beyond
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Beyond magazine for 2011 Fall.TRANSCRIPT
Fall 2011
Photograph by Colten BradfordUIS
Stu
dent
Mag
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Inside:From hobby to profession Beauty bloggers gain fame, start careersBy Yu Sun
A fan’s pilgrimage to the promise land of sports Recount of World Series game 7 from Busch StadiumBy Ryan Voyles
Stattering the glass ceiling Women at UIS break through gender barrierBy Kati Maseman
Fall 2011 Beyond*2
Beyond StaffEditor-in-Chief: Kate Richardson
Assistant Editor for News: Colten [email protected]
News Reporter: CheVaughn Starling
News Reporter: Alissa [email protected]
General Reporter:David Thomas
Assistant Editor for Features: Kati Maseman
Features Reporter: Ryan Voyles
Assistant Editor for Sports:
Carson [email protected]
Sports Reporter: Nick Dow
Columnist: Andrew [email protected]
Photographer: Mayur Thulasi-Das
Layout & Design Editor: Yu Sun
Business Manager: Fahad Khan
Web Editor:Tushar [email protected]
Assistant Web Editor:Varun Menon
Adviser: Debra [email protected]
What’s InsideGraduate assistants subject to tuition and fee waiver tax by David Thomas, p. 3
Rundown of presidential election 2012by CheVaughn Starling, p. 4
Out of focus; A perspective on student ADHD by Andrew Majors, p. 5
A fan’s pilgrimage to the promise land of sports by Ryan Voyles, p. 6-7
Shattering the glass ceiling; women at UIS break through gender barrierby Kati Maseman, p. 8-9
Making UIS a place for dialogue; Safe Zone moves to LGBTQA Resource Officeby Alissa Groeninger, p. 11
Communicating through music, a professor’s story of sailing in the South Pacific by Colten Bradford, p. 12
From hobby to profession; Beauty bloggers gain fame, start careers by Yu Sun, p. 13
UIS club sport continues competing at the national levelby Carson Buss, p. 14
Editor’s NoteBeyond is a Journal reporter’s chance to write about what-ever is on his or her mind. Our stories range from IRS tax laws affecting our graduate assistants, to a reporter’s recount of World Series game 7 from Busch stadium, to stories of strong women breaking barriers in their careers. I hope you enjoy our fall edition of Beyond. Thanks for reading. -Kate Richardson Journal Editor
Photo by Mayur Thulasi-Das
Fall 2011 Beyond* 3
For the past two se-mesters, Katelyn An-
dres received about $1,000 in the form of a monthly stipend for her work as a graduate assistant in the global studies department.
It is just one step on her road to become a history teacher.
“I hope to continue school and I’ve always wanted to teach,” Andres said. “I don’t want to teach high school. I’ll put in ap-plications at community colleges to teach…I’ll go for a Ph.D. eventually.”
However, before Andres can achieve her dream, she has to deal with the fact that the tuition and fee waiver she receives from UIS, as of recently, will now be taxed. As a result, her stipend has started to drop in value.
In September, Andres said she received her nor-mal amount of money. But in October, she saw that it drop to below $650.
“The worst part about the cut is not only that its $300, but you get paid once a month,” said the Eastern Il-linois University graduate. “As soon as you get paid, 75 percent of that is gone to bills and insurance.”
Andres added that the $300 she lost would have gone to her savings.
“It’s not affecting what I can afford and can’t af-ford,” Andres said. “I don’t have that money to save.”
Andres is not alone in her
predicament. Tom Hardy, executive director of public relations for the University of Illinois, said there are 400 graduate assistants in the university system, 30 of them at UIS.
But it is not a new uni-versity policy. It is actu-ally based on a rule from the Internal Revenue Ser-vice (IRS). When gradu-ate assistants receive tuition and service fee waivers, the first $5,250 for that calendar year is not touched. When that amount is exceed-ed, however, the excess amount is considered to be income by the IRS and taxed accordingly.
Professional graduate assistants are affected as well. According to an FAQ release distributed by University Payroll, the taxes on the waiver could withhold anywhere from 30 to 35 percent of the waiver’s value— 25 percent for federal tax, and additional taxes for State, Social Security Medicare.
University Payroll also acknowledged in their FAQ release that a student’s tax liability could reduce their stipends to zero.
It should be noted that teaching assistants and re-search assistants are ex-empt from this rule.
“It is based on Internal Revenue Service policy. The university is careful to work with departmen-tal units so that graduate students have the correct classification,” Hardy said.
“Teaching assistants and research assistants are en-gaged in core activities of the university.”
Hardy added that while graduate assistants are also important to the operations of a university, they do not perform teaching and re-search activities.
That’s not much of a con-solation to Andres though.
“I don’t fully understand why. I know it’s the law, but it seems weird to single out graduate assistants,” Andres said. “We do do a lot of the same things as teaching assistants.”
Andres said before sit-ting down for an interview with The Journal, she was proctoring a test, which is a normal duty for a teach-ing assistant. Andres is also listed as the teaching as-sistant for the Model U.N. chapter at UIS.
Other than informing graduate assistants of the IRS policy, there does not seem to be much that the university can do to help Andres and others like her.
“The university has done
what it can to make sure students are classified ac-curately,” Hardy said.
Still, the hole in their earnings has forced gradu-ate assistants like Patricia Bonsu to rethink how often they go out with friends.
Working out of UIS’s Di-versity Center as a graduate assistant and a coordina-tor for the Bonner Leaders Program, Bonsu said she wished she knew that the classes she took over the summer—in which the tu-ition was waived—would affect the tax withholdings on her stipend.
“I’m not even getting half of it,” Bonsu said of her stipend.
Had she known that, Bonsu said she would have gotten a second job, although she questioned when she would have time for it.
“We work 20 hours a week and we have class,” Bonsu said. “How can this second job fit into my schedule?”
Bonsu said graduate as-sistants are often advised to not take a second job. That didn’t stop Andres from getting an additional job at Springfield’s Lake Pointe Grill.
Andres and Bonsu have been graduate assistants for a number of years, and have been dealing with this situation for a few months now. This is in stark con-trast to Michael Stephens, who is starting his first se-mester as a graduate assis-tant for the LGBTQA Re-
source Office this fall.Stephens hasn’t reached
the $5,250 threshold this calendar year, and thus hasn’t seen his stipend drop yet. Like Andres and Bonsu, Stephens also at-tended an orientation ses-sion for graduate assistants in which they explained the waiver situation.
Stephens admitted that he still is unsure what is going on.
“I think it went over a lot of our heads,” Stephens said, echoing similar state-ments made by Andres and Bonsu. Stephens added that he would like to see the university address the situ-ation in “layman’s terms” on what is happening, and how it will affect students.
Still, Stephens is not en-tirely concerned about his financial lifestyle in light of the tax withholdings.
“I’ve compensated else-where,” Stephens said.
Stephens works as a line therapist for Skill Sporut, in Springfield. Stephens said he teaches social skills to kids with autism. He also works at American Eagle Outfitters in White Oaks Mall.
Unless there is a change in federal law, the situation Stephens, Andres and Bon-su are facing will continue until they graduate from UIS, or leave their gradu-ate assistantships.
Andres said her situation
Graduate assistants subject to tuition and fee waiver taxBy David Thomas
“I don’t fully under-stand why. I know it’s the law, but it seems weird to single out
graduate assistants. We do do a lot of the same things as teach-
ing assistants.”-Katelyn Andres
Tax continued on page 4
Fall 2011 Beyond*4
By CheVaughn Starling
is bearable, although the tax withholdings on her stipend are causing her to face unneeded pressure.
“Already our pay is below what it should be. I work 80 hours a month. I’m a full-time student,” Andres said. “It would take a lot more pressure off if we made more, but that’s not going to happen.”
UIS students who have questions about the taxability of their waiver can call the Springfield Payroll Service Center at 217-206-7200 or e-mail [email protected]. Students with questions about their classification can contact the Springfield Graduate Assistant Office at 217-206-2544.
Information about the waiver can be found online at http://www.obfs.uillinois.edu/payroll/tax-information/tuition-fee-waivers
Tax continued from page 3
Rundown of presidential election 2012
The presidential elections are fast approaching and America will once again look at the debates, campaigns and media coverage.
Before we look at the 2012 elections, though, we must focus on the 2011 primary for the Republican Party. It does not matter if a person is a Democrat or a Republican, this primary is important for several reasons.
First and foremost, the can-didate that wins the repub-lican primary will be going against the current President of the United States, Demo-crat Barack Obama. The American people will get to know the candidates through media coverage and their platform. Depending on the effectiveness of the cam-paign, that candidate could be the next president of the United States.
The candidates of the Re-publican primary are Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Hunts-man, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Rom-ney, and Rick Santorum.
Mitt Romney, first in the poles, wants to focus on re-storing the nations fiscal poli-cies. He believes that Obama has put the nation through tur-moil with his spending and he wants to address the problem. Romney wants to strengthen national security and reverse the health care plan.
Michele Bachmann, second in the polls, believes in the principle of limited govern-ment. She supports reducing the economy’s debt problem, restoring jobs to America, and strengthening families.
Newt Gingrich, third in the poles, wants to focus on find-ing Americans employment. He wants to address issues with the economy and the debt situation. He also feels
that America is using too many resources and usage needs to be reduced.
Rick Perry, fourth in the poles, believes in finding jobs for Americans and cutting taxes for all businesses. He wants to cut the national debt, repeal the healthcare plan and increase national security.
Herman Cain, fifth in the polls, supports the people and believes that what the public wants should be top priority. He wants to address the issue of illegal immigration and the debt problem. He aims to re-organize education in Amer-ica so that the federal gov-ernment won’t be involved as much. Also, he wants to replace Obama’s healthcare with patient-centered, free market reforms.
Ron Paul, sixth in the polls, says his goals are to cut spending by $1 trillion, eliminate five presidential cabinets (including Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior,
and Education), lower corpo-rate taxes by 15 percent and cut the federal work force by 10 percent.
Rick Santorum is seventh in poles. He believes in keep-ing family together. He wants to defend the taxpayer by cut-ting taxes, and protect the na-tion domestically.
Jon Huntsman, eighth, has two priorities, foreign poli-cies and the economy. Hunts-man wants to rebuild our re-lationships in other countries, improve America’s trading system, create modern de-fense and military, as well as address domestic issues.
Additionally, he wants to reduce taxes and rollback Obama’s health care plan. His proposed solutions for the economy are approved by the Wall Street Journal. It states, “He has the most pro-growth proposal ever offered by a US presidential candidate.”
Although Huntsman is only eighth in the poles, he is most
predicted to beat the president in 2012 because of his appeal to many demographics.
There are others that feel that it does not matter who wins the Republican Primary. UIS Student Government Association Transfer Sena-tor and UIS College Republi-cans Treasure, Zach Sullivan believes Obama will still win the presidential election in 2012.
“I think that no matter who the Republicans nominate to be their Presidential candi-date, Obama will win. Presi-dent Obama is a rock star and none of the GOP candidates have his electric personality. Obama can win on that alone, not to mention his shining foreign policy record,” Sul-livan said.
According to Fox News,
Election continued on
page 11
Fall 2011 Beyond* 5
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It’s pretty common for col-lege students to, at times,
feel overwhelmed with the rig-ors that accompany attending a school of higher education. Dividing one’s time between work and play is a challenge all college students face.
The increased individual responsibilities that go with keeping up in the classroom, along with the social pressures of being involved on campus can leave some college stu-dents feeling like there sim-ply aren’t enough hours in the day.
Now imagine you suffer from a disorder that leaves you unable to focus and manage your time properly, makes you more susceptible to distraction and procrastination, and forces you to struggle with impulse control and overall organiza-tion in your life.
That’s the life of a student who suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disor-der (ADHD) in a very vague nutshell.
I can remember, tracking all the way back to my years in middle school, my classmates often referring to ADHD in a joking manner. Any time someone got scolded for be-ing off task or for disrupting the class, the canned excuse was always “I have ADD,” from people who clearly did not suffer from the disorder.
What I didn’t expect was to come to graduate school and to hear those same types of excuses.
I was sitting in class prior to it officially getting underway. I was quietly looking over the
syllabus to refresh my memo-ry of what was on the agenda for the evening, and I heard a classmate of mine telling an-other one a story.
Not intending to eavesdrop, I continued with my personal business, but was able to hear the entirety of the story any-way. The basis for the story was that this particular student had not done something he or she had intended to do, for rea-sons that were unclear to me.
Their justification for this misappropriation of their time?
“I have ADD. I’m self-diag-nosed.”
Not more than 20 feet away, sitting on the other side of the classroom, I sat…as some-one with officially diagnosed Adult ADHD.
Now, being non-confron-tational, I didn’t stand up in front of everyone else in my class and point out the insensi-tivity of the punch line we had just fleetingly overheard. But I was somewhat bothered by the statement nonetheless.
At some point, it was decid-ed by some people that joking about having ADD or ADHD was socially permissible and funny, a great built in excuse for when you don’t quite get something done the way you expect.
Only, for students with ADD/ADHD, it’s not really a laughing matter. I remember being a teenager and realiz-ing that using a disease for a punch line was never really funny. Yet here I sat in a grad-uate level class where a peer of mine felt it perfectly fine to use this particular disorder as a joke at the end of a story.
I quietly wondered if it
would be okay for me to tell a story about not completing some task or assignment, and to arbitrarily insert any ran-dom disorder or disease as an excuse.
Do either of these fictional-ized remarks sound okay?
“No, I wasn’t able to get all of the reading done for tonight. I have breast cancer.”
“Well, I was going to try and send you that but I got distract-ed because I have autism.”
The sensitivity with which we handle those two terms is much higher than the sensi-tivity we usually reserve for ADD/ADHD, and I think the plane should be evened, though the difference in sever-ity of a disease or disorder is quite stark in each individual case.
About 2 to 4 percent of col-lege students in 2009 exhibited serious symptoms of ADHD, including difficulties control-ling impulse, restlessness, and
their overall attention. The dif-ficulties posed by this disorder are magnified at the college level because students are ex-pected to become more inde-pendent, in every way, as they pursue a degree.
I was able to make it 25 years before my symptoms were detected and diagnosed. Like most kids who exhibit tendencies associated with ADD/ADHD, it was assumed that it was something I would eventually “grow out of.”
Because I was accepted by everyone as a good stu-dent, was involved in plenty of extracurricular activities throughout my schooling, and was never deemed a trouble-maker, my symptoms seemed less pronounced than that of the expected case of a child with ADD/ADHD.
I was always able to get by in my pursuits which led to my personal condition not be-ing recognized, a term of the
condition my family doctor said is not all that unusual. He suggested that because no-body was really looking for the symptoms, and because they never had any real reason to, I went undiagnosed until I was 25.
Dealing with Adult ADHD is no picnic. I often find my-self nearly frozen by my in-ability to focus, and at times it is very frustrating. Trying time after time to sit down and ac-complish something without ending up with a fruitful result is hard.
I catch myself in the middle of zoning out, and I look at the clock and maybe 30 minutes, or an hour as elapsed and the cursor is still blinking on my screen with no text written, or I’m still on the same page
Out of focus
ADD continued on page 11
A perspective on student ADHDBy Andrew Majors
Fall 2011 Beyond*6
By Ryan Voyles
Few fans are offered the opportunity to
witness their team accom-plish an historical event. These fans need to ask themselves, “Is it an op-portunity worth taking?”
That was the question posed to me by the cosmos as I sat in my Friday after-noon class. While I listened
intently to the guest speak-er, the thought kept roaring inside my head, “Are you really going to miss out on a potentially historic event for your Cardinals?”
A little less than 24 hours earlier, the St. Louis Cardi-nals had done the improb-able. Down three games to two in the World Series to the Texas Rangers, the Cardinals were down to their final strike not once – but twice – in game six on Oct. 27 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Instead of go-ing down with a whimper, the Cardinals roared back and took the game with a walk-off home run in extra innings from the newly ce-mented hometown legend, David Freese.
It was set; both teams
would play one more time to decide who would walk away with the champion-ship. And there I was, hav-ing promised my bosses I would cover an event in Springfield later that night, and my girlfriend a visit in Carbondale on Saturday.
It really shouldn’t be a question, but on Friday an internal debate raged in my head whether I should witness my team complete one of the most historic late-season comebacks in baseball history, or live up to the promises I made. But as I sat in my class at 4 p.m., less than three hours before first pitch, it finally dawned on me: “Would you really be able to live with yourself if you passed up the chance to witness
your favorite team make history?”
It was decided, next stop: St. Louis.
After blazing down the interstate to make it, I pulled into the parking lot of a nearby casino and set off to find a scalper. Not surprisingly, a lot of peo-ple were interested in wit-nessing history. Scalpers laughed in the face of any-one who asked for tickets, as they proclaimed they had been sold out for hours. Deflated at first, I realized regardless of whether I was inside the stadium or not, I was where? I needed to be – among my people. A sea of red flooded the streets around the ballpark, as thousands of Cardinal cra-zies did their best to find
a place to view the game; or at the very least, soak in the excitement oozing out from the stadium.
It was an eccentric group of people outside the ball-park, from those forming impromptu tailgates with dozens surrounding a tiny television with the game, to costumed Mr. Ts and rally squirrels, the adopted symbol of the Cardinals comeback, posing for pho-tos with fans.
But they were all there for one reason, to celebrate their team’s 11th World Se-ries victory. After the Car-dinals took the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the third, it
A fan’s pilgrimage to the promise land of sports
Fan continued on page 7
Fall 2011 Beyond* 7
seemed a matter of when – not if – the people would “go crazy” in celebration. By the ninth inning, the Cardinals had a comfort-able 6-2 lead and were a mere three outs away from hoisting the World Series trophy above their heads. By this time it was nearly impossible to move around the ballpark as the red sea had turned into an ocean. Thousands bun-kered near the ballpark as if to say they were there when the Cardinals sealed the deal.
As I stood near one of the exit gates, where a small monitor inside the ballpark allowed me to watch the game, I no-ticed stadium staff start to mingle with the exits. It was as though the cos-mos were blessing me for my patronage, as the gates swung open and I rushed
in along with hundreds to witness first-hand sweet
victory.It almost seems like a fantastic dream now: hundreds
of fans clustered in the section entrance, with barely enough room to lift one’s arms, hoping to be a part of his-tory. Then it happened, a fly ball deep into left field, as a silent hush seemed to cover the stadium. The left fielder Allen Craig made his way back, caught the harmless fly ball, and the stadium erupted. Confetti flew through the night sky, as utter jubilation filled the stadium. Strangers high-fived and hugged one another, and everybody knew they had witnessed the end of a very special game.
To think I even thought about missing out on history.
Fan continued from page 6
Cardinals fans go wild at Busch Stadium as the team takes game 7 of the World Series.
Photos by Ryan Voyles
Fall 2011 Beyond*8
Shattering the glass ceiling
The United States if often thought of as a progressive place where people of differ-
ent backgrounds can achieve the same status in life. Many believe that as a country, America is moving beyond gender stereotypes and that we are reaching equality.
This is untrue however. While the country has taken great strides towards equality for women, it still falls short. Michael Murphy, UIS Women and Gender Studies professor, teaches about the glass ceiling, or invisible barrier, on women’s professions that keeps them from reaching the top of their field.
This is most common in corporations, but can be seen in education as well. Women work for only $.71 to every dollar that a man makes at the same job. Women also have to face barriers when it comes to children and family life.
Women find themselves not being offered the same opportunities and missing out on job expe-rience to be home with children.
Some facts to start with:Women make up half of the United States La-
bor ForceWomen run only 12 of the Fortune 500 Com-
panies.Of the Fortune 1000, the number only goes up
to 25: 25/ 1000.In the NCAA women hold only 201 of the AD
positions: 201/ 1051.Females coach 42.6 percent of women’s
teams.In 1972, more than 90 percent of women’s
teams had a female coach.
As you can see, women and men are clearly unequal in all of these categories; however there is hope. Three women at UIS have shown that despite odds stacked against them, success is within reach. These women are Dr. Jennifer
Manthei and Dr. Lynn Fisher of the Anthropol-ogy department and Kim Pate, the UIS Athletic Director.
You may think you know them, but do you have any idea what decisions they had to make to get where they are now?
Dr. Jennifer MantheiWhen she started at graduate school, Manthei
found herself at an institution that was a little behind the times when it came to support of women. She saw professors stop paying as much attention to women who became pregnant during their courses.
The anthropology doctorate is a very long pro-gram and often coincides with the years women tend to start families. She stated that women have to make a choice to not have children, have children and not finish your degree, or to figure how to balance both.
Manthei saw that many women in academics generally don’t have children. “It is a choice they make, and it is more common to see men with families than women,” she explained.
She was one of the women who chose to start a family while earning her doctorate degree. She admits that her decision did make her life more difficult. Some professors worked with her and let her take longer on her comprehensive ex-ams.
She was put in some interesting situations, where she was presenting material with “a child on a hip and the other in a nearby wagon. The main thing is to have a sense of humor and per-sist,” she said.
As difficult as that sounds, that was not what Manthei felt was the hardest part of getting through the anthropology doctoral program. Fieldwork is difficult for women with children. Some choose domestic fieldwork, which is a newer option, but is helpful to many women with families.
She made a unique decision to take her two small children with her when she did fieldwork in Brazil. She was there working for eight months, and her kids turned 2 and 4 while on this trip.
Manthei’s other great challenge was her disser-tation, which she admitted was very difficult to finish with children. She came up with this solu-tion: “Treat school like work if you are going to make it through.”
“I made it through partly because of the chip on my shoulder,” she admitted. When she came to UIS she found a very different environment than the one she had experienced in grad school.
As a professor, she tries to be aware of students with families. They are held to the same stan-dard, but she gives a few exceptions, as she was granted.
Dr. Lynn Fisher Fisher had a very different graduate study ex-
perience, even though she went through the same program. The institution at which she was study-ing was much more supportive. She received a lot of encouragement from a female faculty men-tor, who had a big impact on her life.
She knew she wanted to go to graduate school and her mentor pushed her, showed her the steps to take, and put her in touch with alumni who had gone through her program.
Her most difficult part of her degree was find-ing a research area. Fisher volunteered for all of the fieldwork she could. “This was something that got me connections to people I still call on today,” she said.
For example, a Swiss project put her in touch with women who had done well in the field. She had no idea how much you gain by having sup-port from others, mentors, and people who help you get where you are going.
She did notice that as she went through her doctoral program that professors saw marriage more as a plus for men and a negative for wom-en. This showed her some of the stereotypes as far as careers and how they relate to life.
“This can change if questions are raised, if we discuss it,” she said. On the other side, she did see faculty trying to be supportive regardless of students’ gender and marital status.
Fisher knew when she was in grad school that she would like to be rotating between applied study and teaching. She did not, however, know how difficult it would be to balance those two activities.
After some reflection on her time in graduate school, she stated that her networks have never been all women, but the best help and opportu-nities have come from women. Fisher feels that women really benefit from female role models.
She spoke about cultural perspectives having a lot to do with stereotypes we see in America.
Women at UIS break through gender barrier
By Kati Maseman
Fall 2011 Beyond* 9
Illustrations by Yu Sun
We have cultural assumptions about authority and power in the U.S. belonging to males, and women are trying to overcome these ideas.
Archeology used to be seen as a “loner” study and was very male dominated, but now it is much more of a professional team effort, and many more women are joining the field.
Fisher’s fieldwork in Germany was a team comprised mostly of women, who are in charge. There are males on the team, but many of the graduate students, both American and German, are female. She did state that it is usually rare to see female directors on projects.
“It’s changing, but it is still something that I see,” she said of the issue.
She also worked in the field with a couple who brought their child along on surveys (walking over the land to look for items) in a backpack. In her experiences alone, she has seen many stereo-types broken and women are doing things that may have previously been unheard of.
Kim PateAt her start, Pate was a business major and
softball player. These days she is the Athletic Di-rector of UIS.
Pate said that she didn’t follow the traditional path to becoming an athletic director. She was promoted internally at Brevard College, and didn’t face some of the obstacles that she may have otherwise seen.
“I had some great op- por-tunities come my way and I took advan-tage of them,” she stated.
Pate knew that employers were very conscious of people with small children. “It is a social thing that work-ing women have to worry about,” Pate said of deci-sions about children.
She had to weigh her op-tions: have kids and figure work in, work and figure kids in, or do
both at the same time with out compromising the quality of either.
She spoke with other female administrators who told her that doing both was manageable. There is a social stereotype that women still face from a family standpoint.
“People are starting to understand that there are different family dynamics, but there is still progress to be made,” Pate said.
She can still read a change in people’s body language when she tells them that her daughter is at home with dad. “She is in capable hands and I have figured out how to balance, but it is still there,” said Pate of the variation.
Her experience as a sitting AD at Brevard, made her resume more competitive when apply-ing to UIS. Pate didn’t face any real challenges while seeking out the position.
As far as her career goes, Pate never saw gen-der as an issue. A generation of women had gone before her in careers like her and she never felt that gender was a limiter.
Her administrating technique is built on the same philosophy. “The way you manage and lead is indiscriminate of gender,” she stated.
She goes about work as she did during her edu-cation, without making gender a factor. This idea helped make her successful. Pate also pushed forward by “not acknowledging the glass ceil-ing, because I planned to move past it anyway.”
Another factor
women must take into consideration when pursu-ing careers in athletics is the position they desire to hold. Women can actually be paid better or equally for lower ranking positions in Division I than for higher positions at lower levels.
Pate made her choice based on the focus on stu-dent athletes at the lower levels. She explained that DI is a very different experience. It is not as intimate; you don’t get to know the students and the coaches on the same level.
She went on to say that there are still some dif-ficulties for women to get through the barriers at the DI level, and the male persona still seems to be preferred in Athletic Director roles.
The one thing all three women had to offer as advice was this: find yourself strong role models. Women and men in the fields you intend to go into are great resources. Networking with sup-portive people is very important.
“Don’t get stuck or let anyone take the wind out of your sails,” said Manthei of finding good mentors. Pate mentioned the NACWAA as a great tool for women going into careers in ath-letics.
They also suggest gathering broad-based expe-rience. That could be anything from the classes you choose to take, to internships, volunteering, and studying abroad. Take part in classes or ac-tivities that will help with a career or gaining better people skills.
W o m e n and men alike can learn a great deal from these three. The
choices they have made and the struggles they have faced are a great learning tool for anyone who has faced ad-versity in
their school life or career.
Dr. Jennifer Manthei Dr. Lynn Fisher Kim Pate
Fall 2011 Beyond*10
Fall 2011 Beyond* 11
By Alissa Groeninger
By Michael Omenazu
I was reading when I started. It’s not easy, and it’s definitely not a joke.
ADHD is difficult to deal with as a college student. Ev-ery aspect of being a student is made more difficult, from homework assignments to lec-tures. My hope is that the next time, for those of you who have used a self-diagnosis of ADD or ADHD as an excuse in a tongue-in-cheek manner, you will think twice before stepping over that line.
You never know who might be on the other side of the classroom, struggling with ex-actly what you think is nothing more than a joke.
ADD continued from page 5
not having a Democratic Primary may hurt the President’s chances of becoming re-elected. The main reason for this is that the spotlight is not on the Democrats. Not having a primary puts the focus on Republicans and their issues.
Students such as Tyler Powell and Sean Miller, both members of College Democrats do not feel that this will hurt Obama’s campaign.
“Obama is the only candidate in this race to have the presidential seal in front of his podium. The office of the President of the United States carries a lot of weight behind it and it will be very difficult for Republican candidates to compensate for the power that accompanies the office. Obama has more time to gain money while not spending it,” said Miller, president of College Democrats.
“It will help Obama. Campaigns are all about money, especially post-Citizens United, and Obama will eclipse $1 billion. It will be hard for someone who has put many resources into a primary against a guy who is just fundraising right now,” Powell said.
The polls are constantly changing along with public opinion. Only time will tell to see who will be running against Obama for the presidency in 2012, and who will win the election.
Election continued from page 4Making UIS a place for dialogue
Safe Zone moves to LGBTQA Resource Office
The UIS Safe Zone moved in August to
the LGBTQA Resource Of-fice, and employees began a reorganization process to fig-ure out how the program can better serve campus.
Safe Zone strives to reduce homophobia and heterosex-ism within the UIS com-munity. Students, staff and faculty can identify as allies for people looking to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Members hang signs on their office doors or living spaces, offering areas for people looking to talk.
“When people see the sign
or the symbol… they know this person is a safe person to talk to,” said Kerry Poynter, the director of the LGBTQA office. “It helps LGBT stu-dents who are trying to figure out if campus is a safe place for them (or) a place where they’re going to find sup-port.”
It’s important that poten-tial UIS students view cam-pus as a place where they’ll be able to be open with their identities, Poynter said.
“We want to attract the
Safe continued on page 16
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Fall 2011 Beyond*12
By Colten Bradford
Graf continued on page 16
DONATE MUSIC GET A TAX DEDUCTION*
Friday, November 4 5-8 p.m. Members Only Sale
Saturday, November 5 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Public Sale
WUIS Music SaleCDs - Vinyl
Instruments - EquimentWUIS Studios, UIS Campus
Many often fantasize about adventures
in exotic places around the world. Many dream of ex-ploring new territory, learn-ing about different cultures, and even experiencing the complete solitude in the vast ocean. For one UIS professor, this fantasy became a reality.
Last year, Sharon Graf, an ethnomusicologist, went on a trip of a lifetime with her hus-band Michael on their 42-foot yacht, named Larabeck, to various islands of the South Pacific.
According to Sharon, it took years of preparation for such a journey.
Michael, an engineer origi-nally from Germany, grew up in a port town on the Baltic Sea where he learned the ba-sics of sailing. Michael want-ed Sharon to learn how to sail, and, being an outdoor person, Sharon thought it sounded fun.
The Grafs began sailing to-gether and eventually came
to own a 34-foot yacht. “Mi-chael convinced me that was all we would ever need,” Sha-ron said. Then he started talk-ing about an ocean voyage.
“I finally realized that Mi-chael was really serious about this,” Sharon said. “So I fi-nally decided that we were going to have to try it, but it would mean we would have to downsize.”
After finding new homes for their animals and selling their house, the Grafs pur-chased the Larabeck. Neither had experience with open sea voyage, so they began researching, preparing, and planning for the trip.
On March 16, 2010, the Grafs set sail for their first open water voyage from Mo-bile, Ala. to Tampa Bay, Fla.
“It was hard to stand up and it was hard to get things in and out of the closets,” Sha-ron said, looking back to her first open sea experience.
Sharon then returned to UIS to finish the semester, and on May 6, the Grafs headed to the Panama Canal. They ar-rived at their destination after 14 days.
“When we finally got there, it was getting dark and I re-member it all just smelled so earthy,” Graf said. “I could smell land. It was kind of the most amazing thing.”
At the Panama Canal, the Grafs hired three college students to help navigate the Larabeck safely through the canal, and on June 6, they reached the Pacific Ocean.
Although the Grafs were on the same boat, they still didn’t get to see much of each other while sailing. Sharon said that somebody had to always be looking for changes in weath-
er, looking for any obstacles, and making sure everything is running smoothly.
From Panama, the Grafs navigated their way to the Galapagos Islands, and after that, they spent the majority of July sailing to their first desti-nation in the South Pacific, an island called Fatu Hiva.
“The second night we were there we kept hearing this pounding drum music,” Sha-ron said. “One of the yachties [a local term for people with sailboats] said over the radio, ‘you’ve got to come to shore. The folks here are having a big celebration.’”
The Grafs said they went to shore and the locals were all dancing and playing drums. Sharon said these drums in-cluded the pahu, which is a tall, skinny drum that has to be played standing up, and a drum played with bamboo. They also had a ukulele play-er.
“It was almost surreal to step on this little island after being at sea for almost three weeks,” Sharon said.
She said that this event was actually part of a celebra-tion, not just performances for tourists. While the locals keep up with technology, they still keep their culture. “Peo-ple have managed to carry on threads of tradition, and in this case, we’ve got food, clothing, dancing and music,” Sharon said. “They aren’t for a tourist stage show.”
Wherever the Grafs went, the traditional dances and mu-sic seemed to follow. Sharon said the locals seemed fasci-
Communicating through music, a professor’s story of sailing in the South Pacific
Photos courtesy of Sharon Graf
Top: The Larabeck is anchored in the lagoon surround-ing the island of Bora Bora.Bottom: Sharon grabs her violin and sits in with Tongan string musicians in Vava’u.
Fall 2011 Beyond*
By Yu Sun
13
Watching make-up tutorials and read-
ing beauty blogs are popu-lar things many college students like to spend their time on. While a popular pastime, dedication to cre-ating make-up tutorials can also become a profession.
One of the most famous bloggers in YouTube’s beauty community is Mi-chelle Phan, a Vietnamese-American and self-made make-up artist, who creates makeup and beauty tutori-als. She creates all her vid-eos using iMovie.
Phan’s YouTube adven-tures have led her to a spot at top luxury brand, Lancôme. In February of 2010, she be-came Lancôme’s first-ever video make-up artist.
Phan joined YouTube on July 18, 2006 and has made over 200 instructional videos. She has 1,665,293 subscribers on her You-Tube channel, and became the second most subscribed woman on YouTube.
Phan’s latest tutorial, “Day of the Dead Makeup” for Halloween, alone reached 929,224 views.
There are many other beauty bloggers like Phan on YouTube. They produce makeup, skincare, and nail art tutorials and post them online.
Tuyen Nguyen, a senior psychology major at UIS, is a beauty blog follower, and plans to open a fashion store after graduation.
“I used to do a beauty blog, but not any more, since school is getting busier. But I do follow people like Mi-chelle Phan on YouTube
and sometimes on Twitter,” Nguyen said. “I just recent-ly watched a couple of her Halloween make-ups.”
“If you go to profession-als in stores, it is pretty time consuming, and it costs a lot of money. Also, it [follow-ing bloggers and trying the make-up on] is a practice of your own skills.”
She continued, “You can-
not go out every time to get your make-up done.”
Nguyen follows beauty bloggers to improve her own make-up skills. “Personally, I think women should feel confident. I just do whatev-er boosts my confidence and makes me happy.”
Nguyen said, “Every-body likes to look pretty, and learning how to do that won’t hurt.”
Tiffany Amnueypol, a
senior art history major at University of Illinois at Chi-cago is a follower of beauty bloggers on YouTube.
“I follow quite a few of them,” Amnueypol said. “Lisa Eldridge, Sam and Nick from Pixiwoo are pro-fessional makeup artists who have their own YouTube tu-torial videos and website. I probably follow bloggers
because I think they are, most of the time, more hon-est than professionals at the stores when talking about the products.”
She continued, “These blogs are like daily newspa-per for me. Most of the time, these bloggers will know about new products before the brands’ department counters. Also, they talk about nice brands that not many people have heard.”
Amnueypol would try on the make-up products shown in the tutorials that she is interested in.
“I do think their tips and tutorials are helpful, but I think that we don’t need to follow their exact instruc-tions since each person’s face is different.” she said.
Some women turn their interest in following beauty blogs into making their own blogs. Ceci Zhang, an inter-national graduate student at The City University of New York started to write a beauty blog in March 2010. She now has over 190, 000 followers.
“I bought all the products I used in my blog by myself, no sponsors.” Zhang said, “I am not interested in luxury products and 3C products, so I can afford them.”
When talking about her expectation of writing a beauty blog, Zhang said, “I like to write beauty blogs because I feel like I can contribute on one thing that I truly loved and enjoyed doing. Also, I have met a lot of girls who have the same interests as me by writing my blog.”
Creating a beauty blog is an easy way to express love for cosmetics by writing re-views, sharing handy tips, and posting beauty looks. Many of the beauty blog-gers become professional make-up artists, like Phan.
If you have a real passion for beauty and even any-thing you liked in your life, you should start to work on it, little by little. You may reach success someday.
From hobby to professionBeauty bloggers gain fame,
start careers
‘Haul’ videos
Some beauty blog-gers post haul vid-
eos to show their fans what they bought on their shopping day.
“‘Haul’ videos are just the bloggers showing the products that they have bought, and, to be honest, that’s just boring,” UIC student Tiffany Amnuey-pol said.
Haul videos rarely ever have anything negative to say about the products. The rationale for those positive reviews is that the buyers wouldn’t typi-cally purchase something unless they really wanted it.
Hence, the owners gen-erally report positive ex-periences, after having selected which products to buy. In some haul vid-eos, beauty bloggers who work for certain compa-nies would show products that are provided by their sponsors. This aspect of the haul genre makes many videos misleading.
In fact, the United States Federal Trade Commis-sion recently enacted laws to regulate many types of online publishers and content creators, specifi-cally blogging, podcast-ing in text, images, audio and video.
While any publishers (including the haul-video creators) are allowed to accept free merchandise and advertising, the gifts or payments must be fully (and clearly) disclosed to viewers. Video creators must now disclose their sponsors when reviewing a product.
Illustration By Yu Sun
Fall 2011 Beyond*14
Squash continued on
page 15
This year’s UIS squash club is larger
and more skilled than ever before. With young blood ascending through the ranks and veteran players returning, the UIS squash club is looking to shake things up in the College Squash Association as they enter the full 9-man team bracket.
Last year’s captain, John Tienken, a junior Political Science major, stepped down from the leading role to focus more on coaching the team. “Hopefully, this begins a tradition of cap-tains stepping down and helping the next year’s captain and so on. We don’t have a coach; lead-ership is in our captains,
and they need to be pre-pared for the job.”
Junior Charlie Laegeler and sophomore Jamaal Hollins have taken up the captain roles for the team. “As co-captain, I have to work with the team to create a practice schedule that fits everyone,” Lae-geler said.
“We have a lot of new faces added to the team this year that should re-ally give us a competitive edge as we approach our run for a championship at nationals.”
Laegeler went on men-tioning the team’s goals for this year, “This sea-son the main goal for the squash team is to attend the National Champion-ships at Princeton Uni-versity and bring home a championship in our division. The team has struggled for the past two years to make a name for itself not only here at UIS
but in the college squash community. With all the promising talent we have put together in that time we stand a strong chance to be seen as top competi-tors.”
The team is already on their way to showing ev-eryone the talent they pos-sess as the club recorded their first match victory this semester against Day-ton University.
While the team prides it-self in its veteran players, a number of new players have taken an interest and made the jump from rec-reational club players to competitive team play-ers. Corey Willhite, Ryan Bouray and Jeremiah Hernandez have all been working hard to get their skills to a competitive level.
Freshman and first-time squash player Willhite commented, “I’m really excited to see how things
progress as the team goes to more competitions.”
Another first-time squash player, Hernandez is no stranger to competi-tive athletics as he has played with the UIS soccer team the past two years.
“I am most excited to learn the new sport. I have played for a lot of orga-nized sport teams, and this is one of the most challenging sports I have played,” he said.
Josh Eastby, a sopho-
more, is one of the mem-bers returning for another year of squash. “We’ve also grown in size, and have entered into the 9-man bracket, which means we’re no longer an emerging team. We’re competing against teams like Notre Dame, Swarth-
UIS club sport continues competing at the national levelSquash
continues to expand
By Carson Buss
The Journalwishes students, faculty, staff and alumni
a Happy and Fulfilling Fall Break.
First year squash player, Ryan Bouray looks to hone his skills along with the rest of the squash club as they prepare for the CSA national tournament to be held at Princeton.
Photo by Carson Buss
Fall 2011 Beyond* 15
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Squash continued from page 14more, and Kenyon College, and we’ll be competing with other teams from across the country throughout the year.”
The UIS squash club has made three trips around the Midwest for various events. Traveling to Chicago, IL; Gambier, OH; and South Bend, IN already this semester, the team is not done travelling, not by a long shot.
These individuals do not forget their commitment to academics and take pride in being student athletes. Junior and first year squash player, Bouray summarized this concept well, “Managing my time is one of the biggest challenges I have faced this year. Creating time for nightly practices and weekend tournaments makes time management skills essential.”
As spring semester approaches, the team continues to prepare for the largest event of the year, the CSA National tournament. This year’s national tournament is to be held in New Jersey at Princeton University. The UIS squash club also plans to trek down to Atlanta, GA following winter break for an additional tournament.
While there is only a men’s competitive team at the moment, Paige Heiser, a sophomore has been trying to recruit members for a wom-en’s team. “Competition isn’t a concern at the moment, the main goal is getting girls together and to start playing,” Heiser continued, “it’s difficult to get people to try squash, but for everyone that does, it’s a success in my eyes.”
Illinois-Springfield’s squash club is not all about traveling to tour-naments around the Midwest and rest of the country though; the club also promotes recreational play.
Co-captain Hollins is attempting to make squash more well known throughout the campus, “I plan on getting more people involved [with squash] on campus by setting up weekly times where anyone can come and learn to play.”
If you are interested in learning about squash as a recreational player or even joining the competitive team head over to TRAC and request information.
Fall 2011 Beyond*16
As we enjoy the last weeks of fall,Dr. Tim Barnett
and the Division of Student Affairs
Wish you a Happy Fall Break.
nated with people who have traveled so far to see them and were excited to share their own traditions.
In Tahiti, there were bands using synthesizers, rock style bands, and jam sessions that often broke out in public parks where various people gathered and played songs they knew.
On a small island called Niue, a place the Grafs hadn’t planned visiting but was brought there by unfavor-able weather, the locals held a feast where the servers were also the entertainment.
In the festivities at Hiva Oa, Sharon was drawn to a string band during the festivities.
“I thought immediately that it sounded so familiar,” Sha-ron said. “They played melo-dies that I was used to from the country music tradition. I felt that I could have gone down there and sat in with them on the violin.” In Tonga and a couple of other places,
she had that opportunity. “There wasn’t much mutual
language, but I played along with songs that were famil-iar,” Graf said. “…and many of these people never had the opportunity to play with the violin before, and they thought that was something really special.”
The Grafs next stopped at New Zealand in mid-Novem-ber, and they spent the next five months there during hur-ricane season.
In addition, Sharon was able to do her cultural stud-ies while in Auckland. She researched the archives of Pa-cific and Maori music. Sha-ron said she is working on compositions inspired by the trip, which she hopes to docu-ment through music, not just through writing.
Along the way, the Grafs received help from many peo-ple including, but not limited to, Pat Langley, UIS professor emerita, who joined the crew
in Tonga, and Lynn Fisher, associate professor of sociol-ogy/anthropology, who noti-fied the Grafs of any major weather patterns and kept the Larabeck website up-to-date.
Graf returned to Springfield this past August to resume teaching at UIS while Mi-chael and new crew members resumed sailing the Larabeck, continuing to Australia for its final destination. Graf said once they reach Australia, they plan on selling the yacht because it is too dangerous to sail the rest of the way around the globe and too expensive to ship Larabeck back to the states.
The Larabeck and crew re-cently arrived safely in Bund-aberg, Australia.
For more information about the Grafs’ trip, check out their website, www.larabeck.com, for photographs and updates of the Larabeck crew.
Graf continued from page 12
best and the brightest and that needs to include LGBTQA students,” he said.
It’s also important for higher learning institutions to be places for dialogue, he added.
“We need to be able to invite conversations around these issues. We shouldn’t be hiding or scared to talk about topics around LGBTQA peo-ple,” Poynter said. “There’s a desire to talk and learn and I think that we should be pro-viding resources to do that.”
Hundreds have trained through Safe Zone since the program began serving UIS students more than six years ago.
The reorganization period
ends after the fall semester, and changes will be imple-mented in the spring.
Poynter plans to assess what participating students, faculty and staff need, and what the program isn’t cur-rently offering. Current Safe Zone members will be in-terviewed about what pro-grams they don’t like and what programs they’d like to see added. Poynter wants to know what important con-versations students think UIS needs to have.
Veronica Espina is an in-structional communications programmer at UIS. She started Safe Zone training in 2007 to support her students who sometimes felt margin-alized in their classrooms, dorms and while looking for employment.
“They felt very unsup-ported,” Espina said. “By the
time they reached UIS they were looking for faculty sup-port and people that would mentor them and understand their concerns.”
“It was important to me that they knew they had allies at all levels.”
Espina applies her training as an ally to her classroom. In 2008, she co-taught a course, in which the professors took students abroad. They pro-fessors orchestrated neutral accommodations; meaning students weren’t divided by gender. The move helped make LGBTQ students feel comfortable and safe, Espina said.
“We decided these are adults and they should be able to decide,” she said.
On trips in 2009 and 2010, students had similar arrange-ments. In addition, Espina led participants in cultural sensi-
tivity training before going abroad.
Educators also need to learn how to deal with sensi-tive topics in the classroom, she said. Instructors need to facilitate discussions about sensitive topics, without al-lowing name- calling or vi-cious statements. At the same time, professors shouldn’t trample freedom of speech. Through Safe Zone, profes-sors can learn how to lead productive discussions in which everyone’s voices can be heard.
“It really addresses the need for faculty and staff to understand where our stu-dents are coming from and why they feel the way they feel when they come,” Es-pina said.
Before coming to UIS a little over a year ago, Poyn-ter worked with similar pro-
grams at New York Universi-ty, Columbia University and Western Michigan Univer-sity. As an undergraduate at Ball State University in 1991, he helped start a similar pro-gram - “Safe on Campus.”
At that point, students did not have public role models telling them it was okay to be gay, Poynter said.
“It had a huge effect on what was happening on cam-pus,” he said about the Ball State program. “Students knew for the first time that they could talk to their fac-ulty advisors.”
If interested in apply-ing to join the coordinating committee call (217) 206-8316, email [email protected] or visit https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/2062805.
Safe continued from page 11