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AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY. SERVING MACOMB SINCE 1905.
WesternCourier.com
Monday, October 7, 2019 - Vol. 120 Issue 21
@WesternCourier
Thompson Hall prepares for annual Big Pink Volleyball competition
By Tea Wheat courier staff
Each year Thompson Hall holds their annual capstone event, Big Pink Volleyball. This year, Big Pink Volleyball will take place from Oct. 14 to Oct. 16. Big Pink Volleyball is a recreational event that takes place at the Student Recreation Center on campus. Teams will compete against each other in this bracketstyle volleyball tournament. The only twist is that the ball is much larger than a normal volleyball, it is quite literally a big pink volleyball! The
ball itself is four feet wide and hot pink. While this event may sound like it’s only for serious athletes, it most definitely is not. There are both competitive and fun brackets, so teams can choose which one they would like to participate in. Teams must have at least four players and can have a maximum of eight players. Teams can be co-ed or single gendered and will be able to substitute players in and out if needed. The cost for a team to play is $30, but it is extremely important to note where that money is going.
All proceeds from Big Pink Volleyball will go to charities for breast cancer. Breast cancer is one of the most prominent forms of cancer in the world and is the most common cancer among women in America. Approximately one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every two minutes, and breast cancer also represents 15.2 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States. October is breast cancer awareness month, and breast cancer is something
that everyone should be educated about and that everyone should try and contribute to stop. This year alone, 232,670 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women. While the mortality rate for breast cancer has significantly declined over the years, it is still extremely important to fund charities that help with things such as diagnostics and additional research to help with finding cures. If you don’t want to or are unable to participate in Big Pink Volleyball but would still like to contribute to this cause in some way, you can
purchase a t-shirt or make a donation. More information can be found on Western Illinois University’s website, and any additional questions should be directed to Andrew Haugen, the Complex Director of Thompson Hall. To register for Big Pink Volleyball, all you need to do is get a team and select a team captain. The registration will be completed by your team captain on the Google form that Thompson Hall has created. The money for registration is due by Oct. 11 at 4:30 p.m., and you can turn that into the Thompson Hall front desk.
Board of Trustees approve FY20 budget By Devon Greene editor-in-chief
DEVON GREENE/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Board of Trustees Chair Polly Raddosh (right) and Interim President (right) approve FY20 budget.
The Western Illinois University Board of Trustees met for a second day on Friday where they approved the 2020 fiscal year all funds budget. The Board also received multiple reports from various organizations from the Macomb and Quad-Cities campuses and discussed the status of the closed session meeting minutes that were in jeopardy of being destroyed. The meeting opened once again, with public comments. Only two members of the community spoke this time. First up was Richard Filipink, a professor in the department of history. Filipink pleaded with the trustees to release the closed session minutes
from the meetings that occured in 2015. “I would like to ask, once again, as I have for the last two years, ask the Board to release the closed session minutes,” Filipink said. “Those closed session meetings happened now, four years ago and it has gone past the point of being unprecedented.” Filipnik also requested that the recordings of those meetings not be destroyed. “I would also like to ask the board to not destroy any of the recordings from any of the meetings that are listed today or going forward, to halt this practice entirely,” Filipink said. “Just because you’re allowed to do something, does not mean that you should do it. Just because something is legal, does not mean it is right.
These records are going to be an invaluable source of what actually happened at this university. Over the course of the last couple of years, the minutes of these meetings have become less and less informational and less and less detailed, so those actual verbatim records are going to be crucial going forward. I would ask that the board deposit these recordings with the university library rather than see them destroyed.” Union leader Bill Thompson came up next and echoed a lot of what Filipink covered. He requested that the minutes and recordings stay as intact as possible.
Board of Trustees page 3