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www.easternprogress.com
THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016
Independent student publication of Eastern Kentucky University since 1922
By ZEYNAB [email protected]
By ZEYNAB [email protected]
University battles state budget cuts, tuition on the rise Students unite to oppose proposed tuition freeze
T H E U N I V E R S I T Y B U D G E T C R U N C H
AMELIA WILSON/PROGRESS
Potter and Torres win SGA election after uncontested run
After election results were delayed Tuesday night, Collin Potter and Sebastian Torres were named student body president and executive vice president, respectively. Their campaign received 593 votes.
Even though the duo was running un-contested, Potter said they have been chalking, posting fliers and waking up ear-ly to campaign and connecting with stu-dents.
"It was really cool to get to talk to all the students and tell them about the election," Torres said. He said hearing what students thought the issues were on campus and what students wanted to see done was en-lightening.
For their term, Potter said they have a lot of things they want to work on, but he and Torres can work together well, com-municate and stay organized.
Torres said both he and Potter have been involved in several groups on campus and will be able to reach out and connect with students who may not know about the Student Government Association (SGA).
Starting out, Potter and Torres said they will work with extended campuses and in-creasing funding amounts over the sum-mer in addition to sitting down with ad-ministrators to talk about their goals, both of which are things that can be done with-out the other branches of SGA, Potter said.
Potter and Torres' biggest goal for their term is constructing a pedestrian walkway across the bypass connecting Alumni Col-iseum to Keene Hall. Potter said it is some-thing that has been looked into by the uni-versity before, but they want to push it as a safety initiative.
"Our safety initiatives are something we can hit hard," Potter said. "We both have experience with student safety, and that's something we'd really like to get started on
before school gets started again."A write in ballot for Josh Moberly and
William Paul Shelton as student body president and executive vice president, re-spectively, was also submitted. The Mober-ly/Shelton campaign had 28 votes.
After polls opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday, March 22, an error was noticed said Chief of Staff Allie Maples when reading the re-sults. Vice President for Student Activities Council candidate Marvin Stewart was
listed under the Student Senate ballot. The error was corrected and reposted at 8:40 a.m.
Information was sent properly listing all candidates for their desired positions to the information technology employee and that employee accepts fault for the mis-take, Maples said. Only 18 votes were af-fected by the error.
To ensure fairness to both candidates, the elections committee voted in a closed
session to maintain the integrity of the votes cast by students from 8 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., Maples said.
Jade McClure received 359 votes to Stewart's 272 for the position.
A full list of senator election results is posted online and on the door to the SGA office in Powell (Room 132).
By BRIANNA [email protected]
Candidates and onlookers gather in Middle Powell Tuesday night to hear Chief of Staff Allie Maples announce voting results for the Student Government Association election.
BRIANNA WHITE/PROGRESS
Concerned faculty, students and staff filled the seats of Brock Audi-torium on Tuesday, March 8, where the latest round of proposed state budget cuts dominated the discus-sion at this year's Budget Forum.
Proposed state funding cuts had EKU administrators geared up for a fight to protect Eastern’s current budget. President Benson discussed how Gov. Matt Bevin’s executive order to cut funding by 9 percent within the next two years, includ-ing $3 million to this year’s budget, could affect the university.
Benson presented slides he showed to the Budget Review and Subcommittee in Frankfort during Colonels at the Capital Feb. 17, where administrators, faculty and students spoke against budget cuts.
A crisis caused by lack of funding to cover pension for state employ-ees has left the Kentucky state legis-lature scrambling to find a solution. However, Benson said a dispropor-tional amount of the cuts are be-ing taken from higher education. He said 33 percent of the overall-all proposed budgets cuts are coming out of higher education, when high-er education spending only accounts for 10 percent of Kentucky’s state budget.
“We’re ten percent of the state budget, but we’re being asked to come up with a full third of the cut,” Benson said. “We just don’t believe that’s fair.”
Although EKU administrators are currently fighting against cur-rent state budget cuts, they have al-ready taken steps to address Gov. Bevin’s proposed 4.9 percent to this year’s budget and already have the budget covered. Benson said admin-istrators have tapped into reserved funds, have cut some capital proj-ects and held off various purchases.
Benson made no mention of cut-ting programs or employees as a solution in the plan for adjustments for the current budget, but did say it could have an effect on capital proj-ects.
“There’s no hope this session for any capital projects being funded,” Benson said.
Various capital projects will also be put on hold, including the recent-ly proposed Education Complex for Model Laboratory School and the
Aviation Instruction and Service Fa-cility. However, the new Center for Student Life is still in the works and will be funded by the per-semes-ter student fee of $150 and agency bonds. A total of $4.1 million has been collected from the student fee to date and the total projected cost with agency bonds is $93 million.
Renovations are a must for EKU’s aging infrastructure, Benson said. Most facilities are nearly 50 years old and need to be updated to modern standards, but Benson also said this could be costly, citing the $500,000 cost to renovate each floor of Com-monwealth Hall that was renovated for office spaces.
Benson said EKU need to con-tinue to update it’s campus so it can compete with other institutions.
“Students pay attention to facil-ities and recruiting…it is a dog-eat-dog world,” Benson said. “If students come here and we don’t have what they want…they are going to go else-where.”
He also mentioned that EKU's low tuition rates are also a draw for students, and that increased state funding can help keep them low.
Benson said legislation general-
izes state colleges when each uni-versity’s budget and needs differ. He said tuition costs increases have not made up for the money lost in state budget cuts.
When taking inflation into ac-count, EKU is seeing a loss of reve-nue per student, meaning less mon-ey for the university to spend to meet students needs, Benson said.
Benson referred to a recent study from the Council on Post-second-ary Education that showed the cost per-student to the university has hovered around $15,000 since 2000, and he explained that there hasn’t been much change in the cost of ed-ucation per-student on a budgetary level. Essentially, students are pay-ing a lot more out of pocket because the state is paying so much less, Benson said.
Benson said Kentucky ranks last in higher-education contribu-tions. And while most states have increased funding to state-colleges Kentucky legislators continue to cut funding. He also noted that imme-diate cuts to state allocations, like the 9 percent proposed by Bevin, are very rare in Kentucky and oth-
Costs for higher education may be on the rise, but a proposed Kentucky Senate bill to freeze tu-ition is not the answer, voiced Eastern’s Student Government Association (SGA) after voting in mid-February to oppose the bill.
EKU's SGA is teamed up with eight other state institutions and EKU administrators to combat ris-ing tuition costs and speak out against state legisla-tion that could have a negative impact on both stu-dents and the university.
“A bill like this would cripple regional colleges,” said EKU SGA President Katie Scott. “Senate Bill 75 only treats a symptom but doesn’t address the real problem—state budget cuts to higher educa-tion.”
She said the rising cost of tuition is a concern, but a tuition freeze would only make the problem worse and doesn’t address the money lost due to state budget cuts. With the current 9 percent bud-get cut proposed by Gov. Matt Bevin, and with a 4.9 percent cut to the current budget, a tuition freeze could force the university to cut necessary pro-grams, faculty or staff, Scott said.
“The SGA decided to oppose the bill because the more research we did the more we realized that it was not the best for students in general,” Scott said.
Senate Bill 75 was aiming to freeze tuition and residential fees for the next four years until Ken-tucky lawmakers could thoroughly evaluate the current cost of tuition and seek ways to ensure that it continues to be affordable for Kentuckians. The bill was geared to spark conversation amongst law makers about the rising cost of tuition in Ken-tucky, said bill sponsor Kentucky Sen. Dan Seum (R), who represents Bullitt County and part of Jef-ferson County.
State university tuition costs have been rising rapidly since 2008 due to a steady decline in state funding, which once kept tuition cost down. The funds allocated to state universities have dropped by $165 million since 2008, but is disproportion-al to the combined $582 million in revenue gained from tuition increases, Suem said.
Several state colleges are creating a debt crisis for new students, with elevated tuition costs and an “arms race” between Kentucky universities to com-pete for new students, Seum said.
EKU spokesman David McFaddin said although there is quite a bit of construction on campus, ad-ministrators have been seeking alternative ways to pay for many of the capital projects, such as pri-vate-public partnerships and donors.
Improvements on campus are a must, McFad-din said. The majority of buildings on campus were built in the 1960s and New Hall is the first dorm
› SEE STUDENTS, PAGE 3 › SEE FORUM, PAGE 3
Page 2 The Eastern Progress, Thursday, March 24, 2016
BEATPOLICEBEATPOLICE
March 1 � A staff member reported a
water fountain was removed from the wall at 7:14 a.m., on the 12th floor of Keene Hall.
March 3 � A staff member report-
ed crosswalk signs in front of the Powell Building and in front of Clay Hall had been stolen.
� A person reported his backpack was stolen from the bottom floor men’s locker room in the Weaver Building.
� A resident reported a vi-olation of the Kentucky In-terpersonal Protection Order on three occasions while on campus.
March 7 � A resident reported some-
one stole her package in Mc-Gregor Hall.
March 8 � A small brush fire was ex-
tinguished at 1:47 p.m., out-side of the Weaver Building. The cause of the fire was de-termined to be a cigarette butt thrown in a pile of dry leaves.
March 9 � A person reported their
USPS package was stolen from Telford Hall.
March 11 � A person reported “AL-
LAH” was printed on the steps to the Blanton House at 2:16 p.m.
� A student reported his backpack was stolen at 4:33 p.m., in the Powell Building.
March 20 � An 18-year-old from Pros-
pect was cited for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia at 7:42 p.m., in Keene Hall.
March 21 � After an event, a staff
member reported $663 was stolen at the Center for the Arts.
Children of the WorldThe Department of An-
thropology, Sociology, and Social Work, the Asian Studies Program, Mod-el UN Club and the Mod-el UNICEF Club are spon-soring an event in support of the Kentucky Refugee Ministries at 7 p.m., April 5, in Powell Underground.
At the event, guests can watch the film Refugee Kids and learn more about the refugees that come to Kentucky. Guests are rec-ommended to bring a used or new donation of an um-brella, board games, or
books. The donations will go to the Kentucky Refu-gee Ministries.
For more information, contact [email protected].
Sweet Treats in Combs
The Society of Profes-sional Journalists is hav-ing a bake sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., March 24, on the third floor of the Combs Building.
Members will be selling cupcakes, cookies, cake balls, rice krispie treats and soda.
All profits will fund fu-ture SPJ trips and fees.
BRIEFSCAMPUSBRIEFSCAMPUS
Week of Nov. 13 – Nov. 19THE COLONEL’S CALENDAR
Week of March 24 – March 30
THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY4 p.m.Baseball vs. University of EvansvilleRichmond
7:30 p.m.DNCE ConcertEKU Center for the Arts
11 a.m.Women’s Tennis vs. Belmont UniversityNashville
2:30 p.m.Men’s Tennisvs. Belmont UniversityNashville
4 p.m.Baseballvs. University of
11 a.m.Men’s Tennisvs. Tennessee State UniversityNashville11 a.m.Women’s Tennis vs. Tennessee State UniversityNashville1 p.m.Baseball vs. University of EvansvilleRichmond
8:30 a.m.Colonel’s Cupboard VolunteerBrockton 709
4 p.m.Baseballvs. University of DaytonDayton, Ohio
4 p.m.Softballvs. Northern Kentucky UniversityRichmond
THE COLONEL’S CALENDAR12:20 p.m.Developing a Professional NetworkWhitlock Building, Room 460
4:45 p.m.Business Dining EtiquettePowell, Board of Regents Dining Room
Domino’sPizza
328 Eastern BypassRichmond, KY 40475
Phone:(859) 623-0030
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Medium 2-topping pizza
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M-F: 9:30 a.m. - 2 a.m.F-S: 9:30 a.m. - 3 a.m.Sun.: 10 a.m. - 1 a.m.
No coupon necessary.Just Ask!
RICHMOND
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voting ends april 14th
Vote now
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local food, arts, shopping, recreation and night life!
Page 3The Eastern Progress, Thursday, March 24, 2016
Eastern students attended presiden-tial hopeful Donald Trump’s rally March 1, also known as Super Tuesday, in the Kentucky International Convention Cen-ter located in Louisville. According to the students, there were many people in at-tendance. It was split between supporters, protesters and those who were curious to see what a Trump rally is like first hand.
Clarissa Baker, 18, a freshman public relations major from Mt. Sherman, said she noticed that a vast majority of the people inside the center were supporters and the protesters were standing outside.
“It was scary to watch how they treated protesters,” Baker said.
Baker said that a lot of the protesters who managed to enter the center were heckled; supporters were being physical-ly and verbally abusive to protesters. Bak-er also said her friend was assaulted while attempting to move through the crowd to have something signed and Trump yelled to get the protesters out. According to Baker, when the protesters were dragged out the crowd would chant “USA” and Trump would say, “The wall just got two times higher.”
“It was jarring to be in the moment,” Baker said, “I was scared for my life and I’m white.”
Baker said Trump stated there were
over 20,000 people who attended the event in support of him. Baker said she disagreed with his statement because she knew the convention center capacity is listed as 5,000 people, according to the Kentucky International Convention Cen-ter website.
Baker said she went to the event with a friend who is a Trump supporter. She said Trump mostly discussed the wall he planned to build, talked about Secretary Hillary Clinton and coal. Baker said that she did not hear anything of substance.
“I didn’t hear anything as to why I should vote for Trump,” Baker said.
Baker said she would be willing to at-tend another Trump rally if he had any-thing good to say. She said the rally was something that can be described as “one and done” but is a way to receive lots of information.
Another EKU student, Zoe Keller, 19, sophomore police studies major from Springdale, Ark., said the event was sim-ilar to a pep rally. She attended the ral-ly with her husband and a friend as pro-testers. They made signs that opposed Trump; one sign said “Trump for Chan-cellor” and another had pictures of the Annoying Orange with a gerbil for hair and Trump quotes.
Keller said that the media isn’t spin-ning what Trump says out of proportion and he really is how they portray him.
Keller said her group was part of the
Facebook group called “Empty the Seats.” She said the group’s plan was to suppos-edly leave in the middle of the rally but she and a few other members of the group kept being escorted out, causing the plan to wither.
Keller said a few supporters told her that people died for her right to protest, she kept being asked how old she was and when she came to America, Keller said she was also reprimanded by supporters for attending the event and not being at work. Which, Keller said, she found iron-ic considering the supporters weren’t at work either. Keller said she met a Muslim man who bought a Trump hat for his own
protection and saw supporters ripping up signs.
Keller said the majority of the peo-ple inside were supporters. She said she would attend another rally, primarily for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. She said she would also go to another Trump rally because of all the people she met, but Keller said the rallies are becoming more volatile.
“Being there you’re aware of the risk,” Keller said describing the experience as exhilarating like bungee jumping.
By NOENA [email protected]
Super Tuesday protesters get rowdy at Louisville rally
1.75L Heaven Hill Vodka........$11.00
Numerous supporters and protesters gathered at the Trump rally in the Kentucky International Convention Center on March 1 to recognize the candidate on Super Tuesday.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
A group of Eastern students is help-ing to make a difference in the lives of those recently released from prison.
The students meet with the former prisoners, helping them develop a per-sonal plan to adapt to life outside the prison walls, which is often extremely difficult for those who’ve been locked up for decades.
James B. Wells, an associate profes-sor of criminology and faculty advis-er of the criminal justice honor society on campus, said the stigma of being la-beled an ex-felon often makes it difficult to find a job, a place to live, and many other things that people without crimi-nal records often take for granted.
“The reality is, offenders, when re-leased have so many strikes against them," Wells said. "As a result, many are denied opportunities."
The students who participate in the mentoring program are members of Al-pha Phi Sigma, the honors society for those in EKU’s Criminal Justice and Po-lice Studies program. Each year, APS takes on a service project, with the ser-
vice project's theme coming from Alpha Phi Sigma's national chapter. In years past, those themes have touched on ev-erything from human trafficking to child endangerment. This year’s theme was rehabilitation, Wells said.
Going along with the rehabilitation theme, APS teamed up with non-profit organization Mission Behind Bars and Beyond to train and certify the students to prepare them to mentor former pris-oners at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington.
The mentor training was made possi-ble thanks to a $3,000 award that Wells won--he was selected last summer as the College of Justice and Safety's first Outstanding Mentor--which he used to help pay for the sessions.
As part of the training, each stu-dent was given a packet outlining the do's and don’ts of mentoring the former prisoners, as well as preparing them for the harsh realities that comes with re-turning to life outside prison walls. The training prepares students to be a sup-portive mentor to help guide the former prisoners into a new environment that encourages good behavior and helps de-ter the former prisoners from returning to bad habits.
Krista Smithers, president of EKU's Alpha Phi Sigma chapter, noted during a recent video program that the power of the sessions is that they offer support to those who are so frequently turned away because they made a mistake earli-er in their lives.
“While it’s supposed to be you serve your time and you’re done, that’s not the case," Smithers said. "It’s persistent punishment. You can’t get a job because you’ve gone to prison or jail."
More than a dozen students were trained and certified as mentors, Wells said. And the program has shown its worth, so much so that some of the ex-offenders are returning to serve as mentors themselves.
Ryan Rivard, a former prisoner who had gone through the Mission Behind Bars and Beyond program, said the pro-gram likely saved his life.
After 17 years in prison, Rivard said he was a drug addict, had no home to go to and was battling cancer when he was released.
“My big release plan was to commit suicide,” Rivard said in a video about the program. But he changed his mind after taking chance on the program, which he enrolled in only because he figured
he had nothing to lose. The program, he said, changed his outlook about himself.
“They showed me something I didn’t have before—love,” Rivard said in the video. “So they helped me love myself when I didn’t love myself.”
The program benefits not only those being mentored, but also gives the stu-dents a valuable lesson, Wells said. The students see first-hand the stigma that former prisoners face and they see how difficult it can be for those prisoners to return to society. Many prisoners have fractured lives--no place to live, no fam-ily to care for them and no employment prospects. When they're released from prison, they're given little more than a bus pass and $25 debit card and in-structed to go build a new life. It's no wonder many turn to drugs or return back to a life of crime, Wells said.
Students see this reality up close--and that opens their eyes and gets them personally involved, which has enor-mous learning benefits, Wells said.
“You get these young bright kids who are introverts and you get them involved in the organization and they learn lead-ership responsibilities,” Wells said. “These projects expose them to stuff they could never get out of a textbook."
Honors society mentors former inmates for service projectBy STEPHANIE DARIA
er states.“Unfortunately in Kentucky we are
going in the opposite direction,” Ben-son said.
Kentucky ties for last place for state funding with West Virginia with an overall decrease in higher-education spending of 2 percent, where the ma-jority of states have increased funding, Benson said.
Benson asked the campus commu-nity to reach out to their local repre-sentatives regarding university fund-ing cuts. More information can be found on http://www.eku.edu/bip, in-cluding a streaming video of the latest budget forum at Eastern.
Kentucky have agreed upon a cur-rent budget as of March 11. The final budget will be submitted April 19.
built in more than 50 years.McFaddin said proposed legislation
generalizes state colleges when each uni-versity’s budget and needs differ. He said tuition costs increases have not made up for the money lost in state budget cuts.
EKU student Caitlin Brock, 20, the EKU College Republican chair and vice president of the Conservative Coalition, said she is in support of the bill because it opens up a dialogue about the rising cost of tuition and what impact it could have on the ability for many Kentucky stu-dents to pay for college.
Brock said she chose Eastern because it was an affordable option and under-stands EKU has different budgetary needs than other universities in the state. Yet, she said in-state tuition at many schools are starting to come close to the
cost of private institution in Kentucky.Scott said tuition dollars are not flat
profit, they go to services that make the student experiences better on campus and work toward higher retention and graduation rates, and a better learning environment.
Scott said the Council on Post-Sec-ondary Education (CPE) currently sets a tuition cap of eight percent to be split-up among two years. No university in Ken-tucky can raise tuition more than five percent in a year. She said SB 75 would take the power out of the hands of the CPE and gives no clear indication of what happens after the freeze is up in four years, which puts students at risk for a very high spike in tuition in 2020.
The CPE was one of many consider-ations discussed at the Tuesday, Feb. 9 meeting where SGA voted 21 – 1 to op-pose Senate Bill 75. Scott said many sen-ators spoke and that several people had conducted research which looked into the type of impact the bill could have on the university and presented their re-
search before the vote. There were five undecideds and one abstention, because the individual was going to speak in Frankfort about the bill.
Scott spoke before the Appropriations and Budget Committee in Frankfort on Thursday, Feb. 19, defending EKU’s cur-rent budget and speaking out against state cuts.
Scott said she was relieved the com-mittee decided to table the bill.
“It sounds like a good solution for the short term but in the long term there are too many unpredictable variables,” Scott said.
The SGA has also jump-started a grassroots-movement among the student body at Eastern, encouraging students to contact their local senators and speak-out about the budget cuts.
“For every call your senator gets it pro-duces a green-slip,” Scott said. “It only takes three or four green slips to catch your legislator’s attention.”
STUDENTSFROM PAGE 1
FORUMFROM PAGE 1
Cassy Grey, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, March 24, 2016
Americans want socialism, they just don't know it
If there’s one thing I’ve never had someone disagree with me about politi-cally, it’s that our economy is pretty much garbage. But why?
President Reagan introduced the idea of trickle-down economics, the economic theory that by allowing capitalism to run freely corporations will gain lots of mon-ey, their leaders will have lots of money, and they’ll spend lots of money, therefore putting back into the economy and mak-ing it prosper.
The issue, though, is that’s not what ac-tually happens. In practice, when individ-uals gain large amounts of money, they begin to hoard that money. Sure they buy extravagant things we all dream of hav-
ing, but most of their money is collected and held onto so it can accumulate.
The problem with this is that there’s only so much money in our country. We print more money all the time, but having more money doesn’t increase the wealth of our country and having more mon-ey for the same amount of wealth dete-riorates the value of the USD. It’s why a burger used to cost your grandfather a nickel. That burger is still worth the same amount of money, but the USD value is so much lower that now that it’s numerical-ly more money while ultimately being the same price.
Having the majority of the money in our country held by the richest 20 percent means there isn’t enough money for the other 80 percent to buy what they need to buy, which means more money has to be printed, so the value of the dollar decreas-es and our economy continues to deteri-orate.
So how do we fix that? Socialism. Yes, socialism: that dirty word your moth-er shrieks every time President Obama comes on the television.
What people are afraid of with social-ism is that economically it involves a re-distribution of wealth. And that is true,
but in America the only redistribution would come from the top 20 percent who possess over 80 percent of all the money in America, those who have an amount of money inconceivable and ever increasing at the expense of the lower class.
But that's not okay, right? We can't just take money from people. They earned it.
Sure, they did earn it, and maybe it is unfair to take away some of the money they earned, but it's more unfair that an estimated 45,000,000 Americans are be-low the poverty line and the reason they're there is because of the hoarding of wealth by the top 20 percent. The system of trick-le-down economics has been unchecked and allows the upper class to exploit those below them to continue to have financial gain at the expense of the middle and low-er class. The money they keep accruing isn't coming from nowhere, it's coming from people who don't have the money to spare in the first place.
The upper class takes advantage of the middle and lower classes because the sys-tem lets them. So the only solution is to change the system.
What happens if we institute social-ism? Well, clearly Americans don't want pure socialism. We still love the idea of
the American dream and earning wealth beyond our wildest dreams or of one day winning the lottery and becoming ob-scenely rich. Still, that's possible with so-cialism.
Socialism doesn't necessarily mean that every 1 percent of the population has 1 percent of the wealth. It doesn't mean every single person has the exact same amount of money and, whether you have an easy job or a hard job, you all make the same amount. It means that the rich are still rich, but the poor are no longer help-less.
Socialism isn't about taking things away from some people and giving it to people who aren't willing to work as hard, as some may think. Socialism is an idea greater than just an economical practice. It's the idea that everyone can live a hap-py and fulfilled life and not live in fear of poverty, a real and present threat to most Americans.
Through a form of modified socialism that allows for a thriving, market-based economy, America can have a fair dis-tribution of wealth that leaves an upper, middle, and lower class, but doesn't leave anyone with so little money that they can't pay their bills.
Depression is hard to talk about. Whether you’ve suffered from depression or know people who have, it’s just an uncomfortable subject that’s difficult to express correctly. Right now, I’m struggling to write this, even with it being anonymous.
There is a certain stigma that arises from being open about struggling with emotions that creates a barrier in the discussion.
Most people don’t want to admit to dealing with a mental illness. You can’t see it, so it’s not like there’s physical proof.
When you suffer from depression, you don’t get a label that says “Warning: Fragile.”
You can get bags under your eyes from being constantly exhausted, but it’s easy to pass that off as being one of the many Americans who don’t sleep enough. You might isolate yourself because you just don’t feel well enough to be around other people, but saying you just like to be alone is much easier.
Other issues are something that people will only know about if you tell them.
Right now, it feels like conversations about de-
pression are more so attempts to convince someone that what you’re feeling is legitimate and not just some funk that “everyone goes through.”
A lot of advice given with depression is sur-rounded in “doing something you like to do,” but when you’re depressed, nothing sounds good. The stuff you used to enjoy is no longer fun. It’s just an-other reminder that something is wrong.
One of the biggest issues I’ve personally faced with depression is motivation. I don’t mean like the motivation to do chores and homework, although that’s gone too. I mean things like getting out of bed in the morning or eating.
It’s hard to do these things when all you can do is think about how useless it would be to put out ef-fort. None of it matters to you anymore.
People constantly tell me I can talk to them if I need to about it, but I just can’t seem to force myself to begin a conversation about the subject. Talking might help, but I’m not going to instantly be cured by telling someone, “Hey, last night I cried myself to sleep and today I missed class because I hate my-
self to much to move.”There’s always the choice of medication and
therapy. As a college student, I do not have the time or money for the latter and medication only goes so far.
So, I deal with it one day at a time. My current motto is fake it ‘till you make it and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.
I’m not talking about this because I want peo-ple to pity me. I’m talking about it because there are so many other people dealing with this and they should know that that’s okay.
That’s kind of what the semicolon means. You could choose a period to end your sentence or you can use a semicolon and continue on. So, choose the semicolon. If not for you, then everyone else around you.
If you or anyone you know is suffering from de-pression and/or suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1 (800) 273-8255.
Brussels is proof America needs to take action
Depression is not as simple as 'cheering up'
CASSY GREY/PROGRESS
Early Tuesday morning, three terrorist disguised as reg-ular passengers traveling to their destination entered the Brussels airport. Not long af-ter, two explosions went off in the airport, one being a suicide bomber. An hour later another went off in the Maelbeek Metro Station, terrifyingly close to the European Quarter.
More than 34 people were killed and over 230 injured in-cluding nine Americans and a marine. Shortly after the explo-sions, ISIS posted on it's website linked through an app called Telegram a photo of multiple cities with a caption of "We are already in your city". Telegram refused to suspend the accounts or cooperate with authorities.
This is another attack in a long line that have happened during ISIS reign, most recent-ly in Paris.
World leaders paid their re-spects today, but they are noth-ing but words. Even our own
president said that the coali-tion continues to compound and attack ISIS as he sat back in his shades to watch base-ball, showing the same emotion as he showed when James Foley was killed on camera. The only problem with the President's sentence is that it is not work-ing.
Every country knows ISIS is a problem and knows they need to be dealt with, but don't seem to want to bring other countries to the table to help take care of it. America has drawn red lines, called JV squads, and at this point flat out say we don't know how to deal with them.
They could have been dealt with in a couple hours at one point, but they have continued to grow.
Whether your liberal or con-servative, take a step back and come together to think about this: What is the world dealing with?
You have world leaders sit-ting around waiting for one to take charge and a radical, so-phisticated, and ever growing faction of a religion. No political correctness police, not all Mus-lims. Not Islam as a whole, but people who simply interpret it wrong and violently.
That being said, there have been a couple popular ways to deal with them.
First, just wipe them out by ourselves, which would work temporarily, until another fac-tion pops up. Americans re-luctancy for war after the last one we were in is totally un-derstandable, but war is neces-sary sometimes and should not be decided based on emotions or our desire to keep our troops safe. Sometimes, unfortunately, our troops need to do their jobs.
Second, we should show sup-port for other countries as they fight them. We have tried this with that so called "coalition' that was put together. All that came from that so far from that deal was ineffective air strikes. America can't create a coalition and not do anything once other countries are on board because America becomes the de facto leader and must lead.
Show that they can't break us and they won't scare us. This too has it's problems, because ISIS doesn't care if we are scared, they care about how their re-ligion is interpreted and what they think they are supposed to do.
Third and final, let the people in the area deal with it while we support them with weapons and air strikes. All this does is allow ISIS to get whatever supplies and weapons we send over their. ISIS most devastating weapons come from outpost and cities
where American weapons are.Our three proposals consists
of one overreaction and two no reactions.
How about we quit being di-vided as a country and let these horrific attacks be a turning point for America and get out of our most divided time? Let's put our brains and strength as Americans together and defeat this enemy who threatens our lives instead of arguing about who has the right way to deal with it.
All of this is wishful thinking in an election year so I'll end on this: my thoughts and prayers go to Brussels, Paris, San Ber-nardino, Beirut, and any oth-er city or state that has suffered due to lack of action from our world leaders. American lead-ership has failed you. I hope this wakes the world up and my heart breaks that it had to come to events like this.
ROBERT RISTANEO
COREY WALL
Taylor Weiter, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, March 24, 2016 Page 5
Richmond’s Partners II Pizza puts meaning behind the title
SAC snags huge concert headliner with boy band connections
Nicole and Craig Cover have been in love since they were 17 years old. From going to school, raising a fami-ly and loving pizza, they have always been a team. Their teamwork is what led to the creation of Partner’s II Piz-za in Richmond.
Prior to the Covers becoming small business owners, the Covers moved from Georgia to Kentucky 11 years ago due to a job relocation. Ni-cole and Craig said they fell in love with Richmond. The Covers said they did not plan to open a business, but eventually they said they felt it was what they were meant to do.
“My husband Craig has been ro-mancing me with pizza since we were 17 years old,” Nicole Cover said, “Our dream to start our business in Richmond started with our family’s love for making pizza and the Italian heritage of loving people with food.”
Partners II Pizza offers their spe-cialty pizzas, appetizers, pastas, sandwiches, salads and desserts. Customers can order from the menu or enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffet during certain hours. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday nights, the din-ner buffet is $6.75; from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Friday, the lunch buffet is $5.95. EKU students, facul-ty and staff can receive a 15 percent discount if they show proper identi-
fication.Partners also delivers within a
5-mile radius of the restaurant and to EKU’s campus. They only deliver on Fridays and Saturdays, and there is a $25 minimum to have an or-der delivered with an additional $3 charge. Partners II Pizza does serve alcohol, but Nicole Cover said it is only to enhance the meal and dining experience.
Richmond Partners II Pizza was not the first Partners to open. Jim and Marilyn Royal opened the first Partners II Pizza January 1997 in Peachtree City, Ga. The Royals have opened four other Partners II Pizzas in Georgia, but the Covers own the one and only Partners in Kentucky. Nicole and Craig Cover would eat at Partners as teenagers and said they deemed it a piece of their hearts – the best pizza growing up.
After the Covers decided to open a restaurant, they contacted the origi-nal owners of Partners II Pizza. The Covers said the Royals helped them begin their business by trusting the Covers with their recipes. In 2013, the Covers were able to begin the process of opening their own busi-ness and decided to name it “Part-ners II Pizza” to honor the original founder.
Even though there is more than one Partner’s II Pizza in the United States, they are not considered a na-tional pizza chain. The Partner’s II
Pizzas in Georgia and Richmond are privately owned.
Nicole Cover said that owning a private business is much different than working for a corporation. She said working small business can be challenging, because the interac-tions with the public are more per-sonal and they make extra efforts to
make sure their customers are sat-isfied and feel appreciated. Though the Covers spend a lot of time with the public, they said they love every minute of it.
“As a small business, we see beau-tiful moments of humanity,” Craig Cover said, “We have the honor to participate in our community’s ev-eryday life and it has been life chang-ing for us.”
Nicole and Craig Cover said they love what they do and encourage ev-eryone to visit their family-friendly restaurant. The Covers said they be-lieve it is a friendly place to gather for birthdays, anniversaries or a sim-ple dinner.
By NOENA [email protected]
PHOTO COURTESY OF PARTNERSPIZZA.COM
Eastern’s Student Ac-tivities Council won big as they announced the Joe Jo-nas-led pop band DNCE would headline the SAC Spring Concert with open-ing act Apollo LTD.
DNCE, popular for their current chart-topper Cake By The Ocean, will be per-forming at the Center for the Arts on Thursday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. as part of their Best Tour Ever Tour before traveling as the opener for pop singer Selena Gomez’s Revival Tour.
The band, founded in the summer of 2015, has only released two singles and an EP titled SWAAY, but East-ern students flooded SAC’s Twitter account with excite-ment after the announce-ment on Feb. 26.
Lead singer Joe Jonas has been in the limelight along-side brothers Nick and Kev-in after the formation of their band the Jonas Broth-
ers, popular amongst teens in the late 2000s. With the help of talented musicians JinJoo Lee, Cole Whittle and Jack Lawless, Jonas was able to help progress his ca-reer post-teen popdom.
Lee, a self-taught guitar-ist from South Korea, trav-eled with CeeLo Green, Charlie XCX and Jordin Sparks during her career while maintaining a friend-ship with Jonas. As a found-ing member of Semi Pre-cious Weapons, keyboardist Cole Whittle opened for Lady Gaga on her world-wide Monster Ball tour and drummer Jack Lawless dropped out of college his
freshman year to join the Jonas Brothers during their fall 2006 tour and contin-ued to stay in touch with Joe throughout his career.
Cake By The Ocean, the debut single from the pop-rock band from L.A., is a massive hit produced and inspired by Swedish part-
ners Mattman & Robin, col-laborators on popular al-bums such as Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Gwen Stefani’s This Is What The Truth Feels Like. While a debut album has yet to be an-nounced, DNCE has con-tinued to release singles and featured songs with pop art-
ists such as Academy Award nominee and pop singer Hailee Steinfield.
DNCE’s performance at the SAC Spring Concert marks the first major per-formance of a popular art-ist in two years, follow-ing award-winning country musician Kacey Musgraves at the SAC 2013 Fall Con-cert.
Opening act Apollo LTD is also an exciting addi-tion to the Spring Concert as the two have spent eight years writing and produc-ing tracks for various bands in Nashville. The band have much experience in the mu-sic business and will serve an alternative-pop sound, complementary of the elec-tric sounds of DNCE.
Tickets, starting at $15 for Eastern students, are still available for SAC 2016 Spring Concert presenting DNCE and Apollo LTD at the Center for the Arts box office or website. Contact 859-622-7469 or www.eku-center.com for more details.
By TAYLOR [email protected] IF YOU GO
WHERE:
WHEN:
TICKETS:
EKU Center for the Arts
March 24 7:30 p.m.
$15 for students
Official cover for SWAAY EP by DNCE
Evan Nichols, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, March 24, 2016 Page 6
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Over Eastern’s spring break week, the baseball Colonels played six road games, consisting of one game at No. 13 ranked Mississippi State, one game at Alabama A&M, three games at Belmont and one game at Marshall, finishing with a 3-3 re-cord.
EKU now has a 10-11 overall record, and a 1-5 Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) record on the season.
In the Colonels’ first game during the break, EKU traveled to Starkville, Miss., on Tuesday, March 15, to face one of the nation’s top teams in the No. 13 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs (14-6-1, 2-1 SEC).
After nine innings, the Colonels and Mississippi St. were knotted up at 12-12. EKU scored four runs in the tenth to up-set the Bulldogs in extra innings.
The Colonels finished the game with 17 hits to Mississippi St.’s 15 hits.
Senior third baseman Mandy Alvarez and senior left-fielder Kyle Nowlin both had one home run apiece in the victory.
In five at bats, Nowlin had two hits, two runs, one base-on-balls (BB) and three RBI’s. Alvarez had three hits, three
runs and two RBI’s in six plate appear-ances.
Junior right-hander Caleb Johnson earned the win for EKU, improving his record to 2-1 on the season. Johnson pitched three innings, striking out four batters and only giving up one hit. John-son didn’t allow a run.
The very next day, on Wednesday, March 16, EKU traveled to Huntsville, Ala. to suit up against the Bulldogs of Al-abama A&M (5-16, 3-2 SWAC).
Thanks in large part to an eight-run sixth inning, the Colonels were able to overcome the Bulldogs 11-6.
Alvarez hit a home run and went 3 for 6 at the plate with two runs and three RBI’s.
Junior left-handed pitcher Brandon Smither (1-0) earned the win for EKU.
After the win, the Colonels headed to Nashville for a three-game series against conference foe Belmont (11-8, 2-1 OVC) that started on Friday, March 18, and lasted through the weekend.
EKU won the first game 2-1 behind a solid pitching performance from ju-nior right-hander Eric Nerl (3-0), who notched the win. Nerl struck out five batters and only walked one. The red-shirt-junior gave up six hits, only allow-ing one run during the victory.
The Colonels lost its final two games against the Bruins, both by scores of 6-5.
During the game on Sunday, March 20, Belmont’s designated hitter Alex Ward hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Looking to rebound, EKU finished its road trip with a game against Marshall (11-8, 1-2 CUSA) on Tuesday, March 22.
Senior short stop Doug Teegarden and Nowlin both homered during the Colo-
nels’ 5-4 loss. Both teams had nine hits.Nowlin went 3-5, scoring two runs
and notching three hits. The senior left-fielder had one RBI.
EKU returns to action at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 24, for a three-game home stand against the University of Evansville. The Colonels game on Friday, March 25, starts at 4 p.m. and the game Saturday, March 26, will begin at 1 p.m.
Colonels defeat No. 13 Mississippi State on the road
PHOTOS COURTESY OF EKU SPORTS
By EVAN [email protected]
The Colonel baseball team celebrating after its 16-12 victory over Mississippi State.
At the end of his 2015 season, Eastern defensive end Noah Spence was consid-ered a top-10 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. The AP FCS All-American wowed ana-lysts with his talents on the field--and his persistence off the field. However, Colo-nel fans should not bet money on hear-ing NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell announce Spence’s name in the first 30 minutes, but instead wait patiently for the Jets pick at 20.
After a lifetime ban from the Big Ten Conference due to failed drug tests, Spence chose to forgo the NFL Draft to show scouts, and himself, that he could overcome his addiction to ecstasy and graduate as the best version of himself possible. His transfer to Eastern imme-diately improved the team, as he record-ed 13.5 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss, as well as the opinion of many coaches, scouts and analysts.
Spence’s personal turnaround excit-ed many scouts, and individual inter-views with teams showed his dedication to walking down a straight and narrow path. However, Spence’s stock took a ma-
jor hit after his lackluster 40-yard-dash performance at the NFL Combine. Spen-ce quickly dropped to the late first or early second round in most mock drafts.
While this drop may seem like a huge deal, it is not a real indication of Spen-ce’s talent, but how well Spence mesh-es with each team’s defense. At 6-foot-2, 251-pounds, Spence is not ideal for a 4-3 defense in which he must play stand-ing. His consistent intensity throughout games and natural talent as an off the edge rusher makes Spence a perfect ad-dition to any 3-4 defense.
Out of the 28 teams that visited Spen-ce during Eastern’s Pro Day on March 4, only nine currently run a 3-4 defense and only four of those teams, the Colts, Chiefs, Jets and Steelers, desperately need defensive help, with the Jets and Colts consistently meeting with Spence.
Though Spence could definitely help the Colt’s defense, the team has much more to worry about offensively. This will likely open Spence up to an already talented Jets defense, sure to be a play-off-contender next season. Buy Jets gear and start memorizing the schedule, be-cause it looks like Spence is going to New York.
Jets a good fit for EKU’s SpenceS P O R T S O P I N I O N
By TAYLOR [email protected]
At least 28 scouts from 23 differ-ent NFL teams showed up to the East-ern football team’s pro day earlier this month.
The event allowed 12 Colonel foot-ball players, as well as a few from oth-er Kentucky schools like Georgetown College and the University of Pikeville, to showcase their skills in front of an assemblage of professional scouts.
Players first had the chance to par-ticipate in the vertical jump drill and the 225-pound bench-press, which took place inside of the Jack Ison Weight Room. Scouts and media lined the entire room, while spectators tried to catch a glimpse from the windows outside. Afterwards, participants and scouts made their way down to the field at Roy Kidd Stadium, where play-ers were able to partake in the 40-yard dash, the L-drill and the shuttle.
The main attraction of the event was EKU defensive end standout Noah Spence, who has been projected by some as an early first round draft pick this April.
A 6-foot-3, 260-pound transfer from Ohio State, Spence played just one sea-son at EKU after multiple off-the-field suspensions with the Buckeyes led to Spence being ruled permanently ineli-gible by the Big Ten Conference. Spen-ce sat out the entire 2014 season be-fore transferring to EKU, where he was named an All-American by the Associ-ated Press, STATS, Walter Camp Foun-dation and College Sporting News. Spence was named the Football Cham-pionship Subdivision (FCS) Defensive Player of the Year after a season that include 11.5 sacks, which ranked fifth in the nation, and 22.5 tackles-for-loss,
which ranked fourth in the nation.During EKU’s pro day, Spence par-
ticipated in the 40-yard dash, as well as a few position-specific drills. Spen-ce was looking to improve upon what many considered a disappointing 40-time (4.80) from the NFL Combine the week before. Spence did just that by running a mid-to-late 4.7 in cold, rainy conditions. Tampa Bay Bucca-neers Defensive Line Coach Jay Hayes worked Spence out through defensive line drills.
Spence said he was happy with his 40-yard dash during Pro Day and talk-ed about what he thinks he will bring to whichever team selects him in April.
“I believe I can bring a pass rush and relentless effort, as well as a passion and love for the game.” Spence said.
Many have questioned Spence’s off-the-field behavior as he enters the draft, but the redshirt-junior who graduated in December, said he feels “blessed” to still have the opportunity to play football.
“To be a part of day like this is like a dream come true,” Spence said.
Others that participated in the Col-onels’ pro day included running back Dy’Shawn Mobley, wide receivers Joel Brown, Jeff Glover and Jaucady Rut-ledge, tight end Ben Madon, defen-sive backs Stanley Absanon, Tyrell Curry and Deno Montgomery, line-backer Trey Thomas, defensive line-man ShaQuille Prather and kicker Ben Deighton.
Many of the players who participat-ed hope that the opportunity to show-case their physical skills in front of NFL scouts will lead to their name be-ing called during the NFL Draft, or to a free agent contract afterwards.
The first round of the draft will start at 8 p.m., Thursday, April 28.
NFL scouts descend on EKU for football pro day
By EVAN [email protected]
