Daily Egyptian MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015
Faculty Senate questions new policy’s effect on accrediation
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 100 ISSUE 29
Veteran Adventures hosts white-tail deer hunt
CORY RAY | @coryray_DE
One new SIU policy decided by the Board of Trustees is raising questions about the school’s accreditation and even its status as a research institution. At the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, the board voted on a policy to change who lead administrators of professional schools — namely the School of Medicine — report to, which was met with opposition by representatives for the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council as well as board member Shirley Portwood. Currently, the dean and provost of the School of Medicine reports to the SIUC chancellor. The dean of the School of Law reports to the SIUC provost. The deans of the dentistry and pharmacy schools report the the SIUE provost. As of Jan. 1, 2016, the dean and provost of the medical school will report to the president of the university in addition to the SIUC chancellor. The dean of the School of Law will also report the SIUC chancellor, while the deans of the dentistry and pharmacy schools will report to the SIUE chancellor. The introduction of the policy to the board began in the summer of 2014. SIU President Randy Dunn said the policy is necessary because he must have involvement with the vital functions of the school. Among concerns raised by the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council are school accreditation, research institution status, tenure appointments and tenure denial grievances. “Nothing takes [the School of Medicine] away from [SIUC] campus, changes grant counting, establishes a separate campus or does anything to remove the role of the School of Medicine from SIUC,” Dunn said. While Dunn said the change in reporting lines will not cause the School of Medicine to become separated from the SIUC campus, a lack of outlining procedures has some faculty such as Andrea Imre, president of the Faculty Senate, and James MacLean, a Faculty Senate member representing the medical school, worried the School of Medicine and the other three professional schools may become separate entities. Of the medical school’s operations, 10 percent exists on SIUC campus, Dunn said. Dunn said no risk exists in the re-accreditation of the institutions within the system because of the change, but Imre and MacLean were not as sure. “The reporting line change might not be just as simple as changing the reporting lines,” MacLean said. “I’m curious, it seems like it would be appropriate for that resolution to ... actually have a specific language about what will be changed with that.” Because the medical and law schools are tied to SIUC campus, all research grants and money is attributed to SIUC, so a separation would greatly reduce the amount of research from SIUC, putting its status as a research institution at risk. Imre and MacLean are afraid of the issues that could arise because the shift is unclear and how much the dean and provost of the medical school will report to the system president. In opposition to Dunn’s statement saying the schools will not separate, joint research by the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Council indicate SIUC, which receives its accreditation through the Higher Learning Commission, could be at risk of separation from the medical and law schools if duties of the host campus are not well-defined or approved by the HLC. Dunn defended the change and said it is customary for boards to create policies before instituting procedures. Please see BOARD | 2
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Morgan Timms | D AILY E GYPTIAN Veteran Lonnie Shepard watches and listens for deer in a blind he set up at the second annual Veteran Adventures Deer Camp at Touch of Nature Environmental Center Saturday. Shepard, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, said being outside and around other Veterans is what he loves most about the camp. “Being out here has a calming effect,” Shepard said, “There’s no trains, no big crowds of people, it’s just you and nature, that’s it. The only noise out here is the noise you make or the animals make … It’s comforting to be around other Veterans too because I know if something were to happen, these guys have got my back because we’ve had similar experiences.” For the story, see pages 4 and 5.
Christmas, Yule share similar holiday history AUTUMN DOUGLAS | @adouglas_DE
Christmas may be the most popular and commercialized holiday today, but it has roots in a religion other than Christianity. Yule, a Pagan winter solstice holiday, has some of the same traditions and rituals. “There’s a lot of traditions that were stolen or changed,” said Tara Nelsen, SIUC alumna and founder of the Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance, from Murphysboro. Decorating trees, singing carols and exchanging gifts are just a few of the traditions Christmas has adopted from the pagan holiday, according to History Today. The Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance is a community group founded in 1998 with the purpose of celebrating and educating the public about pagan spirituality. Paganism is any type of earth-based spiritual religion that is usually both pantheistic and polytheistic, Nelsen said. Nelsen has practiced as an eclectic pagan for more than 25 years and said she doesn’t identify with one set of religious practices, but rather believes in a variety. The Southern Illinois Pagan Alliance hosted its annual Yule celebration at the Gaia House on Saturday night, where
many types of pagans of all ages gathered together to sing carols, light the Yule fire, burn holly leaves and share in a spiritual experience. After the rituals, they ate together and exchanged gifts. “Most pagan traditions follow the cycle of nature and the changing of the seasons,” Nelsen said. “So, all of our sabbats relate somehow to what’s going on in nature.” Historically, Yule is the time for people to come together during the longest night of the year to stay warm, feast and look forward to lighter and warmer days while honoring the cycle of nature, she said. “Earth-based spiritual traditions have been around long before Christianity was created. A lot of the basic concepts and symbols that you see around Christmas have pagan roots,” she said. This is because the celebration of Christmas as a specific holiday was established by a pagan Roman Emperor more than 1,700 years ago, according to Dan Owen, the evangelist at the Broadway Church of Christ in Paducah, Ky. Owen has a bachelor’s degree in Bible and Biblical Languages, a master’s degree in Greek New Testament and a doctorate from SIUC in Education of Ministers. Although the Bible says nothing about
the celebration of Christmas, it is never wrong to preach and talk about the birth of Christ, he said, including on Dec. 25, because it’s part of the Gospel. The birth of Christmas begins with the birth of Christ, which is recorded in the New Testament in the books of Matthew and Luke, and then with the birth of Christianity itself on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts. Christianity was first legalized in 313 A.D. when Constantine became the emperor and passed the Edict of Milan, Owen said. Although Constantine wasn’t a Christian, he was sympathetic towards Christians. “This was the first time that people could actually conduct worship without being persecuted,” he said. Since Constantine established a work holiday at the winter solstice in honor of the birth of a pagan sun god, Sol Invictus, he also gave the Christians a holiday to celebrate the birth of their God, Jesus Christ, Owen said. “And, that was the beginning of the celebration of a day for the birth of Christ,” he said. Christian churches gradually took that up as a special holiday, and it became a special high mass in Roman Catholicism called Christ Mass or Christmas. Please see PAGAN | 2