Eastern News
Wednesday
“Tell th e t r u t h a n d d o n ’ t b e a fr a i d . ”
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AU G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 1 2 V O LU M E 9 7 | N o. 3
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILL. D A I LY E A S T E R N N E W S . C O M T WIT TER.COM/DEN_NE WS
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ELECTION
ART
Tarble offers new exhibits through Sept. By Amy Wywialowski Assistant Daily Editor
PHOTO ILLUSTR ATION BY Z ACHARY WHITE | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Jim Johnston, a Student Senate member and political science and history double major, holds up a sign to remind people to register to vote. “Everyone should vote,” Johnston said. “It’s one of our fundamental rights as Americans.”
Student government plans for high voter registration By Robyn Dexter In-depth Editor
Though the election is not until Nov. 6, students can take steps now to secure their registration, whether they are registered at Eastern or in their hometowns. Jarrod Scherle, student executive vice president, said the student government plans to sponsor a voter registration drive in mid-to-late September to make sure as many Eastern students are registered as possible. “We did this last fall and we got about 250 people registered over three days,” he said. “This year, we’re doing it over 5 days and I’m shooting for 1,000 registered students in Coles County.” Scherle said he would like to have multiple locations on campus set up for students to register, expanding from just the Library Quad to possibly the South Quad and North Quad as
well, depending on the number of volunteers. The drive will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 17 to Sept. 21. “We have an Uncle Sam costume we’re going to use to get people’s attention and there will be signs everywhere,” Scherle said. He said the registration will take about three minutes and will get students completely ready to go for Election Day. “We will personally take the registrations to the courthouse and in two weeks, student will get their voter registration cards in the mail,” he said. To be eligible to vote on Nov. 6, students must register by Oct. 9, whether it is through registering on campus or having an absentee ballot sent to their school address. “Even if you miss the drive, registration forms will be available in the Student Activities
Center and also on our student government website,” Scherle said. Scherle said the student government might go to specific registered student organizations and organizations such as Hall Council and the Residence Hall Association to register their members if the interest is present. Student voters who are registered in their hometown can request an absentee ballot on the Illinois State Board of Elections website. Illinois Application for Absentee Ballots will be available for download on Sept. 27. “Since this is a presidential election, there will be a lot of excitement surrounding it,” Scherle said. “We’re going to get this publicized as much as possible.” Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.
The Tarble Arts Center recently opened two exhibits that share one common theme: gender identity and breaking convention. The first of the two to open is “Skirting Convention: Illinois Women’s Art 1840 to 1940,” which opened in May and is open through Sept. 16. Michael Watts, the director of the Tarble Arts Center, is in charge of planning and organizing the exhibits at the Tarble. “The exhibition provides information about a little known aspect of art in Illinois—women who were active as artists prior to World War II and the struggles and efforts it took to become recognized in what was then a very male-dominated field,” Watts said. “Also the exhibition provides an interesting survey of art styles of the time period covered, which includes styles (and subjects) that many people today find interesting and appealing.” Channy Lyons is the exhibition’s original curator from the Lakeview Museum at Bradley University, the original location of the exhibit. “It is impossible to know exactly how many women living in Illinois between 1840 and 1940 dreamed of becoming artists,” Lyons said. “Many of them must have had the skill and desire to make art, but gaining access to the training and being accepted as a professional artist was much more difficult for women than for men.” Lyons said things that were acceptable for these were women included craft activities, needlework, and china painting, and not the fine arts of portraiture and sculpture. Watts said this oppression is among the things that can be learned from this exhibit.
“What these artists faced parallels what women of the same time period faced in many fields,” Watts said.” The other aspect to consider is the quality of the art these women artists produced—was there any reason in terms of the quality of the art they produced not to be taken as seriously as artists when compared to their male counterparts?” Beyond this exhibit, the Tarble also have the “Jake in Transition from Female to Male by Clarissa Sligh” exhibit. The exhibit opened Aug. 18 and is open through Sept. 23. It focuses on Jake’s transition from “Deb” his given female name to Jake, his chosen male name after going through the gender reassignment process from 1996 to 2000. “The exhibition was selected as the 2012-13 Tarble Humanities exhibition by and Janet Marquardt, the EIU Center for the Humanities Director, and I, to align with this year's Humanities’ theme ‘Transformation’ and to introduce next year's theme of ‘Authenticity,’” Watts said. Clarissa Sligh is the artist and said this project opened her eyes to the complexity of the process but also made her think about other forms of transformation and oppression. “As I observed and supported Jake in his changes so that his body could pass as a white man, I could not help but think about the fact that I will never be able to change my brown skin to escape the layer of oppression one experiences from being black in America,” Sligh said. As these exhibits continue members of the Women’s Studies faculty will be giving talks on these subject. Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.
C AA
CAA discusses study abroad as senior seminar By Amy Wywialowski Assistant Daily Editor
The Council on Academic Affairs will have its first meeting of the semester 3 p.m. Wednesday in Room 4440 of Booth Library. At the May 3 meeting, the council elected its new executive board for the 2012-2013 academic school years. Larry White, a business faculty member, was elected the council chair. He had previously served in this position during the 2010-2012
school years. Stephen Lucas was elected to the vice chair position. Prior to meeting the council’s learning goals subcommittees will meet at 2 p.m. in the same room. These subcommittees focus on the learning goals set by the university and how to improve upon how the university works with and applies them. White said these subcommittees are involved in multi-year process that began in the fall 2011 semester. The committees are: committee
to address the importance of writing across the curriculum committee on general education segment definitions and Study Abroad Senior Seminars and the committee on Integrative Learning. The subcommittees will discuss their progress thus far and make plans for the upcoming semesters. At print time, the council’s agenda was not yet set, although White had a rough idea what was going to be on it. “The agenda for August 23 is not final yet, but at this point it appears it will primarily consist of orienta-
tion for new CAA members, review of communications from various campus entities, and appointment of CAA representatives to a few campus committees,” White said. Currently there a few things labeled as pending after last year’s last meeting. At their last meeting the council passed a proposal known as STA 4000G, the Study Abroad Capstone—a class that will allow students to study abroad in replace of the required senior seminar. The passed proposal also dictates that students that participate in the
study abroad program must provide a “reflective piece” for their electronic writing portfolio. In order for their study abroad to be accepted at a senior seminar replacement, the must have completed an approved study abroad program and at least 75 semester hours. The CAA will meet Wednesday at 3 p.m. Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu.