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The DAILY EASTERN NEWS
WWW.DENNEWS.COM
FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009
Campus | Event
campus briefs
Rain does not stop Spring Fling
By Doug T. Graham
Staff Reporter
Rainy weather could not put a
damper on the Spring Fling festival,
hosted by the University Board, which
relocated from the Library Quad to
the Martin Luther King Jr., Universi-
ty Union.
The theme of Spring Fling 2009
was “Wild Safari.”
The Bridge Lounge became dense
as a jungle on account of all the activi-
ties reassigned.
A giant inflatable chair shared the
lounge with tables giving out freebies
like “Wild Safari” T-shirts, personal-
ized photo key chains and “Spin Art
Frisbees” that spun on a wheel while
students dropped paint on them.
The star of the bridge lounge was
the exotic animal petting zoo provid-
ed by Animal Rentals Inc. in Chicago.
Mr. Adam Monk, a diapered three-
year-old Cebus Monkey, was passed
from shoulder to shoulder.
Two Burmese Pythons were
draped around consenting students
for photo opportunities.
The joke, “Careful! He already bit
one person today,” was repeated by
student handlers to spook those who
tried to squeeze by the snake in the
crowded lounge.
The closest the room came to
clearing was when animal handler
Mark Szafran brought Purse, the baby
American Alligator, out of her cage.
Szafran told students the four-foot
long Purse would one day grow to be
more than eight feet long from nose
to tail. When asked by a student if
Purse would bite off fingers that got
too close, Szafran nodded gravely.
The University Board provided
free food from Joey’s Place, who set up
grills outside under the bridge of the
Union. Joey’s Place brought 500 ham-
burgers, hotdogs, bags of chips and
cases of Coke and Diet Pepsi. They
started serving at noon, and by 1:30
p.m. the line for food went across the
street. By 2:30 p.m., no food was left.
Bingo was played in the vend-
ing lounge for prizes such as Eastern
State | Universities
New bills in Assembly to help protect faculty
By STEPHEN DI BENEDETTO
Staff Reporter
The controversy between the Uni-
versity of Illinois faculty and the uni-
versity’s Ethics Office during the pres-
idential campaign managed to spark
reaction from Illinois legislators.
But Eastern President Bill Perry
said faculty, and even students, should
not fret about a repeat incident at
Eastern’s campus.
On Sept. 18, the U of I’s Ethics
Office sent out a memo to all facul-
ty members about campaigning and
promoting a presidential candidate.
The letter was interpreted as the uni-
versity forbidding any type of expres-
sion for a particular candidate.
“Free speech is free speech, and we
are not going to abridge it,” Perry said
about Eastern’s stance on the issue of
faculty expression.
The reaction at U of I prompted
U of I’s President B. Joseph White to
issue a retraction, stating faculty were
allowed to promote a candidate as
long as they were not doing it on uni-
versity time or representing an official
stance of the institution.
Legislators also reacted. Two bills
are currently in the General Assembly,
which are intended to prevent a simi-
lar incident from happening again.
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Kristina Peters
DENeic@gmail.com
Brittany Roel, a senior early childhood education major, pours paint onto a frisbee to make her own paint splat-
ter design during Spring Fling Thursday afternoon in the Bridge Lounge of the Martin Luther King Jr. University
Union.
apparel, a grill set and a 31.5-inch
HDTV.
Ashley Jones, a sophomore biolog-
ical sciences major, and Dave Hodge-
man, a junior sociology major, both
went head to head in a game of Rock
Paper Scissors to determine the win-
ner of a bingo round with a pool set
for a prize.
“I called (bingo) first, but appar-
ently, he has a broken leg so he didn’t
get to call it in time, so then we went
The bills, sponsored by Rep. Nao-
mi Jakobsson, D-Champaign, would
clarify that a university could not pro-
hibit a faculty member from display-
ing political paraphernalia, such as a
campaign button or bumper sticker.
The pieces of legislation also bars
the university from prohibiting a fac-
ulty member from attending a politi-
cal rally as long as they are not on uni-
versity time. The bills also clarify that
faculty members have a right to com-
municate their views with any branch
of government without needing prior
review from university administrators.
Perry said the university has not
had any serious issue with faculty
expression. He said the university pro-
motes freedom of speech.
“I’m a strong supporter of free-
dom of speech, and it’s a constitution-
al right,” he said. “Your constitution-
al rights stay with you when you are
on campus.”
Jakobsson said she was surprised
by the stipulations contained in the
memo sent out to U of I faculty on
Sept. 18. She said the two bills are
designed to encompass all Illinois
public universities and community
colleges, not just U of I.
“It seemed to me our statues need-
ed to be clarified,” Jakobsson said
about what provoked her to sponsor
Karolina Strack | The Daily Eastern News
to this rock paper scissors thing and
he won,” Jones said.
Hodgeman described his winning
strategy.
“I just threw rock every time,” he
said.
Special events coordinator Otis
Seawood, a senior family and con-
sumer science major, met with Ceci
Brinker, director of Student Life, at
8:30 a.m. to decide where to relocate
the event to. The rock climbing wall
the legislation.
As of Wednesday, the Senate High-
er Education Committee approved
both pieces of legislation. Prior, both
bills passed the House unanimously.
Charles Delman, president of East-
ern’s chapter of University Profession-
als of Illinois, the faculty union on
campus, said the details of the memo
seemed to be an outrageous infringe-
ment of people’s civil rights. He said
the two bills clarify the situation.
Delman said anyone representing
a university has a responsibility not to
misrepresent the official stances of the
university. However, faculty members
have a right to express their personal
opinion as long as they identify it as
such, he said.
“I think people should speak out if
they are in disagreement with univer-
sity policy, and that speech should be
protected,” Delman said. “It is as sim-
ple as that.”
Richard Wandling, chair of the
political science department, said he
is not concerned that opinions of fac-
ulty would be construed as represent-
ing the university as an institution. He
said any quality university would have
faculty with a diverse range of politi-
cal ideologies, including liberal, con-
servative and even socialist.
“Open expression of this diversi-
and the inflatable rat race were can-
celed because of the weather.
“The ground was just too wet, and
the sidewalks and the concrete space
wasn’t big enough to improvise and
bring those indoors,” Brinker said
Since the obstacle course was larg-
er than the Grand Ballroom, it had
nowhere else it could be set up.
Doug T. Graham can be reached at
581-7942 or dtgraham@eiu.edu.
ty is healthy in a college or universi-
ty,” Wandling said. “Besides, anyone
who understands how a university
works knows that a particular faculty
member’s political activism or polit-
ical affiliations do not represent the
official stance or position of the insti-
tution.”
He said he supports the legislation,
even though the U of I administration
retreated from the original conditions
of the memo.
The bills are necessary to prevent
further misunderstandings, Wandling
said.
Many other department chairs
contacted for the story did not
respond to inquiries.
Nick Yelverton, legislative director
of the Illinois Federation of Teachers,
a larger union group that encompass-
es UPI, said situations like the one at
U of I are, unfortunately, frequent.
He said the U of I administration
meant well, but he disagreed with how
they went about stating their policy.
He said the IFT supports both
bills because members of UPI have an
obvious right to free speech.
“This legislation cleared up any
ambiguity,” Yelverton said.
StephenDiBenedettocanbereached
at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.
Final concert of year
for Wind Symphony
The EIU Wind Symphony will
present its final concert of the
spring semester at 2 p.m. Sun-
day in the Dvorak Concert Hall
of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.
The concert will be conducted
by Milton Allen and special
guest conductor John Daum,
the conductor of the Charles-
ton Community Band.
Other highlights will be video
clips and music from the Emmy
Award winning film “Scenes
from the Louve.” For those
who love the great American
past-time baseball, the Wind
Symphony will be a musical
performance of Ernest Thayer’s
classic poem “Casey at the
Bat” narrated by Jeffrey Lynch,
associate dean of the College
of Arts and Humanities. In ad-
dition, the concert will feature
the premiere of a major new
work for wind band, “Ecstatic
Waters” composed by Steven
Bryant.
The EIU Wind Symphony Con-
cert is free of charge.
Textbook Rental hours
expand for returns
Hours for Textbook Rental
Services will change during
finals week. Textbook Rental
will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tues-
day, Wednesday and Thursday;
and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday.
During textbook returns,
unattended vehicles parked on
Fourth Street will be ticketed
and/or towed by the Charles-
ton Police Department. Attend-
ed vehicles can be parked on
the east side of Fourth Street
while returning textbooks.
Deadline to return textbooks
is 3 p.m. May 8.
—CompiledbyNewsEditorMatt
Hopf
on campus
today
Event | “Slumdog Mil-
lionaire” screening
Time | 7 p.m
Location | Buzzard Hall
Auditorium
blotter
A green Pontiac was reported
damaged on Tuesday, while
parked near Greek court, the Uni-
versity Police Department said.
Robert Flores, 24, of Charleston,
was charged with driving under
the influence of alcohol and a
blood alcohol content more than
.08 after a 1:48 a.m. Wednesday
arrest at Fourth Street and Grant
Avenue, police said.
Comments, Corrections, OR
events
To report any errors, local events
or general suggestions for future
editions please contact our Edi-
tor in Chief, Kristina Peters, via:
Phone | 581-7936,
E-mail | DENeic@gmail.com
Office visit | 1811 Buzzard Hall