Blackboard is either going to be faster and less prone to crashing next year, or it’s going to be gone altogether, university of-ficials said. Right now, Eastern is consid-ering whether to switch to a new version of Blackboard or try out a completely dif-ferent online learning system.

Regardless of whether Eastern sticks with Blackboard or goes to something new, all online class activity is moving to the cloud soon, said Betina Gardner, chief information officer and dean of libraries. With the cloud, Blackboard will run on an outside server and will always be on in-stead of shutting down every time it needs an update.

Gardner is heading up the cam-pus-wide review to determine if there is a better system to fit the needs of Eastern students and faculty.

“As soon as I became CIO, I heard from my faculty friends, ‘Can you please look at Blackboard?’” Gardner said. “I heard it over and over again.”

When Blackboard’s contract was re-newed last July for two more years, Gard-ner seized the opportunity to take a look at other systems.

“I thought, ‘We have two years,’” she said. “That’s our cushion.”

Within those two years, an evaluation committee – made up of representatives from E-campus and IT, along with in-structional designers and faculty mem-bers – is reviewing two main systems: Blackboard Ultra and Canvas.

The earliest EKU could move to one of these is a year from now, Gardner said.

Blackboard Ultra

Like it or hate it, most students are at least familiar with Blackboard as it is now. However, a new version will be available next semester: Blackboard Ultra.

The focus of Blackboard Ultra is ease of use for both students and professors, said Lisa Andion, a solutions engineer

at Blackboard who spoke at a demo in March.

“When students log on to a learning management system, they have a lot of anxiety. They need to post a paper, take a test,” Andion said. “And not every in-structor uses Blackboard the same way,

not every instructor uses the same tools, not every instructor has the same level of comfort [with technology].”

Ultra will fix bugs that have drawn complaints from users, Andion said.

COURTESY OF BLACKBOARD.COM

Looking into solutions for an improved online learning system, Eastern is considering Blackboard Ultra (above) or Canvas for future use.

www.easternprogress.com

THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016

Independent student publication of Eastern Kentucky University since 1922

Chi Omega and Sigma Alpha Epsilon won first place in this year's Greek Sing with a performance based on the show The Walking Dead, featuring music like Michael Jackson's Thriller and Rihanna's Disturbia. See the full story on Page 5.

G R E E K S I N G TA K E S T H E S TAG E

Having trouble at college? You might find the answers your looking for in the li-brary in Room 106D.

That’s the location of the new Student Success Center that opened Thursday, April 7, which offers a variety of services and workshops to help them on their college journey. For example, the cen-ter offers tutor-ing, advising and life coaches to help with any problems that arise as stu-

dents wade through their college years.The Student Success Center was devel-

oped by the Department of Student Suc-cess and Academic Affairs and aided by the Athletics Department, which helped furnish money to pay for the life coach.

Laurie Carter, vice president of Student Success, said that even though the pro-

Student center in library offers help on college journey

Eastern seeks alternative to current Blackboard system

Historian notes conservation efforts of the Roosevelts

Burrier Child Development Center celebrates its 40th anniversary

In honor of Earth Day, historian Douglas Brinkley spoke at Eastern last week about his most recent book en-titled Rightful Heritage: FDR and the

land of America.At his Chau-

tauqua lecture, Brinkley present-ed his research about Frank-lin D. Roosevelt (FDR), and the close relationship he had to the en-vironment.

Brinkley's re-search has shown

that in many ways, FDR modeled him-self and his policies after his fifth cousin “Uncle Theodore," Brinkley be-gan the lecture by speaking about his book Wilderness Warrior that discuss-

es Theodore Roosevelt.Introduced by President Michael

Benson as having “an adventurous American Spirit," Brinkley informed the crowd that his thirst for knowledge and exploration began at a young age.

“My parents were teachers," Brin-kley said. "Therefore, growing up, I got two travel all over the world in a Ponti-ac for two months in the summer."

Brinkley said that on these ad-ventures, he noticed everything that seemed important had to do with The-odore or FDR. He decided to write a book about Theodore and continued to adventure in search of information with kids of his own.

Brinkley proceeded to discuss The-odore Roosevelt’s background. He said Theodore was considered “our first Western president, and Brinkley’s ear-liest research showed that he was ob-sessed with evolution.

Kentucky’s highest rated child de-velopment center, housed on Eastern’s campus, is celebrating its 40th anniver-sary this week.

The Burrier Child Development Center, opened in 1975 and housed in the basement of the Burrier Building, originally served as a professional de-velopment laboratory school for EKU students majoring in Child and Fami-ly Studies. The center is a half-day pre-school program for 3-year-olds and offers students a way to monitor chil-dren’s behavior and study their devel-opment.

The center will host an event cel-ebrating its anniversary at 6:30 p.m. April 14 in the Burrier Family Living Center to honor former and current ad-ministration, accomplishments and the improvements and evolution of the pro-gram over the years.

The idea for the Development Center originated in 1973, stemming from a study that sought to determine whether EKU would benefit from having a place for Child and Family Studies majors to gain experience and collect data. Over the years, additional majors at EKU--such as psychology, occupational ther-apy and social work--saw value in the center and sought to incorporate it into their programs.

Today, the Burrier Child Develop-ment Center is a nationally accredited program and has held that status since the 1980s. The program holds the high-est four-star rating in Kentucky for a child care center.

The development center’s program consists of two master teachers, Deb Jones and Jennifer Duty, and a group of student teachers each semester who strive to learn about the growth and development of children in a natural

By MARY MCGILLprogress@eku.edu

By STEPHANIE DARIAprogress@eku.edu

› SEE ROOSEVELT, PAGE 3 › SEE BURRIER, PAGE 3

By HANNAH COSTELLEprogress@eku.edu

› SEE BLACKBOARD, PAGE 3

By NOENA ZERNAprogress@eku.edu

› SEE CENTER, PAGE 3

EMILY VINSON/PROGRESS

LARA VANCE

BRINKLEY

Page 2 The Eastern Progress, Thursday, April 14, 2016

BEATPOLICEBEATPOLICE

April 3 � The fire alarm was activated

at 1:40 p.m. in Grand Campus Building 1. Smoldering mulch was put out with water.

April 7 � A person reported a dam-

aged light fixture, exit sign and ceiling tiles on the eighth floor of Dupree Hall in addi-tion to damaged ceilings on the ninth, 10th and 11th floors.

� A person reported a stu-dent possibly possessing brass knuckles and threatening other students with it.

April 8 � A person was cited with

alcohol intoxication at 1:55 a.m. outside of Clay Hall. He was transported to the Madi-son County Detention Center.

� A staff member reported hearing glass breaking at 10:43 a.m. in Dupree Hall.

April 9 � A staff member report-

ed a broken window at 2:47 a.m. on the ninth floor of Dupree Hall. A trail of blood was found leading from the stairwell to the bathroom, but no subjects were found.

� A 21-year-old student from Berea, Ohio, was cited for op-erating a motor vehicle under the influence and disregarding a traffic control device at 2:30 a.m. on Summit Street. He was transported to the Madison County Detention Center.

BRIEFSCAMPUSBRIEFSCAMPUS

Week of Nov. 13 – Nov. 19THE COLONEL’S CALENDAR

Week of April 14 - April 20

THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY11 a.m. Hot Dog, I Love EKU Libraries! Noel Reading Porch

7 p.m. EOM Open Mic Night Herndon Lounge, Powell Building

10 a.m. Tactical EMS Demonstration Leach Driving Range 7 p.m. Baseball vs. Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville Richmond

10 a.m. Color Run 5K Fitness and Wellness Center

4 p.m. Football vs. Maroon & White Game Richmond

1 p.m. Colonel’s Cupboard Volunteer Brockton 709

4 p.m. Softball vs. Miami (Ohio) University Richmond 9 p.m. A Long Night Against Procrastination Crabbe Library

1 p.m. Softball vs. Belmont University Richmond 3 p.m. Joint Recital Pearl Buchanan Theatre

THE COLONEL’S CALENDAR4 p.m. Baseball vs. East Tennessee State Richmond

6 p.m. Spotlight Screening Noel Studio Discovery Classroom

7:30 p.m. Double Reed Recital Brock Auditorium

The Little PrinceThe Little Prince, a play

based on a book of the same ti-tle, is premiering on Eastern’s campus at 8 p.m. on Wednes-day, April 20 in the Gifford Theatre.

The Little Prince, written by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, is one of few children theater pieces offered at Eastern. The show projects to younger audi-ences and is a part of the De-partment for English and The-atre’s main stage season that is open to the public.

The award winning theat-rical presentation depicts an airplane pilot who crashes in a desert. When overcome with uncertainty he finds friendship in a little prince. The perfor-mance is narrated through the use of puppetry and music.

Other showings are at 8

p.m. April 22 through April 23 and at 2 p.m., Sunday April 24. The student matinée is at 10 a.m. Friday, April 22. Tickets are $5 for students and seniors and $100 per school.

Tickets are also available for purchase at theatre.eku.edu

Remonica Garr

Earth Day Hike“Today Adventure Pro-

grams” will host a trip to hike the Pinnacles near Berea from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m., Friday, April 22, in support of Earth Day.

The hike is free to East-ern students, faculty and staff members of the Fitness and Wellness Center. Students can go to the Fitness and Wellness center on campus with their EKU ID on hand to sign up for the event, or simply sign up on-line at campus.rec@eku.edu. Deadline to register is April 21.

Participants will meet be-tween 12 p.m. -2 p.m. at the Fit-

ness and Wellness Center for departure to the Pinnacles on Friday, April 22. Participants are expected to arrive back at the Fitness and Wellness Cen-ter around 8 p.m.

“This hike should reach any-one who has a love for the out-doors, no experience is neces-sary, just a pair of good gym shoes and you’re set,” said Joel Peterson, associate director of facilities and Adventure Pro-grams said.

This hike is an event that serves anyone from the novice to the advanced athlete. Food and Water is not provided. Ap-propriate clothing, as in a tank top and shorts, for the trip is advised.

Logan Parr, director of trips for “Today Adventure Pro-gram” said everyone should take this opportunity to get outside and support Earth Day by attending this hike.

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gram was a collaborative effort between Student Success and Academic Affairs, the entire campus works together to help the Student Success Center work.

“EKU has made significant commit-ment to help students succeed,” Carter said.

Carter is credited with developing the idea of the Student Success Center. She said she was inspired to develop the pro-gram because she remembered what it was like to be a college student—and the difficulty associated with those years, as students are often sent from one office to another in search of help. Carter said she envisions the center as a “one-stop shop,” a place where students may have all their needs met. Additionally, Carter said the Student Success Center’s main goal is to help students succeed and help them in their quest to attain their goals and deal with the rigors that come along with it.

Carter said the center provides as-sistance to help first generation college students, using student and faculty tu-tors and advisors who can offer students guidance and support. The center also features a series of workshops, called the Chellgren Success Series, which help students with their study and test skills. The series is named after Paul and Debo-rah Chellgren, the Student Success Cen-ter’s donors. Carter added that the Stu-dent Success Center is almost completely funded by the Chellgrens and the mon-ey spent by the university toward the program came from her department alone. With the Chellgren’s gift, the cen-ter didn’t cost a lot to build, Carter said, adding that she’s grateful to the library for permitting them to use the space.

Even though Carter was the one who initiated the program, Lara Vance, as-sociate director of the Student Success Center, is the one who primarily over-sees the operations. Vance also works alongside Matt Schumacher, director of retention programs.

Vance said the Chellgren workshops

will usually be scheduled during the eve-ning hours, after the center has closed. The workshops, which as a bonus will of-fer free snacks, will tackle such subjects as helping students figure out which ma-jor is right for them, Vance said.

Vance said the tutors are mostly stu-dent gurus who are specifically assigned to the Student Success Center. The gurus don’t rotate between the other tutoring centers on campus, and they work with students to improve studying skills, time management skills and critical reading skills. She also said the center is work-ing on providing financial aid workshops to help students with the FAFSA and other university forms. Furthermore, Vance said they are working with various groups such as freshman academy, first year courses and the college of education to make the Student Success Center suc-cessful.

“Lots of good collaboration so we can offer students a variety of workshops,” Vance said.

Because the Student Success Cen-ter just opened and is the very first of

its kind at EKU, everything they do is a learning experience, Vance said. They are still researching how the center might evolve, examining data from oth-er campus tutoring centers and listening to instructors and students to learn how they can better serve the student body, Vance said.

At this point, the Student Success Center plans to be open during the sum-mer, making it available for summer school students and those going through orientation, Vance said. The specifics of the summer schedule are still being ironed out, Vance said.

During the spring and fall semes-ter, the Student Success Center, located in Room 106D of the Crabbe Library, is scheduled to be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about the cen-ter or the Chellgren Success Series, visit studentsuccesscenter.eku.edu or contact Lara Vance at lara.vance@eku.edu.

Page 3The Eastern Progress, Thursday, April 14, 2016

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“He would draw pictures of himself evolving from a monkey, and his brother from a stork”, Brinkley said.

Theodore Roosevelt was a man of the natural sciences, and his philosophy was that outdoor features are what make America great. He believed that Ameri-can landscapes needed to be protected. Theodore was “animal obsessed,” and “didn’t trust the pollution of urban life”,

Brinkley said.Therefore, when Theodore Roosevelt

became president, he saved two million acres of land.

Brinkley spoke of the “feather mafia,” which referred to the extermination of many birds due to the popularity of the feathered hats style for ladies. Theodore also worked very hard to set up protec-tion for the birds.

However, it is said that when Theo-dore Roosevelt died in 1919, the conser-vation movement died with him.

This is when Brinkley’s book about FDR came into play.

FDR was known as the “tree grow-

er," and he followed Theodore’s political views.

“While Theodore Roosevelt liked to disappear in forests, FDR disappeared on the oceans to deep sea fish," Brinkley said.

Brinkley said that when FDR con-tracted the polio virus, he lost quite a bit of popularity. There was hardly any ev-idence regarding the illness, and people would much rather avoid anything to do with it all together.

However, at his renowned speech “nothing to fear but fear itself" he re-ceived over an hour long standing ova-tion from the crowd. FDR won governor-

ship and proceeded to become president.As such, he established the Civilian

Conservation Corps, planting nearly 1 billion trees in America. He took the 52 bird reservations that Theodore Roos-evelt had built and added hundreds to it.

Most importantly, “he raised our con-sciousness of National Heritage," Brin-kley said.

“This was a fabulous talk”, said at-tendee Mary Johnson. “We have seen Douglas Brinkley everywhere on TV, and it was really neat to hear him speak about the presidents.”

ROOSEVELTFROM PAGE 1

BURRIERFROM PAGE 1

CENTERFROM PAGE 1

BLACKBOARDFROM PAGE 1

Some of the top complaints are that the current version does not work well on Macs and does not provide reliable access to links and downloads.

Blackboard Ultra will include a video chat function and chat groups that stu-dents can join to share information about classes, Andion said. There will also be new themes to give Blackboard a more us-er-friendly interface.

Professors will have access to analytics on student grades and graphed trends in class activity, Andion said.

“It lets the instructor, adviser and stu-dent see how they’re doing with a goal the instructor has outlined in the course,” Andion said. “You can jump in and ad-dress the student before it’s too late.”

Ultra is a continuous release model, meaning it isn’t perfect yet and will keep continuously updating, Andion said. She added that it took the current version 15 years to get to the quality it has now.

“Sometimes things don’t work right, and that’s the nature of software,” Andi-on said. “[But with Ultra] there’s really no place for you to fall down a rabbit hole.”

The new free Blackboard app for stu-dents – called Blackboard Student – al-ready has the Blackboard Ultra design and some of its features. A similar app is coming soon for professors called Black-board Instructor. The current app for pro-fessors – Blackboard Grader – only works on certain tablets, but Instructor will be available for all devices.

Canvas

Canvas, on the other hand, has grown over the last few years by taking university business away from Blackboard.

“I’d say 70 percent of our about 900 higher ed institutions now have come from Blackboard,” said Christian Bell, Canvas’s regional director of sales in the Kentucky area.

The University of Kentucky is one of these schools that left Blackboard for Canvas. Courtney Ryan, a junior nursing student at UK, participated in one of the first pilot classes at UK offering Canvas in spring 2014.

“Canvas is I’d say 20 times better than Blackboard,” Ryan said. “It’s really sleek, it looks more modern than Blackboard and it’s much much much less prone to crash-ing.”

Canvas was started by two grad stu-dents who had an assignment to find a frustrating technology in their everyday lives and make it better, Bell said. They chose their school’s online learning sys-tem, and created Canvas.

“What we hear from students is that it isn’t easy enough for their instructors to add cool content,” Bell said. “So we try to make the instructor’s life as easy as pos-sible.”

Ryan said her professors are taking ad-vantage of Canvas’s easier-to-use tools more than they ever did Blackboard’s.

“There’s a schedule feature where your professor can put things up, like if you’re going to sign up for a date to give a presen-tation,” Ryan said. “There’s a to-do list on your homepage, so it will straight up tell you if you have a worksheet due tomorrow or if you have a quiz on Monday.”

Other features include adding content to class discussion through outside apps such as YouTube or Wikipedia and leav-ing audio or video comments on assign-

ments, Bell said.Students can also add personal email

addresses or cell phone numbers to Can-vas to get notifications about due dates and grades. The site is also totally respon-sive, which means it will fit any mobile or desktop screen, and it is built for touch-screen access, Bell said.

“One real strength of Canvas is there are no ‘versions,’” Bell said. “It’s like ‘What version of Gmail or Facebook are you on?’ You’re not. It’s just not how modern web technology works. We’re not building and supporting nine different versions. We’re very focused on just one.”

Canvas makes small changes and bug fixes to this main version every three weeks without shutting down or altering user data, Bell said.

“Canvas has really a great help cen-ter package and support service,” Gard-ner said. “That service is something that is very attractive. With a huge population of students online, we like that option.”

Canvas’s free mobile app includes a customizable avatar, a way to check cur-rent grades and a calendar that lists all the tasks that need immediate attention, Bell said.

“The app is fantastic,” Ryan said. “I don’t think I ever had much luck with the Blackboard app.”

UK and Murray State, which has also made the switch to Canvas, have not run into any problems with the new system yet, Gardner said.

“We’ve been in close contact with UK,” Gardner said. “We haven’t heard any huge red flags right now.”

Cost and Review ProcessNo matter if EKU chooses to stick with

Blackboard or go to something new, it is going to be more expensive for the school,

Gardner said. Any cloud-based model will result in a higher price tag because instead of the school using its own serv-er, the learning system’s company will be devoting own its resources to keeping the site on.

However, the prospect of paying for a higher-cost product in the face of recent state budget cuts has not deterred the re-view process.

“When we started this process, we had no idea what was coming,” Gardner said of Gov. Matt Bevin’s recent proposals to cut university budgets. “We still want to do what’s right for our teachers and stu-dents. I don’t think you stop making prog-ress because of fear.”

The review process has been broken down into three stages: demo, sandbox and pilot.

The demos allow representatives from each system to come to campus and deliv-er a pitch, highlighting all the positive fea-tures of their system and showing audi-ence members how it works. Canvas and Blackboard have already given their dem-os, and another possible system, Bright-space, will give one in the coming month.

The next step, sandbox, will be an open playtime giving students and teachers a chance to fiddle around with each system over the summer. The final step, coming in the fall, is an actual class piloting each system.

“To me, the decision needs to be made by the people who are using it the most,” Gardner said. “All throughout, we’re get-ting as much feedback as possible.”

Students or faculty members who want to watch recordings of the new learning system demos or give input in the process can go to lmsreview.eku.edu.

environment. Students both work with the 3-year-olds in the center and spend time in an observation room, which is equipped with a one-way window allow-ing for inconspicuous monitoring of the children throughout the morning.

Lisa Gannoe, the program’s director, said the curriculum provides experience for a wide range of people in the campus

community.“For our student teachers, it basi-

cally takes all of the knowledge they’ve learned from all of their previous class-work and then it gives them a chance to apply that knowledge,” Gannoe said.

There are also other students who use the center to monitor the children, col-lect data and perform observations.

“They might be looking at how we in-teract with children, or how we guide children, or they’re just interested in the development of children and what chil-dren are typically doing at those ages,”

Gannoe said.The program’s curriculum is tailored

to each individual child, looking at all areas of the child’s development: social-ly, emotionally, physically, intellectually, linguistically and creatively. The children enrolled are selected from the campus community and from Richmond.

Jones said the center helps give pro-spective teachers a solid foundation on which to build.

“It’s important for our students to have that training as they go out,” Jones said. “That’s their background. And for

our student teachers, we are preparing them at the highest level of quality for them to hopefully carry that out into their schools.”

That close partnership between the development center and the families that participate in the program has generated a consistent word-of-mouth—which has kept the center in high demand year af-ter year.

“It’s always amazing to me how many people I come into contact with on cam-pus who have had a child in the program over the 40 years,” Gannoe said.

Cassy Grey, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, April 14, 2016 Page 4

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CASSY GREY/PROGRESS

I am pro-life and I am a feminist.

To put it more specif-ically, I am pro-life be-cause I am a feminist. Be-fore calling me out on what many consider to be a rather contradictory statement, allow me to ex-plain my position.

There are numerous misconceptions regarding what the pro-life move-ment stands for. Many regard it as being “pro-birth,” only concerned about the mother through pregnancy and not caring what happens to the child afterwards. The pro-life movement is concerned with the human per-son from birth to natural death.

Rejecting the idea of abortion, opposing the death penalty and stop-ping unjust acts that des-ecrate the sanctity of hu-man life guides the actions of this peaceful move-ment. No, we are not all nuns and Bible-thumpers throwing 'rosaries at your ovaries.' We are modern day abolitionists fighting the greatest civil rights is-sue of today.

The pro-choice com-munity champions the fact that they fight for women’s reproductive rights. That a woman should have the right to terminate her pregnan-cy if she wants. This goal would be commendable, were she to be the only one affected by the deci-sion.

There are two lives in-volved, that of the mother and that of her baby. Op-erating under the assump-tion that the fetus is alive (and one cannot logically assign personhood at any stage of development oth-er than at conception), it is granted certain unalien-able rights- the most im-portant being the right to life.

True feminism sup-

ports her rights- even if she’s still in the womb. This movement is about empowering women. I want to make this ex-tremely clear: no one is judging you for your past decisions. Pro-lifers are not here to shame women or make them feel bad for having had an abortion. We are here to provide care, to counsel women and help them realize that their life, and the life that they carry, are more pre-cious than anything.

If this sounds “an-ti-woman,” then feminism is not what you think it is.

What is in fact an-ti-woman is the assump-tion that women holding conservative viewpoints are suddenly unfit to fight for women’s rights. What is anti-woman is shaming students who peacefully defend life by threatening them with violent words and spreading rumors out of anger. How is this sup-porting the marketplace of ideas the First Amend-ment upholds?

Hillary Clinton, Dem-ocratic candidate and outspoken feminist gave her opinion on the mat-ter. When asked if she thought someone could be considered a feminist and against abortion, she said, “yes, I absolutely do.” Even Hillary’s convinced we’re consistent.

As president of Stu-dents for Life, I’ve been ac-cused of supporting rap-ists, advocating against the merits of domestic vi-olence shelters and some-how always end up being racist. The name-calling doesn’t bother me so much anymore, but I can-not sit by and let blatant errors overshadow the accomplishments of my group.

Having interned at our Madison County Preg-nancy Help Center this se-mester, I have seen women in need receive free coun-seling, offered free medi-cal services and provided with adequate resourc-es to help them make in-formed decisions about their situation.

That is what feminism is all about.

This past week it was a rare priv-ilege to hear the prize-winning his-torian, Doug Brinkley, at EKU. He presented an impressive, factual, scholarly, and well-researched exam-ination of the scientific and environ-mental contributions of the two Roo-sevelt Presidents with a passion only matched by a T. Harry Williams on Huey Long or a Tom Clark on Ken-tucky. Contrary to what some po-liticos have said, history is alive and well, and Brinkley proves the point in the best of styles. I congratulate and thank all those who made his visit to our campus such a success.

Dr. Hank EvermanProfessor Emeritus in History

History Professor at EKU from 1970 - 2005

As a conservative, I am disap-pointed in the leadership of the Re-publican Party: a party that is sup-posed to embody the values of conservatism. However, the estab-lishment in the Republican Party has made it abundantly clear that they are more inclined to tow the party line than they are to consis-tently embrace conservative values.

We conservative Republicans have found ourselves at a cross-roads and we must take a stand. If we choose to sit on our hands and do nothing, the establishment will continue to cave to Democrats. They will continue to sacrifice their commitment to fiscal responsibili-ty. If we do nothing, they will con-tinue to ignore our voice.

A prime example that hits close to home: Congressman Andy Barr of Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District voted in favor of the last om-nibus bill that sends our generation and our children even further into debt. Instead of showing courage and standing up to liberals in Wash-ington, he chose to stand with them.

Sen. Mitch McConnell regularly blocks conservative amendments in legislation. Republican leaders have within their power the ability to cut wasteful spending. As Sen. Rand Paul has routinely pointed out, it does not require 60 votes in the

Senate to end funding for wasteful programs. By using the power of the purse, Congress can let spending expire.

Democrats would then have to acquire 60 votes in the Senate to be-gin spending again. Wasteful pro-grams would be defunded. Howev-er McConnell and Barr have chosen to sacrifice their values, cave under pressure and then come back home to Kentucky and spin a narrative to their constituents as to why they had to vote yes to wasteful spending.

We conservative Republicans must see through this and hold our representatives accountable. Noth-ing will change if we don’t.

There is a likely possibility of a brokered Republican Convention. Don’t think for one second that the party establishment will allow Don-ald Trump or Ted Cruz to be the nominee. At least not without a fight.

We see the establishment on the Democratic side treating Ber-nie Sanders the same way. I am not a supporter of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has let me down in the past, but one thing is for certain: We have a common enemy in the Republican establishment. The en-emy of my enemy is my friend.

For now, the party may pre-tend to align behind Cruz, but this is only to keep Trump from reach-ing the threshold needed to secure the party nomination. I predict that on a second ballot at the Republican National Convention, party elites will choose the nominee. The ques-tion is, will we the people allow it to happen again, or will we take a stand and stop electing?

It’s not enough to have a Repub-lican majority. We have to have a conservative majority!

Friends, this is not a problem ex-clusively to national politics. It’s a problem facing our local politics as well. “The good ol’ boy” system is something that conservative vot-ers have to recognize as a problem. Instead of settling for representa-tives that the party establishment choose, it is our responsibility to choose those who are right for the job. Those who will go to Frankfort and stand on principle.

As conservatives we must take a stand and refuse to settle for less. I urge each of you to keep this in mind in upcoming elections.

Above all, make sure you get out there and vote! Your vote does count, especially in local elections. Consider voting for principled Re-publicans like Paul on May 17.

On May 17, go vote for candi-dates like Roger Brill in the 6th Congressional District Primary and Wesley Morgan for the 81st District State House primary.

They are men of principle who would never sacrifice their conser-vative values. They are conserva-tives who understand that there are injustices in the criminal justice system and that the drug war has failed. They have each had success-ful businesses in the private sector and created jobs. They are citizen servants rather than career politi-cians. Use your vote to empower representatives like them.

If you are somebody looking to make a difference like me, please give me a call at (606) 493-8193 or email me at dustin.isaacs1517@gmail.com to discuss how we can work together to influence change in our city, our state and our coun-try. Let it not be said that we did nothing!

Pro-life and feminism can co-exist

Conservatives are at a crossroads this election

Nearly 30 years before he would become president, a young Abraham Lincoln began his political career by running for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly.  Although he was large-ly self-taught, his passion for public education was already evi-dent. In a campaign letter to those he hoped to serve, he called it “the most important subject which we as a people can be en-gaged in.”

His words are a welcome contrast to the remarks Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton gave last week to The Eastern Progress news-paper.  “Those of us who go to work must give part of their earnings to put you through college, and I disagree with that,” she said, as if educating the next generation of citizens was a burden rather than an opportunity.

Her words also directly contradict state law, which says that “the general welfare and material well-being of citizens of the Commonwealth depend in large measure upon the de-velopment of a well-educated and highly trained workforce.”

To put that in another way, whatever savings she thinks we might see from not funding higher education would pale against the losses caused by businesses looking elsewhere for that well-educated and highly trained workforce.

Those who want to cut higher education seem unaware of what has already occurred as the lingering result of the 2008 worldwide recession.  In the last eight years, Kentucky’s pub-lic colleges and universities have seen their revenues from the state drop by about a third when adjusting for inflation.  The state covered about 70 percent of these institutions’ bud-gets when most of today’s college students were in elementary school; now, that figure is below 40 percent, resulting in steep increases in tuition.

That is the climate in which Governor Bevin seeks to cut higher education even more, and this is also the climate that Lieutenant Governor Hampton apparently thinks is still too generous for our students. While the rest of the country is looking for ways to invest even more in these economic en-gines, they are anxious to see us move in the other direction at lightning speed.

All the House is trying to do is keep postsecondary funding

at the same level for the next two years.  Nothing more.  Hold-ing the line should not be too much to ask, especially as state revenues are expected to grow by nearly $900 million during that timeframe.

Those who say these cuts are needed to shore up our ailing public retirement systems are presenting a false choice.  The House budget showed the systems can get every dollar they say they need without a dime of that coming from education.

Perhaps the biggest irony regarding the lieutenant gover-nor’s comments is that her own college education was paid in large part through the G.I. Bill and state support of the school she attended.  She and her generation benefited from this collective approach, not in spite of it, and to imply that today’s college students somehow deserve less is wrong and short-sighted.

The upcoming two-year budget has the potential to be the most important in a generation.  It will either be the start of a decline that will make tomorrow’s workers less qualified for the jobs of tomorrow, or it will be the start of a renewed focus on higher education, as the House proposes through its “Work Ready” scholarship program to help many college students ac-quire a two-year degree tuition-free.

Lt. Governor Hampton downplays college majors like his-tory, but if she would just study what Kentucky has done over the past two decades, she would see that our economic suc-cesses have largely tracked our willingness to put more focus on education and workforce training.   We wouldn’t have led the nation the last two years in the per capita number of major job announcements without this trend.

That’s the story I wish she had told EKU’s college students and their newspaper.  That’s also the story I wish she and the governor would embrace going forward.  They need to learn that when it comes to our students’ education, less really is not more.

 Rita Smart

State RepresentativeHouse District 81 (Madison County)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Less is not more when it comes to funding higher education in Kentucky Brinkley's talk on EKU's campus shows value of studying history

SAVANNAH MERLIN

DUSTIN ISSACS

Taylor Weiter, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, April 14, 2016 Page 5

Greek Sing 2016

Colorful backdrops, vibrant costumes and thun-dering applause were all part of Eastern’s annual Greek Sing contest Friday, April 8 in which Chi Ome-ga and Sigma Alpha Epsilon took first place with their eery performance based off of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Fraternities and sororities from the Interfraternal Council, Panhellenic Council and National Pan-Hel-lenic Council were partnered to create an original performance with elaborate costumes and various songs related to their theme “Coming to a Theatre near You”. An audience of 1,500 parents, students and children cheered on their favorite pairing as they dabbed and nae-nae’d the night away.

“Greek Sing is a tradition here at Eastern,” said Katherine Blackard, 21, a family consumer science ju-nior and Greek Week co-chair.

The show started off with Kappa Alpha Theta, Kap-pa Sigma and Phi Delta Theta with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s theme song. Colorful ‘90s costume and makeup were modeled identically from the show and dancers dressed as Will and Carlton stole the scene.

Second place groups Alpha Omicron Pi, Sigma Pi and Zeta Phi Beta were then partnered up to create a performance based off of the hit TV show Survivor. The group took the stage with a wild jungle theme

and danced to Taylor Swift’s hit single Out of the Woods and Pitbull’s Wild Wild Love.

Kappa Delta, Beta Theta Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon were partnered up together for their theme of Star Wars. Light sabers, Princess Leia buns and Darth Vader dances stole the show with a collection of scenes representing the famous films.

Afterwards, Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Nu chose flower power as their performance with a That ‘70s Show theme. They chose popular ‘70s hits like I Will Survive, Bennie and the Jets and

Stayin’ Alive to uphold the hippie vibe. They wore bright tie die costumes to express the groovy 1970s culture.

After a brief intermission, Phi Beta Pi, Sigma Chi and Kappa Alpha Order joined together and per-formed in homage to the ABC hit Once Upon A Time. The group showed the back and forth of power be-tween villains and heroes in the show by showing Snow White, a fraternity man, fighting with the evil witch over the crown.

Delta Zeta and Alpha Tau Omega earned third place with a hilarious performance to NBC’s Satur-day Night Live. The performance was filled with ref-erences to popular SNL sketches such as Chris Far-ley’s motivational speaker and Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri’s Spartan Cheerleaders.

Greek Sing champs Chi Omega and Sigma Al-pha Epsilon looked like hip-hop zombies with tat-tered clothing and bloody makeup as they performed to hits like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Rihanna’s Disturbia the team allowed audience members to see what a zombie party would look like on The Walking Dead.

Closing the show was Alpha Gamma Delta, Lamb-da Chi Alpha and Theta Chi as they performed their interpretation to ABC’s popular reality show The Bachelor. Romance, roses and love were presented onstage as songs such as Marry Me by Jason Deru-lo and Pony by Ginuwine played in the background.

Audience members left the show rooting for their favorite performances and awaiting the announce-ment of the winning performances during the Greek Awards later that weekend in Brock Auditorium. Chi Omega and Sigma Alpha Epsilon screamed as their names were announced and their representative walked the stage to collect their trophies.

“I was so unbelievably proud,” said Mae Knox, 19, a freshman history major from Florence. “All of us had put countless hours into our performance and it was so rewarding to have it turn out so well.”

By ROSE PIDGORODETSKAprogress@eku.edu

PHOTOS SUBMITTED

Evan Nichols, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, April 14, 2016 Page 6

The lacrosse team is one of Eastern’s many club sports teams. It schedules its own games, hires its own referees and raise its own money through dues that players pay.

The lacrosse team plays many regional club teams including the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and Xavier University. The season runs from mid-February to end of May, assuming the team makes it through the tournament. If it wins the tournament, the team can get a bid to nationals.

Justin Wolfer is the vice president of the club and is partially responsible in making sure everything runs according to plan, along with President Chris Murner.

Sometimes the team will play non-club teams from surrounding universities. Those games do not count to-wards its record though.

“We do play Transy, we have played Asbury and a couple other Division III schools,” Wolfer said. “It just depends who wants to get a scrimmage in with us. We do try and play teams from the NCLL (National Col-

lege Lacrosse League) just because they count towards our record.”

The team receives no outside funding, paying for ev-erything within the team. On road trips, the players squeeze into cars and drive themselves.

“We tried to do that and we would like to get spon-sorship from local businesses, but we haven’t set any-thing up yet,” Wolfer said. “For road games, we just meet at the rec and pile into cars and everyone just chips in for gas.”

The lacrosse team is much like a fraternity. It pays its dues and operates like a brotherhood. Paying out of their own pockets in order to play something that each player loves can be difficult for people to do. It just shows how sports can bring people together and have a great time doing it.

This Sunday, April 17, the team is hosting a round robin tournament, where three teams come and play one another. Western Kentucky University and Mar-shall University will be joining EKU at the intramural fields at 11 a.m.

EKU will play Western at 11 a.m. and Marshall at 4 p.m. Go support the team as it makes its way through conference play.

Eastern lacrosse to host tourney

2016 Maroon and White Game Watch List

By ROBERT RISTANEO progress@eku.edu

After a loss in which the baseball Colonels allowed 20 runs to the University of Tennessee at Martin, East-ern was able to bounce back and win its final two games of the three game series against its conference foe.

The three-day weekend series began with a game at 5 p.m., Friday, April 8, followed by one game on Satur-day, April 9 and another on Sunday, April 10 in Martin, Tenn.

With wins on Saturday and Sunday, the Colonels sit two games below .500 in both its overall and conference records. Eastern (15-17, 5-7 OVC) ranks seventh in the conference standings.

U.T. Martin (8-24, 3-12) currently ranks ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) standings, and the Sky-hawks’ win over Eastern on Friday ended U.T. Martin's 12-game losing streak.

U.T. Martin 20Eastern 6

In the first game of the series, the Skyhawks had an offensive outburst in the bottom of the fourth and fifth inning to put the game out of reach. U.T. Martin scored six runs in the fourth and nine runs in the fifth. All six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning were scored off of three home runs.

The Skyhawks had a total of 21 hits to the Colonels 10 during the game.

Outfielder Nick Gavello was huge for U.T. Martin, going 3 for 4 with a home run and six RBI's. Designated hitter Austin Taylor had two hits and five RBI's in four at-bats.

Freshman outfielder Dakota Graham went 2 for 3 at the plate with two RBI's for Eastern, while senior out-fielder Kyle Nowlin registered two hits and a run in four at-bats.

Pitcher Alex Evans (1-5) for U.T. Martin was credit-ed with the win after four innings of relief. Junior right-hander Eric Nerl (3-2) received the loss after giving up eight hits and six runs in just over three innings pitched.

Eastern 5U.T. Martin 4

Eastern third baseman Mandy Alvarez singled to right field in the top of the eighth inning to give the Col-onels a timely two-run cushion over the Skyhawks.

Ben Fisher led the Colonels at the plate on Saturday,

going 3 for 4 with one run and one RBI. Nowlin had two hits in four at-bats with one run and one RBI as well.

Catcher Daniel Kerwin led U.T. Martin at the plate with two hits and two runs in three at-bats.

Left-hander Alex Hamilton (3-3) received start and the win for Eastern after pitching 5.2 innings and al-lowing three earned runs on five hits. Junior Brian Mroz earned his fourth save of the season for the Colonels af-ter allowing just one earned run to close the game out.

Eastern 16U.T. Martin 1

After suffering a blowout loss to U.T. Martin on Fri-day, the Colonels were able to get revenge with a de-manding victory to win the weekend series.

Eastern scored 16 runs on 13 hits and only allowed five total hits to the Skyhawks.

Nowlin hit a grand-slam in the top of the sixth in-

ning to give Eastern a 7-1 lead. Nowlin finished the game 1 for 4 with four RBI's. The home run was Nowl-in's thirteenth of the season.

Colonel second baseman Alex Holderbach went 1 for 3 at the plate with two runs and three RBI's. Holderbach hit a homer in the top of the seventh inning.

Kerwin had three hits in his four at-bats for the Sky-hawks.

Sophomore Hunter Dunn (2-3) earned the win for Eastern, pitching five innings and allowing just one earned run. Dunn had seven strikeouts.

Patrick Bernard (3-2) was credited with the loss for U.T. Martin after allowing three earned runs and five hits during four innings on the mound.

The Colonels will be back in action at 7 p.m., Friday, April 15, when Eastern hosts Southern Illinois Univer-sity Edwardsville (5-23, 3-12 OVC) for a three-game weekend series at Turkey Hughes Field.

Since transferring from the Uni-versity of Cincinnati, Bennie Coney has become a key offensive player for Eastern with outstanding perfor-mances against FBS school Universi-ty of Kentucky and FCS rival Murray State. In 2015, Coney was named to the watch list for FCS National Per-former of the Year Trophy. Look for Coney to mature in his senior year and win the starting quarterback po-sition for the third consecutive year.

After injuries plagued the depth chart last year, running back Ethan Thomas averaged 55.3 yards per game and earned a spot on the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference All-New-comer Team. The 5-foot-11, 210 pound sophomore will be aggres-sive in his pursuit for a starting po-sition. Watch for Thomas’ ability to physically overtake a defender’s weak tackle and gain more yardage on each run.

A frequent target for quarterback Bennie Conley, Borders leads wide receivers in receptions and is sec-ond on the team in yards. A 6-foot-6, 220 pound receiver from Florida, Borders also holds OVC records for seven career blocked field goals and twelve career blocked kicks. Bor-ders is a monster on the field and a guaranteed play-maker for the 2016 spring game.

Eastern is often known for pro-ducing great place-kickers, and red-shirt-junior Lucas Williams has proved to be one of the best. A Rus-sell County native, Williams is eigh-teenth in the nation in field goal per-centage and was named First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference in his 2015 season. With record-holding blocker Borders on special teams, it will be interesting to see Williams play on April 16.

Bennie ConeyR-Senior, Quarterback

Ethan ThomasSophomore, Running Back

Devin BordersR-Senior, Wide Receiver

Lucas WilliamsR-Junior, Kicker

COURTESY OF EKUSPORTS COMMUNICATIONS

Eastern wins second straight conference series

COURTESY OF EKUSPORTS COMMUNICATIONS

Eastern sophomore pitcher Hunter Dunn throwing from the mound during EKU’s 16-1 win on the road over U.T. Martin Sunday, April 10.

By EVAN NICHOLSevan_nichols11@mymail.eku.edu

By TAYLOR WEITERtaylor_weiter@mymail.eku.edu