PANTHERS OPTIMISTIC
OVERTIME VICTORY
The men’s tennis team stays optimistic after starting the season with a 0-4 record.
Men’s basketball win against Tennessee State during Thursday night’s game.
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Friday, February 3, 2017 C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE E S T . 1 915
VOL. 101 | NO. 94 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
CAA holds unofficial meeting
Strum the stress away
Chrissy Miller Administration reporter | @DEN_Newsdesk The Council of Academic Affairs held an unofficial brainstorming session before their official meeting time to help them prepare for the upcoming weeks of vitalization issues and class proposals. Kinesiology and sports studies professor Stacey Ruholl said the proceeding would most likely require the General Education Committee. Ruholl said the Learning Goals Committee will also be a group CAA members should be a part of. “Including this week, we have six weeks and so I was thinking this week we’d save for brainstorming and finding out what sort of data sets we’d need to collect in order to make good decisions,” Ruholl said. “Next week maybe consider inviting representatives from two of the programs that are being considered for elimination to present their rational as to why this shouldn’t happen.” Family and consumer sciences professor Richard Wilkinson said it might be helpful to send some questions out to the departments to help guide them in what the CAA is looking for. R ACHEL STANE VICH | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Clayton Lindley, a sophomore communication studies major from Mount Pulaski, plays his guitar while sitting outside of Lawson Hall. “It’s a stress reliever after a long week of classes and homework,” Clayton said.
For the full story visit www. dailyeasternnews.com Chrissy Miller can be reached at 581-2812 or clmiller9@eiu.edu.
Workgroup No. 8 discusses programs at town hall By Cassie Buchman News Editor | @cjbuchman Ideas for programs that could potentially grow enrollment were discussed at Workgroup no. 8’s town hall meeting Thursday. The Workgroup is charged with making recommendations for new or modified programs, degree completion programs, signature programs and microdegrees. It is one of two Workgroups in the vitalization project that continued
their work into the second semester of the academic year. Those at the town hall meeting formed into groups to discuss their ideas for the four charges and wrote their suggestions for each on a large sheet of paper. After they were done, they put the paper on the stage and put post-it notes next to ideas they liked. Workgroup No. 8 chair Jeff Stowell, a psychology professor, asked the participants at the town hall meeting to think about what new or what
combination of existing programs might attract students. Gary Bulla, the department chair of the biological sciences department, said his group looked at programs that could have a large target population and a job outcome at the end. “It’s nice to have areas where both are considered,” he said. “(We want to) put money to things that will benefit the students.” One program that his group talked about is an Allied Health program. Bulla said it would be a new program,
but right now the university teaches these topics across a lot of different departments individually, and offering it in a more cohesive way could be helpful. One topic Bulla said was a little difficult to talk about were microdegrees, as universities are not used to doing those, as opposed to community colleges. “Students want little things that can help them get a lot of different credentials,” he said. Austin Cheney, chair of the tech-
nology department, said the two biggest aspects for him when looking at new programs is if there is a job market and student demand. He suggested a program in sustainability and environmental management, an idea he said he has had for a long time. English professor Suzie Park, another participant in the town hall meeting, looked at how much energy a program would have.
Workgroup, page 5
Panelists suggest tax increase for higher ed funding By Kalyn Hayslett Editor-in-Chief| @DEN_news Panelists during the “Higher Education: Collateral Damage in the Budget Battle” presentation explained the impact of the budget impasse on higher education and the need for raising both income and sale taxes to ensure funding. Richard Wandling, chair of the political science department, said Illinois needs to seek out ways to broaden its sales tax as well as transition into a progressive income tax structure. Currently Illinois sales tax applies to
general merchandise and products, but this does not include common services like hair styling or lawn care. Ralph Martire, executive director for the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said out of 45 states, Illinois has the most narrow-based tax and excludes services that make up approximately 72 percent of our economy. “If we do that, we will not necessarily become ‘Taxachusetts’; matter of fact, our neighbors already tax services more than we do,” Martire said. Revenue from increasing sales tax can provide Illinois about $1.5 billion, which will grow with the economy,
but this alone will not provide enough funding for higher education. Income tax has to be restructured as well, Martire said. However, the Illinois constitution prevents the graduated income tax structure that allows the amount of taxes taken from a person’s check to match the amount of the check. Currently, Illinois has a flat-rate income tax system that mandates every resident pay the same tax amount. English professor Fern Kory said raising taxes will have substantial benefits for the quality of our education, which should not be a cause of fear or resis-
tance. “If we are going to change the conversation in this area, we need to talk with our neighbors and engage with people in a way that it makes sense to them,” Kory said. “The other side has done a great job in making people scared to death of taxes and really truly believing that cutting is the only solution.” John Miller, president of the University Professionals of Illinois local 4100, said residents should not just focus on state legislatures but talk with local officials and neighbors where their influence can make a quicker and larger im-
pact. “What we need to do is educate our neighbors, not just ourselves; we are talking to the choir often times. We also have to start standing up and doing some serious actions that will lead towards a massive amount of public pressure to end this,” Miller said. “This ends only when the public says enough.” The need for revenue is the result of the Illinois legislatures in 2015 not passing a comprehensive budget for higher education funding and providing a stop-gap budget that only provides partial funding.
Budget, page 5