APRIL SHOWERS
ALL PANTHERS DO IS WIN
The softball team had 10 out of 11 games canceled due to rain.
The baseball team won its series against Morehead State over the weekend. PAGE 8
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Monday , May 1, 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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Special Olympics Spring Games canceled Athletes’ names will be drawn anonymously to decide winners By Gina Furlin Contributing Writer | @DEN_News The Area 9 Special Olympics Spring Games, originally set to be at O’Brien Field, were canceled Friday because of bad weather conditions. The event will not be rescheduled, Elizabeth McPherson, a special education major who helped with the Special Olympics, said. Instead, the games committee will draw names anonymously to decide the winners for each
sporting event. The athletes who get drawn will attend the state games, scheduled for June. McPherson said athletes were emotional when they found out that the games were canceled. “A lot of athletes were crying and were very disappointed. On top of the emotion from the games being canceled, it was also pouring rain and storming so the athletes were not in the best of moods,” McPherson said. “It was very unfortunate because EIU and Area 9 Special Olympics puts a lot of time and effort into these games to make them the best as possible, so for it to be canceled was a bummer.” Although the actual games did not happen, organizers were able to get through the parade at 9 a . m . b e f o re t h e t h u n d e r s t o r m
started. “The parade is one of the most memorable for the athletes. They t r u l y b e l i e ve t h e y a re w a l k i n g through the tunnel at Worldwide O l y m p i c G a m e s ,” Mc P h e r s o n said. “They wave and they walk proudly and it always a genuine sight to see.” Although McPherson said she enjoyed being in charge of the parade, her favorite part of the whole day was seeing the community come together for the Special Olympics. Though the actual games were canceled, she said it was awesome how there were over 300 Eastern students volunteering there, knowing that they will get nothing in return. Gina Furlin can be reached at 581-2812 or grfurlin@eiu.edu.
Special Olympics Illinois Spring Games Schedule Area 13 – May 7 at Lake Zurich High School in Lake Zurich Area 14 – May 5 at Mt. Vernon Township High School in Mt. Vernon Area 15 – May 5 at Southern Illinois University- Carbondale Area 16 – May 6 at Hall High School in Spring Valley Area 17 – May 7 at Glenwood High School in Chatham
Professors connect literature, film to social issues By Stephanie Dominguez Contributing Writer | @DEN_News
PHOTOS C ASSIE BUCHMAN | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
The Board of Trustees gather before Friday’s meeting in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. At the meeting, the board voted to cut Africana Studies and adult and community education, keep career and technical education and took no action on philosophy.
Board of Trustees votes to eliminate Africana Studies
By Cassie Buchman News Editor | @cjbuchman The board of trustees voted to eliminate the Africana studies major to retain career and technical education and said they would continue to monitor the philosophy major at its meeting Friday. Students currently majoring in Africana studies will be able to continue in the program until they graduate. The minor and general education courses will still be available. A l s o vo t e d t o b e e l i m i n a t e d was the bachelor’s in adult and community education, though that had already been put on hiatus by the Department of Secondary Education.
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History professor Sace Elder holds up a sign protesting the elimination of the Africana Studies program at the Board of Trustees meeting Friday.
English professors are using their ongoing book projects to address subjects as diverse as ecology and reproductive justice. Robin Murray, coordinator of the film studies minor, is currently working on a book project called “Ecocinema in the City,” with Routledge Press. Murray said at times, humor in comics and films about eco-disasters gets the message across better because it highlights important issues without being too serious. Mu r r a y m e n t i o n e d a c o uple films that can educate people more on eco-disasters. In “How to Boil a Frog,” there are five easy steps to take action to change our world and bring awareness to these issues, Murray said. It can also be depicted through exaggeration, she said, as in the film “Spiders,” where toxic waste in New York City causes spiders to increase dramatically in size and take over the city. English professor Melissa Ames is currently working on a project involving gender portrayals in the media and television. She looks at feminist media study and post-9/11 television, especially how trauma has been represented in television and how it reflects cultural anxieties. “It looks at how reality TV rose at that time as escapism,” Ames said. “It also looks at how we suddenly had to laugh through our news because it was too scary.”
Her study focuses on events from the last two decades, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, anxieties about gender issues and how people view TV differently. Ames said the best part of working on a project is training people to pay attention and think critically about all the text they consume every day. “We do it mindlessly. We don’t always pay attention to the rap lyrics or the reality TV shows we’re watching,” Ames said. Ames said she hopes her students can see how identity is accounted for and how pop cul ture affects it when looking at her work. English professor Tim Engles has been working on several writing projects, including a book study on “white male nostalgia” in novels by six American and Canadian authors. Engles said he struggles with procrastination and getting his initial ideas down into a coherent form. “It’s satisfying to be past the hard work of the earlier writing stages,” Engles said. “And to see that I have something solid that looks like it will eventually make a solid contribution to the field that it will join.” Engles said good writing is hard work, and going through drafts of a project takes time. He said even experienced writers often deal with terrible writing at first, but in the end, solid writing can feel very rewarding.
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