LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN VITALIZATION UPDATES Eastern’s baseball team won seven straight games, it’s longest winning streak in four years .
More information has been posted about the current state of the Vitalization Projects.
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Wednesday, April 26, 2017 C E L E BRATI NG A CE NT UR Y OF COVE RA GE E S T . 1 915
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Memorial service Don’t stress, have a ball to be held in honor of Eastern student Staff Report | @DEN_News A memorial ser vice to honor Byron Edingburg, 23, an Eastern senior from Chicago, will be held 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Anyone in the campus community is invited to attend. Edingburg and another student were injured in a shooting incident early Saturday morning on the 1000 block of Seventh Street. Edingburg was airlifted to Carle Hospital in Urbana, but he later died of his injuries. The service will feature tributes from Edingburg’s friends and an opportunity for students and faculty to share their thoughts and
memories. Community members will also be able to write messages of condolence in a memory book to be presented to the Edingburg family. “The entire university is deeply saddened by this tragic loss of one of our students,” Lynette Drake, interim vice president for student affairs, said. “Incidents such as this are so rare in our community that it truly leaves us in a state of shock. With a heavy heart, I ask that we each keep Byron’s mother, brother, family and friends in our thoughts and prayers. This is a difficult time for our university community.” The News staff can be reached at 581-2812 or
Students, faculty to attend ‘Teach Out’ rally in Springfield By Loren Dickson Entertainment Reporter | @DEN_News In 1975, the state of Illinois paid roughly 82% of the cost for students to attend college. Over four decades later, Illinois now pays roughly 38% of that cost. Kai Hung, media coordinator of Eastern’s chapter of the University of Professionals of Illinois and a s s i s t a n t p ro f e s s o r o f b i o l o g y, said statistics such as this is what motivated him and his colleagues to speak out. To r a i s e f u r t h e r a w a r e n e s s , chapters of UPI from across the state have coordinated the “ Teach Out for Illinois Higher Education” rally that will take place on Thursday at the Capitol Building in Springfield. Buses will depart from outside Coleman Hall at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning and will arrive at the Capitol Building by 11 a.m. “The goal is to bring attention to the crippling effect of not having a budget for public higher education, how it affects our students and how it affects individual campuses,” Hung said. “I cannot in good conscience not speak up when this is the trend that is going on.” Hung said he calls this a trend because it is not an isolated incident due to the lack of finances. “It is not that Illinois can no longer afford to support higher education; this is an ongoing trend that has gone on for
decades,” he said. “Even in the years where Illinois did not have a budget shortfall and when our campuses were seeing higher enrollment, the state still cut the budget by a small percent every year.” Hung said it is important for not only the elected officials in Springfield to hear their message, but for the general public as well. “ I d o n’t t h i n k m u c h o f t h e public is aware of the impacts,” he said. “Not many people know that 70% of graduates will be in $30,000 of debt or more. We are robbing our students, and I say this because when the state stops paying for higher education, that bill gets transferred to our students. Ever y time the state says ‘look at us, we didn’t raise taxes,’ it’s partly because they’re taking money they could use for higher education and using it for something else.” Jonathan Blitz, president of EIU-UPI and chemistry professor, said they are confident that they will fill two buses on Thursday morning for the trip to Springfield. Blitz said they will break up in groups of about ten and have teaching sessions about topics like the impact of MAP funding cuts on students, the importance of higher education on university partners and what citizens can do.
Teach Out, page 5
OLIVIA SWENSON-HULTZ | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Claire Boarman, a junior education major funnels sands into a balloon to create a de-stress ball to help students cope with finals in the bridge lounge on Tuesday afternoon.
Final vitalization workgroup recommendations posted By Cassie Buchman New Editor | @cjbuchman Workgroups No. 8 and No. 9, Academic Visioning I and II, posted their recommendations on the vitalization project webpage earlier this week. Workgroup No. 9 recommended looking at reorganizing the academic colleges’ structure; reorganizing academics on Eastern’s website; creating a task force to develop and establish a University College; developing interdisciplinary and three-year, 3+1, 3+2 undergraduate and graduate programs; expanding undergraduate online learning opportunities; creating a task force to evaluate and implement a new academic calendar; and providing support to departments for studying or piloting tuition discounts or premiums where appropriate. The workgroup had three different options for organizing academic colleges in its report. It explored reorganizing options, considering a move toward smaller schools or clusters of programs, but conversations with department chairs in consultation with their faculty led the group to conclude this may result in greater “siloing,” or isolation, of units.
After getting feedback from faculty and chairs and using reports from Workgroup No. 8, Workgroup No. 9 focused on three organizational models. One recommendation was keeping the current academic colleges as they are, with the four colleges of Arts and Humanities, Education and Professional Studies, Sciences and Business, and Applied Sciences. Keeping the current structure would mean Eastern would promote stability and avoid the cost of hiring new administrators and staff, especially in light of unstable budgets and enrollment, the group wrote. However, the group stated that this structure might not highlight the academic departments with the highest student demand, such as those in healthcare, technology and the sciences. Another option the group suggested was looking at having five academic colleges. These colleges would be for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Business; Education, Health and Human Services; and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. While the option would help the university “clearly promote” its academic strengths, it would
also require a new dean and associate dean, the group wrote. There could be additional costs for marketing materials for the colleges and costs to re-code programs being moved to new colleges as well. The third option is changing the four academic colleges: Arts and Sciences; Business and Technology; Education; and Health and Human Services. “This approach would s t i l l highlight healthcare opportunities, along with business and technology, and education,” the group wrote. Workgroup No. 9 wrote that this option would not require an additional dean, though it would be unlikely that an existing dean would transfer to a new college, meaning a further cost could exist. According to the report, survey respondents expressed concerns that humanities and fine arts would receive less funding and attention in this college structure system because of the emphasis on STEM education. Having a separate STEM college may serve as a better marketing and recruitment tool, the group wrote.
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