PANTHERS NO MORE
WORKING IN ASIA Eastern alumni share career advice and stories about their time working and living in Asia as a part of AsianAmerican Heritage Month.
Men’s basketball players LeTrell Viser and Jake Verhagen are leaving Eastern with intent to transfer. PAGE 8
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Dai ly Eastern News
THE
W W W .D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S. C O M
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
VOL. 99 | NO. 129
Senate seeks faculty help with athletic spending accountability By Stephanie Markham News Editor | @stephm202 The Faculty Senate voted 9-2 Tuesday to send a referendum asking faculty if they would support requiring intercollegiate athletics to spend within its budget each year and have a transparent financial process. If faculty members agree, the senate will send a more detailed resolution to the administration with suggestions for improvement in the oversight and accountability of the athletics budget. In previous senate meetings this semester, the senate questioned both Jim Davis, the intercollegiate athletic board director, and Dan Nadler, the vice president for student affairs, about the process of reviewing the budget and why the campus found out suddenly about the athletic department spending $1 million more than its allocated budget. Michael Mulvaney, a recreation administration professor, suggested seeking 20 percent of faculty to petition to add the question to the ballot, though the senate voted at its last meeting that it had the implied power to send referendums on its own accord. “We’ve been talking about that for the past month that we have that implied, but I just don’t know if we want to get in the habit of doing that unless there’s some very unique circumstances,” he said. Mulvaney said the senate would then have to justify why some faculty-suggested referendums were sent and others were not, while getting faculty to petition for the referendum would raise more awareness of the issue in the process. However, other senate members thought the athletic budget issue was important enough to warrant inclusion on its regular semester ballot. Jim Conwell, a physics professor, said the senate should have enough discernment to decide what issues should be presented; he added that the 20 percent petition rule was only put into place to keep the senate in check so it could not ignore requests for referendums. “One way the administration can prevent us from having shared governance is not to have the information get out,” Conwell said. “If we are kept treated like mushrooms kept in the dark and fed whatever mushrooms are fed, then we do not have any opinion on shared governance.” Conwell also disagreed with Mulvaney that the issue was not time sensitive. “If we think actually that an abuse has gone on, and that people are just going to try to wait us out and do it again, then we have to send a message,” Conwell said. Minh Dao, an economics professor, agreed that putting the question on the ballot is consistent with the role of shared governance. “If this would happen in the business or the real world, well, Nadler would have been fired,” Dao said. “There is no question about that, and we let it go for many years. That is just unacceptable.” Jon Oliver, a kinesiology and sports studies professor, said he thinks the members of the intercollegiate athletic board may not be prepared to ask tough questions about the budget and have a neutral, critical conversation about it.
ATHLETICS, page 6
JOSH SAX TON | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Jack Rardin, an election judge, works the table during elections Tuesday in the Bridge Lounge of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Elections show 6.45 percent turnout By Cassie Buchman City Editor|@DEN_News Many positions in Tuesday’s elections were unopposed for Charleston, leading to 6.45 percent of voters to turn out for the selection of City Council members, park commissioner and school board members. Running unopposed for Charleston City Council was Jeffrey Lahr, who received 340 votes, and Tim Newell, who received 378. Kris Phipps ran unopposed for park commissioner and received 483 votes. Also running unopposed was Susan Daniels, Scott Clarke and Kelly Miller for Charleston’s School Board. Daniels received 634 votes, Clarke received 620 and Miller received 677. Another position up for election was for board of education member, which was between Kevin Oakley and Brian Gough. Oakley won the election, with 439 votes, or about 54 percent, and Gough received 369 votes, or about 46 percent. The results of the elections are still unofficial, and will be unofficial for 14 days until all the absentee ballots are received. County Clerk Sue Rennels said no race was close
enough that an absentee ballot would make a significant difference. An Oakland proposition was also voted on that would allow the city to stop the prohibition of selling alcohol. The city voted to allow the selling of alcohol 157 to 130. Turnout for the elections was low in some areas, and a total of 1,965 people voted. Voting for the 16th and 17th precincts took place in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Precinct 17 had one voter come out, and precinct 16 had none. Barbara Funk, an election judge, said a reason for this could be the lack of coverage on the election. “It was not a very publicized election,” Funk said. She said some positions might be of more interest than others. “The park commissioner might be of some interest, but not much to students,” Funk said. Miranda Zerbst, another election judge, said the low turnout could also be attributed to there not being many contested positions or issues. “People turn out to vote for local referendums, issues, and we don’t really have any in Coles County,” Zerbst said. “Here it’s about people filling positions as opposed to change. A lack of knowledge about candidates also led to
low turnout, particularly from students. “They don’t know about them unless they talk to the school,” Funk said. “It’s too bad, because it’s costly to have an election when no one comes.” Part of the cost and work of elections include printing the ballots, paying the election judges and moving the machinery needed to vote. Jack Rardin, an election judge, said he would like to have 100 percent turnout, but he would also wants the voters to be informed, which Funk agreed with. “If you don’t know the candidates, but still vote for them, you can find out later you might not agree with the person you voted for at all,” Funk said. Although the election was a consolidated one, Zerbst said it was still worth it for informed people to vote. “It’s always important if you have a legitimate thought behind what’s going on,” she said. “You don’t necessarily have to just vote for the sake of voting.” Not having enough information about voting and registration makes turnout lower for both local and national elections.
ELECTIONS , page 5
Student Senate to look at revised budgets By Luis Martinez Administration Editor| @DEN_News The Student Senate will look at the newly revised budgets for Student Government Association, University Board, and Campus Recreation on Wednesday. All three budgets were approved last week during the Apportionment Board meeting, and the senate will have the final say before the budgets go to Dan Nadler, the vice president for student affairs. Catie Witt, the executive vice president, said the biggest trouble with the senate not having a quorum at last week’s meeting was communication. “We have this rule where if you’re going to miss a meeting, you need to know 24 hours in advance,” Witt
said. “There’s a lot of miscommunication where people were sending in excuses 10 minutes after the meeting already started.” Items from last week’s meeting will be discussed and voted on this week in emergency legislation. Witt said when it comes to resolutions, the senators will ask questions like where is the money going toward and what the resolution is for. “A lot of people are probably like just say yes,” Witt said. “(The senators) do care and they do ask a lot of questions.” She also said while it will be a longer meeting, she feels like a lot will get done.“Those bills have to get through,” Witt said. “So we can’t just talk on them and
then vote on them next week.” The student government budget will also be discussed and some senators may raise some question as to what was cut from the budget. “When we were going through it as executive members, we had a lot of questions,” Witt said. “I’m very confident that the senators will have questions about why is this being cut; I know they’ll have a lot of questions depending on their role in student government.” The Student Senate will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu.