Daily Egyptian THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 100 ISSUE 24
Black students raise voices against Chicago violence ANNA SPOERRE | @ASpoerre_DE
Black students linked hands and arms Wednesday night to pray for healing in Chicago following protests against police violence. The Black Male Roundtable, a registered student organization designed to give African-American males the opportunity to congregate in a safe place, organized the event for 9 p.m. Wednesday at the fountain in front of the Student Services Building. Voices of Inspiration, a student gospel choir under the direction of president Cody Essien, sang before and after a prayer for change said by Michael Smith. Smith, a junior from Chicago studying political science and president of Black Male Roundtable, suggested the group devote a night of prayer after the release of a video showing the shooting of 17-yearold Laquan McDonald. Responses to the release of the video included protests throughout the city. “Despite all the marches and protests, we need to stop for a moment … and take a moment of spiritual healing,” Smith said. Please see PRAYER | 2
Aidan Osborne | @AidanOsborne_DE Michael Smith, center, a junior from Chicago studying political science and the president of Black Male Roundtable, prays with members of B.M.R. and Voices of Inspiration, a registered student organization, Wednesday night near the Student Services building entrance. The groups prayed about the ongoing violence in Chicago and for Laquan McDonald, who was killed in October 2014 by a Chicago police officer.
SIU colleges collaborate Students to administration: Practice what you preach for new online degree CORY RAY | @coryray_DE
A new master of business administration concentration with a focus in agriculture will make its way online next fall. The program — known as Agribusiness Economics — is a result of the College of Business and College of Agricultural Sciences collaborating. While a masters program for agribusiness economics already exists within the College of Agricultural Sciences, students in the online program will be enrolled in the College of Business to achieve an MBA. Students pursuing the degree will take courses specific for an MBA, as well as existing agribusiness economic classes to fulfill requirements. When Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences Mickey Latour came to the university in 2012, he saw a desire for an agriculture studies with a degree in business. So he spoke to Dennis Cradit, former the dean of the College of Business, about creating the concentration. Since then, the two colleges have worked together to create the program. “I knew there was a tremendous amount demand,” Latour said. “We wanted to advance, and MBA is a hot ticket out there.” Traditionally, Latour said there have been three distinct “flavors” for students who study agriculture business: a standard MBA, double master’s degrees in business and in science offered in a concurrent program, or a master’s of science in agribusiness economics. The MBA specialization totals 50 credit hours with 26 in the College of Business and 24 in agribusiness through the College of Agricultural Sciences. The degree is 12 fewer credit hours than if they were pursued separately.
Fewer than 10 universities in the country offer MBA concentrations in agribusiness economics, Latour said. Recruiting for the online degree has recently began at professional conferences. Students will have to give up some business elective classes to participate in the two-year program. But Jason Greene, dean of the College of Business, believes students will receive a solid and unique degree. “For students who are in that industry, I think it will be a great benefit to them,” Greene said. Ira Altman, chair of the agribusiness economics department, said the program will begin next summer when students will take some classes before officially beginning in the fall. According to Altman, a main reason for the MBA concentration was low enrollment in the Agriculture Economics masters degree by itself. She hopes the collaboration will entice students who desire agriculture studies with business practices. Low enrollment also led to the development of an accelerated masters program for Agribusiness Economics students, which is targeted toward students coming out of bachelor’s degree programs. The accelerated masters allows students to dually count nine credit hours to both their undergraduate and master’s degrees. The MBA program currently has no students enrolled, because students already enrolled in the original masters program could not dually count classes from the previous year. Altman, however, expects students to enroll for next fall.
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Cory Ray can be reached at cray@dailyegyptian.com or at 526-3326
SAM BEARD | @SamBeard_DE
SIU prides itself on its devotion to inclusivity, but some black students said the commitment to minority students ends once they pay tuition and step onto campus. The university has one black tenured or tenure-track professor for every 100 black students — a ratio about five times less than white students to white tenured and tenure-track professors. Johnathan Flowers, a doctoral candidate in philosophy from Oak Park, said a significant number of black professors would help minority students realize they can attain success in academia, a field considered to be the property of whiteness. “One of the things having more minority faculty does is disrupt this predominant notion that the authorities in fields, particularly areas of scientific and intellectual development, are white,” said Flowers, who is also president of Graduate Assistants United. “If you put a person of color, or a woman, in front of a classroom, it generates the perception within the student that they, too, can attain that level of success.” The University of Illinois’ ratio of black students to black tenured or tenure-track faculty is 22-to-1. The student body at U of I is 5 percent black, while SIU is 18 percent. However, the lack of a proportional increase in faculty of color reduces black SIU students’ likelihood they will have a teacher who
shares in a similar life experience as a person of color in America, Flowers said. Johanna Tesfaye, a senior from Champaign studying communication design, said she transferred from U of I because she heard SIU’s student body was more racially diverse. “I transferred to SIU and I actually only had one African-American professor during my time here,” Tesfaye said. Tesfaye said she only had a professor of color because she took a course in Africana Studies. “The university should have more female and minority professors, if not just to offer a different perspective,” she said. “Professors, regardless of whether or not they try to be unbiased, come to a classroom with their own perspective. And, if most of the professors are white males, then that is the perspective the rest of the class kind of exists in.” For every female tenured or tenuretrack professor at SIU, there are 38 female students; for every male tenured or tenure-track professor there are 21 male students. Many times professors act as mentors to some of their students, Flowers said. And in addition to being a benefit for the university, having a proportionate minority faculty to student ratio may also ease the discomfort and alienation many black, Hispanic, queer and transgender students feel. Please see RATIO | 2