouldn’t have given up any time I spent practicing with them because they’re great.”