Th e pamphlet for EC’s Honors Program is a colorful, captivating one, with happy faces beaming from every page, capturing stu-dents on campus and in locales around the world.

It’s an impressive list of oppor-tunities and the achievements EC students have made in the pro-gram.

Th ose accomplishments in-clude in-depth research at EC, as well as pathways to advanced study in competitive graduate

programs across the country and around the world.

While EC’s program clearly of-fers value to the College, a series of conversations between Th e Leader and students reveals that some EC honors students ques-tion whether it’s worth it.

What’s at the core of EC’s

Honors Program? Is there a dis-connect between initial student expectations of an honors class, and the actual experience? Is “honors” a misnomer for a pro-gram that emphasizes experien-tial learning just as strongly as the metrics of grades and academic achievement?

High school vs college programs

Th e National Collegiate Hon-ors Council (NCHC) attempts to clarify the diff erences between high school and college programs

in a post on its website. (EC is one of NCHC’s member institutions).

“High school honors classes tends to be distinguished by the greater amount of work that honors students are required to do, or the ‘accelerated’ speed at which they progress through their course work,” the post reads. “But

college honors is not designed to be about more work or harder work…. [it’s] about discussing issues and encouraging innova-tion in an atmosphere of open exchange, where students’ views are respected. Honors programs emphasize diverse perspectives, interdisciplinary course work, small classes, and greater interac-tion between students and pro-fessors.”

Mary Kay Mulvaney, the direc-tor of EC’s Honors Program, in-corporated many aspects of EC’s academic off erings, with a focus on experience based learning,

into the program.“I stress the value of a study

abroad service, things like intern-ships — every aspect of experien-tial learning [in the program],” she said.

EC’s program works with ad-missions; invitations are sent to new students and transfer stu-

dents using information discov-ered in the admissions process.

Applicants are asked to com-plete an essay about why they want to participate.

“I want to hear something in the essay,” Mulvaney said, “that suggests to me [that they have] in-tellectual curiosity.”

Hard work

Students must exceed a GPA of 3.5 to participate — and stay — in the program, Mulvaney says that EC has a robust enrollment in its honors program.

“We’re not looking for new business!” she joked.

For 2013-2014, she said, the number of new enrollees neared 75. Th at soared well about 10 per-cent, which is EC’s usual average

In an unprecedented roundtable discussion about the college’s strate-gic and financial plans in the wake of last semester’s budget forums, Leader edi-tors* talked to EC President S. Alan Ray, Dean of Faculty and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Alzada Tipton, and Vice President for Finance and Adminis-tration Jim Cunningham on April 21.

While Ray said that he and other members of the administration are de-veloping a proposal that would be presented to the Board of Trustees in June to alleviate the college’s $3.1 million deficit, few specif-ics could be shared prior to the board meeting.

“We won’t be able to give you any sneak peeks,” he said. “It’s something we’re hard at work on right now, so we can’t speculate on what’s going to be in the fi-nal proposal.”

Getting Transfers, Going

International

Ray and Tipton both shared that international students and transfer stu-dents would likely be key components in both the financial plan to be pre-sented this summer and the college’s updated five-year strategic plan, which documents EC’s long-term goals and initiatives. The most recent strategic plan, which is also presented by the president and voted on by the board, spans from 2009-2014.

“[Transfer students and international students] are, speaking for myself, the most clearly desirable to have in both our finan-cial planning and strategic planning,” Ray said.

THE AWARD-WINNING STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT ELMHURST COLLEGE. VOL. 48 APRIL 29, 2014

THE LEADERCandy and toy stores enter

downtown Elmhurst’ssmall business arena

SEE PAGE 12

Poremba breaks school record, joins nation’s elite

in 10K metersSEE PAGE 21

Students and faculty assess EC’s Honors Program experience

College administration recaps past year, talks money and strategy with The Leader

patrick erwinnews & online editor

haleema shaheditor-in-chief

Two of EC’s most recogniz-able figures, Dr. Helga Noice and Dr. Wallace Lagerway, have announced their retire-ment from the College. Their EC tenure will conclude at the end of the term.

Here’s a look back at the long and varied careers of two familiar faces on campus.

Take a bow: Helga Noice

After 15 years of working with EC students and faculty,

Helga Noice is taking her final bow as professor.

Noice, a professor of psy-chology, earned her Ph.D in Cognitive Psychology from Rutgers Univ., and arrived at EC in 1999 after spending 10 years at Augustana Univ.

She was immediately sur-prised by students’ profes-sionalism and aptitude.

“[EC students] were much more mature and outgoing than Augustana students,” Noice said. “[They were] more likely to give their opinion.”

Noice also brought her reputation as a nationally re-nowned psychologist. Her work has focused on memory, aging and learning strategies,

among other topics.“My research has been cit-

ed in many many textbooks,” Noice said.

She is especially proud of her research on cognition’s role in acting, a collaborative research project with hus-band Tony Noice, a theatre professor in the Communi-cation Arts and Sciences De-partment at EC.

“It was one way for the two of us to work together,” Noice said.

Her scholarly endeavors have also given students the opportunity to hone their re-search skills as her mentees.

“[Dr. Noice’s] guidance...shaped my entire experience

of Elmhurst College and made me so well prepared for my fu-ture,” senior Liz Wiemers said. “I feel fortunate that she did not choose to leave before my time here was through.”

“I like to give [students] a lot of independence in their research,” Noice said. “I think it helps them grow by having them do it themselves.”

After leaving, Dr. Noice will still continue working on a re-search project titled “Acting Out: Influence of an Acting In-tervention on Cognition and Brain Function,” for which she has a grant from the National

zachary bishop &Patrick erwinstaff writer & news & online editor

Photo illustration by Kim McElhenyAccording to the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), college honors courses focus on interdisciplinary work, small classes, and diverse perspectives.

See ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION on page 6See STAFF RETIRE on page 7

See HONORS PROGRAM on page 9

Two EC professors announceplans to retire after spring term

NEWS ecleader.orgApril 29, 20142

The Leader is the student-run newspaper speaking to the students, faculty and administrators of Elmhurst College. The Leader is not submitted to any person or organization for prior approval. The contents are the decision of the editor in agreement with the editorial board.Opinions expressed in The Leader do not necessarily reflect those of the paper or its staff, and are not intended to represent those of the College at large.No text, photos, or art can be reproduced without direct permission of The Leader.

The Leader is funded by the student activities fund and advertising revenue. The paper has a press run of 1,500. It can be picked up in all campus buildings and certain off-campus sites.

Teresa Guidarac/o Leader Advertising 190 Prospect Ave.Elmhurst, IL 60126 Advertising: 630.617.3321theleaderadvertising@gmail.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:NEWS & ONLINE EDITOR:

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR:OPINIONS EDITOR:

BEAT EDITOR:SPORTS EDITOR:

GRAPHICS EDITOR:PHOTO EDITORCOPY EDITOR:

BUSINESS MANAGER:ADVISER:

Haleema ShahPatrick ErwinChrissy CroftClayton DunlapIan WalkerCharlie RoumeliotisNikki SmithKim McElhenyPaul RoumeliotisTeresa GuidaraEric Lutz

190 Prospect Ave., Elmhurst, IL 60126Phone: 630.617.3320leadernewsec@gmail.com

The award-winning student newspaper at

Elmhurst College Leaderthe PRODUCTION STAFF ABOUT US PUBLISHING INFO

ADVERTISING

Zachary BishopChrissy CroftPeter FlockencierKailey HansenTyler Kerr

CONTACT US

Internet photoRecovery efforts continue for the South Korean ferry after it sank on April 16.

Clayton Dunlapopinions editor

l Loose Stomach l

Rugged Nevada cattle ranch-er, Cliven Bundy, crept into the hearts of some right-wing politi-

cians because he held his ground, quite literally, over a long-standing land dispute with the U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment that began in 1993.

Bundy was a hit with the pro-small government, federal de-regulation folks because he rejects the legitimacy of the U.S. federal government altogether.

Instead, Bundy, believes he lives in the “sovereign” state of Nevada, where no federal government’s rule applies. Oh boy.

More recently, though, Bundy has had his share of the me-dia spotlight after he told reporters that he wondered whether Black people may be “better off as slaves, picking cotton.”

Apparently, Nevada has its own version of U.S. history Bun-dy must be referencing, as well.

But I won’t waste time being outraged by the spouting of some disingenuous cattle rancher of exceeding ignorance. I think his words are agreeable in disgust.

Obviously the media was in a frenzy and formerly support-ive politicians made statements disassociating themselves from Bundy, “the racist.”

All the media commotion that’s followed from this contin-ues in the same tradition of many other media treatments of racism; it talks around racism.

Endless clips of Bundy are shown, identifying him as a rac-ist, gluing it to his persona. He deserves this scrutiny for such egregious remarks, but focusing the discussion so heavily on Bundy, “the racist,” instead of how racism operates in relation to him, creating his racist views, is the same shame every time racism is dealt with in the media.

The focus is too close on the individual perpetrator, so the manner in which racism plays a factor in institutions and influ-ences relationships between individuals is completely missed.

Possibly, the only positive aspect to this whole ordeal is that we get to see how the word “racist” has slowly evolved into an insult of its own. No one wants to be labeled a racist. This seems obvious, but the fact that the word is changing, becom-ing an increasingly abhorrent label, may be a slight amount of progress, after all.

We see Cliven Bundy, and think we know what racism looks like.

But Bundy’s erroneous disposition is only symptomatic of racism, not a navigable avenue to really confront it. Yet an ac-tual constructive treatment of racism is rarely the intention of the media, since this nearly always deteriorates into reports of people—politicians, whomever—negatively identifying with what they are opposed to, instead of positively affirming what is meaningful to a proper treatment of racism.

We still can’t talk about racism

Joseph KokKatie MatthewsBrett PetoBrandon Porter Andy PrignanoLuke Tanaka

Rescue efforts continue for South Korean ferry pas-sengers

Rescue divers are still searching the South Korean ferry that sank en route to the island of Jeju on April 16. As of Saturday, 187 bodies had been recovered, though an es-timated 115 people remained missing. So far, just 35 of the ferry’s 111 rooms have been searched. On Friday, rescuers discovered the bodies of 48 girls crammed into a dormito-ry designed for 38 passengers. All were wearing lifejackets.

Many of the 476 passengers were students and teachers from Danwon High School, just south of Seoul. A boy, known only by the family name Choi, was the first to alert the South Korean coast-guard of the ferry’s distress.

His body was found on the fourth deck last Wednesday without a lifejacket.

The ferry’s safety equip-ment and good judgment of its captain and crew have come into heavy question.

The captain and 14 crew members have been arrested on charges of negligence and taking “an excessive change

of course without slowing down.”

On Saturday, South Ko-rean prosecutors raided the office of an accountant hired by Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd., the owner and operator of the ferry. Upon investiga-tion, the Ohamana, another ferry owned by Chonghaejin, proved to have 40 malfunc-tioning life rafts, “inoperable” emergency slides, and little equipment to secure cargo.

Girl fatally stabbed at Conneticut high school

A 16-year-old female stu-dent at Jonathan Law High School in Milford, Conn. died Friday morning from stab wounds allegedly inflicted by a classmate.

Junior Maren Sanchez was assaulted in a stairwell around 7 a.m., according to Milford Police Chief Keith Mello, and suffered lacera-tions to her head, neck, and chest. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 7:43 a.m.

The alleged stabber, a 16-year-old male stu-dent whom police have not named, was taken into custody Friday and charged with Sanchez’s murder as a juvenile offender.

S&P downgrades Russia’s credit rating

Standard and Poor’s, one of the three largest U.S. credit ratings agencies, lowered Russia’s rating to one level above “junk” status last Fri-day.

The drop from BBB to BBB- arrived as wealth is fleeing Russia as a consequence of its increasingly hostile geopoliti-cal maneuvers in Ukraine.

In response, Russia’s cen-tral bank turned up its key interest rate to 7.5 percent from 7 percent, “as it sought to defend the value of the rouble,” according to the BBC.

So far this year, the rouble has lost 8 percent value against the dollar.

Foreign investors siphoned out over $63 billion from January through March, low-ering predictions of Russia’s 2014 economic growth to just 0.5 percent.

“In our view, the tense geo-political situation between Russia and Ukraine could see additional significant outflows of both foreign and domestic capital from the Russian economy,” said S&P in a statement announcing its downgrade.

BRETT PETOstaff writer

CorrectionsIn the March 18 issue, The Leader incorrectly attributed EC senior wrestler Ryan Prater’s Division III

championship win to “Matt Prater.” The Leader regrets this error.

Please send any comments or oversights to leadernewsec@gmail.com.

NEWSecleader.org April 29, 2014 3

Campus Shortz: Hard news (usually) in 500 words or less

Student Employee of the Year named

Annie Tobiasiewicz, a senior marketing major, was named EC’s 2014 Student Employee of

the Year. She works for Holly Coffin

in the Center for Professional Excellence (CPE) as a student assistant for the internship program.

Several other EC students were nominated for the award, including Madison

Criss, Colleen Dhamer, Emily Heimerdinger, Steven Kidera, Faizal Malkana, Cody Maynor, and Alfredo Quinones.

Tobiasiewicz received cer-tificates to mark her award, as well as a Book Cellar gift card.

Her name will be added to the Student Employee of the

Year plaque in the Frick Center (near the Learning Center en-trance).

EC professors granted tenure

Nine EC professors were granted tenure last month.

The professors, and their departments, are as follows: Juan Carlos Barrera (Business), Nicholas Behm (English), Lin-da Dauksas (Education), Cath-erine Gaze (Psychology), Ven-katesh Gopal (Physics), Peter Griffin (Music), Sarah Katula (Nursing), Mary Walsh (Politi-cal Science), and Brian Wilhite (Physics).

Professors who are eligible for consideration apply for ten-ure early in an academic year.

The nine newly appointed professors were approved for tenure by the Board of Trustees at their March meeting.

Elmhurst to hot dog lady: Hit the

road!

The city of Elmhurst appears to have a beef with the so-

called “hot dog lady.” On April 21, City Council

voted 10-4 to evict Pamela Us-lander’s vendor cart from its designated spot on North York Street.

The Elmhurst Independent reported that Uslander has sold hot dogs in Elmhurst for 23 years.

At the meeting, Uslander questioned why Council deemed her cart was an issue when it allowed A-frame “sand-wich board” signs in the same area that violate city code.

She believes businesses who are in the off-street Schiller corridor want to displace her cart to draw attention to their presence.

The hullabaloo over hot dogs is part of the larger Addison Street parking garage project, which has been a lightning rod of controversy.

That project has been a point of fierce debate among resi-dents since the original pro-posal in 2009.

Internet photoHolly Coffin (left) poses with Student Employee of the Year Annie Tobiasiewicz.

patrick erwinnews & online editor

ADVERTISEMENT

NEWS ecleader.orgApril 29, 20144

ADVERTISEMENT

The speakers in EC’s lecture series have garnered a wide range of responses from their respective audiences - every-thing from rapturous applause to audience heckling.

But a Feb. 13 lecture by Reza Aslan got an unusual response: a discussion session hosted by an EC faculty member that served as a rebuttal to the lec-ture.

The rebuttal, “The Imaginary Jesus of Reza Aslan,” took place at the March 12 meeting of Spir-itual Life Council (SLC) and was led by Religious Studies profes-sor and Pauline specialist An-drew Das.

Aslan, author of recent best-seller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Random House, 2013) is, Das argued, not a Jesus scholar and is “unknown in biblical studies.”

At the rebuttal, Das refuted Aslan’s “militant, violent Jesus of his own imagination” with many quotes from the Bible and the works of recognized Jesus scholars.

In an interview with The Lead-er, Das explained why he want-ed to reply to Aslan’s lecture.

“Aslan falls into a classic problem as he reconstructs his Jesus,” said Das. “He gives you the impression that there were armed revolutionaries and ban-dits around every corner and under every bush and tree.”

Aslan’s arguments about Je-sus include an assertion that he was the namesake zealot willing to use violence to strike against the Roman Empire. He also ar-gues that the Romans crucified him for political insurrection, not to absolve the world’s sins, as the biblical Gospels suggest.

This picture is inaccurate, though, according to Das.

“The problem is, when you actually look at the first centu-ry...we don’t have revolutionary figures during Jesus’ adult min-istry,” Das said, adding that such figures arrived between 50 and 60 A.D.

One of the Jesus scholars Das frequently cited in his response was John Meier, a biblical schol-ar and Catholic priest at the University of Notre Dame.

“[There was], already, back in the 1990s, John Meier,” Das said. “[He] is, in my opinion, the best of the Jesus researchers. [He] said, ‘There were no organized, armed groups of Jewish revo-lutionaries active during Jesus’ public ministry. Needless to say, the facts notwithstanding, Jesus the Zealot will remain pe-rennially popular in mass-me-dia presentations, just as he will remain totally anachronistic.’”

Other biblical scholars have also criticized Aslan, such as Baylor Univ. professor Alan Ja-cobs.

“Aslan makes no new dis-coveries, and makes no argu-ments that haven’t already been made—in some cases very long ago,” Jacobs said in the Christian Post.

Das tempered his criticism with praise for Zealot as a narra-tive story.

“Aslan is a gifted writer, and he’s enjoyable to read,” he said. “I very much enjoyed his prose. He’s a far more gifted writer than I am. I learned a lot from his style of writing and you can see why he’s a popular writer across the states.”

He conceded that the book might make an adequate start-ing point for those totally unin-formed about the world Jesus lived in.

“What else I liked, too, is he’s dabbled a little bit in first-cen-tury history, both from a Roman standpoint and from a Palestin-ian standpoint,” Das said. “So it’s helpful for your average church reader. Picking up the book, you would be exposed to a lot of his-tory that doesn’t come across in pulpits.”

Last summer, Aslan’s book rocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list after an interview with Fox News, which ignited a firestorm of controversy.

The objectivity of Fox anchor Lauren Green was called into question after she challenged Aslan’s motivations as a Muslim to write a book about Jesus’ life, while Aslan has been accused of misrepresenting his credentials during that same appearance.

Das agreed the public seems to have an appetite for popular accounts of Jesus the man, men-tioning Fox News veteran host Bill O’Reilly’s 2013 best-seller “Killing Jesus” (Henry Holt and Company, 2013).

“Last year, we saw two books on who Jesus ‘really was,’ writ-ten both by non-specialists playing with Jesus scholarship, more or less,” he said. “And both were big sellers. So I’m kind of thinking I need to write a book on Jesus.”

A public response by a faculty member to a paid lecturer ap-pears to be rare at EC, with Das saying he would not have re-sponded if SLC had not invited him.

“Frankly, I don’t think that Aslan was worthy of us as a campus,” he said. “I think we could have done better. And I’ve said this to colleagues...if people really are interested in Jesus in history, why not invite John Meier at Notre Dame (a noted scholar of the historical Jesus) to come here for a lecture?”

Das appreciated several re-cent lecturers, naming visits by science communicator Bill Nye the Science Guy and astro-physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

“We ride their coattails as an institution,” he said. “It’s help-ful for the college because we get people on campus who might not be on [the] Elmhurst campus otherwise. We have, if you will, a tension: on the one hand, a need to promote the college with our lectures, but on the other hand, we’re also an academic institution.”

EC history professor and his-tory department chair Robert Butler did the introductions for Aslan at the February lecture. Like Das, he praised Aslan’s narrative skills.

“I enjoyed meeting Aslan. He is an excellent writer,” said But-ler in an email to The Leader. “He is a terrifically charismatic figure, as anyone who saw his lecture would probably agree. [But] that said, I didn’t agree with the theme of his book. When you are trying to write

a biography of a figure about whom relatively little is con-cretely known, you are forced to rely on probabilities, possi-bilities, and background. That doesn’t make for a very exact definition. Aslan’s Jesus is still fuzzy and out of focus; in the end, it’s a possible portrait, not an exact one, and not a convinc-ing one [to me]. And it tends to underestimate, I think, oral his-tory and tradition, which meant more to the ancient world.”

SLC president Faizal Malkana said he was glad to invite Das.

“I learned about Dr. Das’ op-posing stance to Reza Aslan’s academic work on Jesus,” he said. “Since both the historical and biblical Jesus are of reli-gious importance to people of many faiths and academic[s], we were fortunate to have this opportunity to have a public discussion about the implica-tions of Reza Aslan’s thesis.”

Malkana said he neither agreed nor disagreed with Das’ interpretation of Jesus.

“I think it’s inappropriate for me to say that I would agree or disagree with anything to be said about a subject matter that people have been studying for years,” he said. “Rather, I would say that I appreciated much of what Reza Aslan has to say about Jesus; by offering up his thoughts, ideas, and work, he makes the academic and popu-lar discourse about the subject much more rich, diverse, and vibrant—that I can agree with.”

Butler echoed the value of ideas and of raising questions.

“The college ought to be en-gaging questions that [challenge us] today, and the lectures are one example of that,” he said. “A huge portion of the world, about two-thirds of humanity, does not regard Jesus as a divine figure — the lecture was an in-troduction to that tradition. For anyone who does believe, Aslan raises several questions that are worth thinking about.”

EC professor questions Reza Aslan’s book

Internet photoReza Aslan, who wrote the book “Zealot” spoke at EC’s Hammerschmidt Chapel on Feb. 13.

BRETT PETOstaff writer

NEWSecleader.org April 29, 2014 5

Canine Carewalk: EC goes to the dogs

Photos by Kim McElhenyIn less depressing news: EC’s annual Canine Carewalk took place last Sunday and raised $522 for participating animal groups.

NEWS ecleader.orgApril 15, 20146

ADVERTISEMENT

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION from the front pageHe noted that in conversa-

tions with The Leader in Au-gust, he didn’t believe becom-ing a university was likely for EC, but has revisited the idea because it could encourage the interest of international students.

“I was initially intrigued when I heard from the lead-ership of the international students, the word ‘college’ abroad connotes ‘high school,’ and ‘university’ connotes ‘higher education.’ My feeling is that if, indeed, recruiting in-ternational students comes to play a much greater role at the college, we want to have every asset available to us to be suc-cessful,” Ray said.

But while becoming El-mhurst University, or EU, sounds prestigious and could generate revenue by garnering the attention and increasing the attendance of internation-al students, it can also entail a rise in administrative costs, as some chairs of departments could become deans of indi-vidual schools.

Ray said he’s “very sensitive to burning the operating bud-get” and had conversations with other presidents of uni-versities that were formerly colleges on how to minimize certain expenses.

“The presidents I’ve talked to as recently as this month

said they’re glad they did it, for reasons we’ll talk about when we get this conversation going,” he said.

But the interest in increas-ing the college’s international and transfer students popula-tions is more than financial, it is also expected to benefit EC’s strategic vision.

“In the short term, maybe there are alloys of money to invest in this heightened fo-cus on transfer students. In the longer term, sometime during these six years, [it could mean] greater revenues because if you’re successful in your investment, you have more transfer students. It ful-fills a strategic objective but also the financial as well. The same logic would apply to in-ternational students,” Ray ex-plained.

Tipton added that the in-creased interest in transfer students is also a product of task forces’ recommendations for more innovative invest-ments.

“It’s not just because of the money that we invest in things. In looking at the recommendations from the transfer student task forces, a lot of those recommendations are that we just do things dif-ferently,” she said. “That we focus more on serving the needs of transfer students, we

prioritize transfer students more and so we’re certainly investing our time in that and sort of rearranging our brains to think about things in a dif-

ferent way.”

Voice of the People

At last semester’s budget forums, a number of students and staff expressed strong op-position to proposed J-term tuition – something Ray as-sured everyone at the forum

would not be in the proposal.Cunningham shared that

charging for J-term still is not on the table for the financial plan.

“We have not discussed J-Term, I’ll put it simply, from the standpoint of charging for it,” he said. “I think there was enough passion and better understanding of how that fits into our structure here and your education that I don’t see that being an issue, I re-ally don’t.”

Faced with a major defi-cit and various constituent groups who want their in-terests represented, Ray said after last semester’s budget forums, communication will be key when addressing EC’s financial challenges.

“For me, the experience of last fall was one that should not be repeated to the extent that it was a matter of sur-prising people with informa-tion and a misconstrual as to how we were addressing a common problem,” he said. “I think that we would be mindful, going forward, that we properly frame our com-munication … so that people understand what’s being dis-cussed and how it’s being dis-cussed.”

While the myElmhurst por-tal has become the point place for proposals and other docu-

ments, when asked about how the college intends to connect with all of its constituents, Ray said the administration doesn’t have the avenues of communication mapped out yet.

“Let me have the summer to think about it, if you guys have any ideas, let me know. But we do want to have an ef-fective means for doing this,” said Ray, who attributed not having a definite timeline for the financial plan to want-ing to first gather information from constituents.

“One of the things that I want to make clear in the coming months, as we go through this process, is that the administration deeply val-ues the people here. We value, not just their input and ideas, which we do, but we value them as individuals. That’s the motivation for my wanting the board to give us leeway to address these problems and not have a deadline to solve these things.”

*The Leader editors that participated in the discussion were Editor-in-Chief Haleema Shah, News and Online Edi-tor Patrick Erwin, Assistant News Editor Chrissy Croft, and Opinions Editor Clayton Dunlap.

“In looking at the recommendations from some of the transfer student

task forces, a lot of those recommen-dations are that we just do things

differently.”

Alzada Tipton

Dean of Faculty & Senior Vice Presi-

dent for Academic Affairs

NEWSecleader.org April 15, 2014 7

ADVERTISEMENT

Stanger is the residence hall that never sleeps.

Groups of shouting students pour into the front entrance nearly every night, tapping on the glass in hopes of being let in and led to the nearest party.

Pick up games of lacrosse, soccer, and football have been known to begin in the central lounge or hallways long after quiet hours have passed.

And night owls are notorious for leaving trash, food, and mys-terious stains throughout the building during the early morn-ing hours.

Clearly, Stanger is known for more than their ping pong tables.

As a result, the building has received the nickname of “Stanger Banger.” While school officials may cringe at this of-fensive title, some students seem to agree with the conno-tation.

Residence Life, however, does not agree, and is questioning the v alidity of this s tereotype.

One Stanger resident, Olivia*, defended the nickname based on personal experiences.

“There is always somewhere for me to drink in Stanger,” Ol-ivia said. “It’s [still] pretty fre-quent and [happens here] more than other buildings.”

She went on to describe pre-gaming, or drinking before go-ing to larger off-campus parties, claiming that it’s available to her every night of the week.

While drinking happens be-hind closed doors, the messy common areas are out in the open for all to see.

A quick tour of the building

on a recent weeknight revealed stains in the carpet, dishes left in the sink, spaghetti on the walls, and silly string in the hallway, which could all lead to common area charges.

These charges, commonly called floor charges, are admin-istered by the RLC and added to student account fees when a mess or damage occurs in public spaces. Although these custodial fees are small, it is a reflection of community behav-iors.

Joey Carrillo, a recent alum who graduated in 2013, lived in Stanger as an underclassman and said his former residence hall was known for having is-sues with messes and damages.

“The culture of Stanger was [always] Stanger Banger,” Car-illo said in a phone interview. “It’s weird because it’s the pre-determined culture in Stanger that people live up to. And as a result, they accrue [common area] charges.”

Sabrina Scholtes, a junior who now lives in West Hall, ob-served the same culture while living in Stanger her freshman and sophomore year.

“I haven’t been charged in West, but we got a lot of charg-es in Stanger. It was practically every month,” she said. “At one point, our RLC Shavonn Nowlin had to come talk to the fourth floor because we had the most charges on campus.”

Austin McGrath, current freshman and Stanger Hall Council President, claims there is an issue in the building, and thinks it’s only getting worse.

“As of late they seem more rapid. When I talk about how often we get charges, people in other buildings are surprised.

Especially this semester, we even had a full building charge,” he said.

Annie Liotiotine, current RLC, opposes this claim. She believes the “Stanger Banger” stereotype doesn’t apply to the current reality.

“I believe the past reputa-tion does not coincide with [this year’s actions],” Liotiotine said in an email. “In past years, I know that there has been the misperception that Stanger is higher in hall damages and in conduct. This year that is not the case, as Stanger is not the residence hall with the most damage or conduct.”

The Leader asked Residence Life to comment on the chang-es. While they declined to re-

lease specific dollar amounts, they did offer clarification about Stanger’s charges.

“Stanger Hall does not have the most charges this academic year,” said Rachael Willits, Assis-tant Director of Programming and Education in Residence Life, in an email to The Leader. “That perception is false.”

While residents understand that charges are needed to pay the custodial staff, the premise of paying for other students’ misconduct is growing tire-some.

Olivia recalls one recurring charge that involved a single student from a different floor.

“There’s a student who doesn’t even live on my floor that [sets up camp and] leaves

all his stuff in the lounge [on our floor],” she said. “It’s like he lives there, instead of his room, and so we all get charged [when it’s cleaned up]. It doesn’t help anything to charge us.”

McGrath challenges his com-munity to step up and have re-spect for the building.

“It’s a matter of maturity. People need to grow up. There shouldn’t be charges for blood in a bathroom stall. If you were in your parents house you would clean it up, so you should be cleaning it up here too.”

*name changed to protectprivacy

Stanger Banger: floor charges and fun

Photos by Chrissy CroftExamples of some of the damages around Stanger Hall, where students get frequent floor charges.

chrissy croftstaff writer

Institutes of Health until 2015.But despite having more

time to focus on her research, Dr. Noice anticipates it will feel strange no longer being a professor.

“You identify with your role as a teacher and being around students, but then you leave and that’s taken away,” she said. “You feel robbed of your identity.”

However, her legacy will not be forgotten.

“Beyond being endlessly helpful, [Dr. Noice] is always so friendly and has such a pos-itive presence,” Wiemers said. “She will be greatly missed by all who have had the good for-tune of knowing her.”

Bon voyage: Wally Lagerway

It was the fall of 1970 when Dr. Wally Lagerway landed at EC, starting a new job as a professor.

45 years later, Lagerway is retiring from a long EC career, and from his current role as the Director of International

Education. He’s led EC’s study abroad program for almost two decades.

Alice Niziolek, the pro-gram’s assistant director, will assume his role upon his re-tirement in June.

Lagerway’s own interna-tional travel as a teenager and college student fed his curiosity; his father was also a professor, and he had lived abroad.

Those experiences led him to his career path and to his work here.

“I came here originally as an assistant professor of Ger-man,” Lagerway explained. “I was [also] chair of the World Languages department for 23 years.”

In 1997, when Lagerway proposed the expansion of study abroad opportunities, few students were studying abroad.

His proposal dovetailed with the evolution of what would eventually become the Center for Professional Excel-lence (CPE). The new study abroad program emerged,

Lagerway said, from a new focus on emphasizing and expanding student experi-ences.

EC’s program offers both short term programs (dur-ing J-term or in summer months) as well as semester programs.

“The most satisfying part of my job,” Lagerway said, “is [seeing] the impact it has on [a student’s] development, and on their career goals.”

He added that one ben-efit of the program beyond its impact on students is the opportunities it gives faculty members to also travel and share the same experience.

After EC bids him bon voy-age, or in German, “Gute Reise,” he plans to keep busy with - what else? - travel. He’ll be crisscrossing the globe to visit his children and grandchildren.

“I always hoped I’d be able to retire on my own terms,” he said. “I’m very fortunate that I’m in that position, that I’m still at the top of my game.”

STAFF RETIREMENT from the front page

NEWS ecleader.orgApril 29, 20148

NEWSecleader.org

(EC’s fall enrollment fell this year to 535).

It’s a program Mulvaney, a pro-fessor of English, has worked hard to nurture since she first became director a decade ago.

The honors program had a long, rich history at EC, with professors Robert and Barbara Swords playing key roles when it launched in the 1960s.

Over the years, Mulvaney said, the program “ebbed and flowed.” In some years, the enrollment was in single digits.

“I was charged to reinvigorate the program,” she said. “I looked into how we could expand it, not just in numbers, but also in op-portunities.”

The program continues to grow, despite EC’s ongoing bud-getary woes. Honors gets a lim-ited operational budget from the College, and is sustained in part by private donations. (Its biggest supporting donors have asked to remain anonymous).

An EC student attending any event is likely to see two people in the crowd — Chaplain Matheney, and Mulvaney, who attends many lectures, dinners and meetings all over campus, often with honors students in tow.

Even detractors of EC’s hon-ors classes describe Mulvaney as someone who works tirelessly on behalf of students, and is fiercely protective of the program, which is part of the Center for Profes-sional Excellence (CPE).

“I think it’s great that we work in this integrated way,” she said. “We meet together, and we know each other’s students.”

Critical condition

The Leader talked to current students and alumni, as well as several professors, to get their take on EC’s honors program. While many had positive experi-ences, some expressed concerns about class content and what they felt was a general lack of structure and meaning in course offerings.

Several sources asked to make comments anonymously. Cur-rent students were concerned about their place in the program, while recent alumni pointed to the unique structure of the Hon-ors Program as part of the CPE, indicating they didn’t want to place their relationship with the CPE — a key source for career connections — in jeopardy.

Will (not his real name) was disappointed in his EC honors experience.

“Course offerings for honors students are pretty lackluster and inconsistent,” he said. “[I felt that] there was really no differ-ence between an honors course and a regular course. The courses that have challenged me the most were not honors classes, and one of my courses has the distinction of being the single worst class I ever [had] at EC.”

Owen (not his real name) was enthusiastic when he first heard about the program, but was dis-appointed at the reality.

“I did not have a good experi-ence with the Honors Program. My very first, and last, honors course ruined the experience for me because of the teacher’s lack

of clarity. My teacher did not ex-plain our assignments well at all,” Owen said. “In fact, I found myself working together with my friends, who were also confused, to try to figure it out. Talking to the teacher did not help. In addition, our assignments were graded at a 300 level. For a freshman intro-ductory course, this was frustrat-ing.”

Other students expressed satis-faction with the program.

Senior English major Aidan Miller is on track for Honors Pro-gram Scholar designation, and is taking an honors capstone class this semester. She’s glad she was a part of the program.

“Overall, I’ve enjoyed taking honors classes,” Miller said. “I’ve never felt the classes are too dif-ficult or that we are overloaded with work, although as an English major I am perhaps more used to writing many, many papers. At the same time, I have never thought they were too easy.”

Lee Borocz-Johnson, a junior English and philosophy major, is on a detailed research track at EC. He’s presented one paper, on Satan and “Paradise Lost,” at sev-eral honors conferences this year. He’s appreciative of the chance to do so.

“I’ve had opportunities that the program offers for undergraduate research conferences,” he said. “I’ve been able to participate in research presentations.”

Borocz-Johnson appreciates the differences he sees in honors classes.

“There’s an aura I associate with the program,” he said. “It’s an open space for students to be able to engage with material in a way [not thought possible]. It’s a rigorous academic discourse.”

He sees opportunities like con-ferences as vital ones.

“The purpose of research isn’t just a grade,” Borocz-Johnson said. “It’s to further a discourse, to contribute to conversations about things that are important or interesting.”

The written word

Mulvaney is a nationally recog-nized name in honors education, and has authored or co-authored several academic books, includ-ing Preparing Tomorrow’s Global Leaders: Honors International Education (National Collegiate Honors Council, 2013), co-au-thored with Kim Klein, director of the honors program at Shippens-burg Univ. in Pennsylvania.

“Our honors international edu-cation book project took nearly three years to complete,” Klein told The Leader in an email. “Throughout this long process, Dr. Mulvaney was a wonderful collaborator. She is a very ac-complished writer and editor, and she created numerous suc-cessful honors study abroad pro-grams for students. These quali-ties made her the ideal scholar to work with on this project.”

David Jolliffe, the Brown Chair of English Literacy at the Uni-versity of Arkansas, collaborated with Mulvaney on Academic Writing: Genres, Samples and Re-sources (Longman, 2004).

“I could not have wished for a

more valuable collaborator and co-author than Mary Kay Mul-vaney,” Jolliffe said in an email. “I had done substantial research that focused on a teaching col-lege composition by teaching the genres that student writers must produce in their majors and elec-tive courses. I knew that Mary Kay had done an extensive study

of what exactly those genres were. Together we produced a book that still, a decade later, finds a ready audience among instruc-tors in all fields who want to in-corporate writing sensibly and ef-fectively in their courses. It was a real joy to work with Mary Kay on this project.”

Other schools

The framework of EC’s program appears to be similar to compa-rable programs at other schools.

Like EC, Columbia College’s honors program looks for stu-dents with a 3.5 GPA or above, and looks at a number of factors, including high school GPA and test scores, when considering new incoming freshmen for the program.

Andrew Whatley, the director of Columbia College’s honors program, said that admissions staff do a great job at identifying candidates, but the nature of the program means grade point met-rics play a big role.

“GPAs themselves are not al-ways a great metric for evaluating student performance, but they’re what we’ve got,” Whatley said. “Ultimately, an honors program consists of courses taken by stu-dents and taught by instructors, and [a specific] program is only as good as those courses, students, and instructors.”

Whatley said Columbia’s data shows students give their pro-gram positive marks.

“[Our program] is evaluated through course evaluations each semester and occasional stu-dent focus groups and surveys,” he said. “I’m glad to report that student, and faculty, satisfaction with the program is very high.”

According to Whatley, about 8 percent of Columbia’s students are participating in the program.

Like Columbia and EC, DePaul looks at test scores and GPA’s for incoming freshman, but Nancy Grossman, associate director of DePaul’s honors program, said they also look at how engaged

students were in high school and community life when consider-ing honors program applicants.

She stresses that honors classes are far more rigorous than regular classes.

“[DePaul honors students must] complete at least one year of language study, and achieve intermediate proficiency in a lan-

guage other than English.” Student involvement in De-

Paul’s program is also robust, with 10 percent of the student body participating

Academic per-spective

While honors classes are unique, Mulvaney said courses are also designed to meet ECIC requirements, as well. She said she plays a big role in the honors program at the instructional level.

“I pick [instructors for] the pro-gram,” she said. “I look for people who are knowledgeable, dynamic in the classroom, who have stu-dent centered, interactive class-rooms [that aren’t] lecture based.”

While The Leader also talked to several faculty members, most were unwilling to go “on the re-cord” with their comments. Sev-eral said they appreciated the flexibility they had in creating honors sections, while others ex-pressed frustration at the lack of framework or guidelines for lead-ing an honors class, or a percep-tion that they were simply creat-ing “busy work.”

Michael Lindberg, Department Chair of Geography and geosci-ences, has taught a number of honors courses over the years, and is also on an honors class committee.

While his take on the program is generally positive, he said that questions about the inconsisten-cy of honors courses may be valid ones.

He believes some members of the faculty share those questions.

“I’m not looking for someone to tell me [what to teach],” Lind-berg said. “What I’m looking for is some standard guidelines to say, if an course is being taught at an honors level, here are some gen-eral objectives. Not cookie cutter things, but, ‘what makes this an honors course?’ It’s hard to ar-ticulate that sometimes. I’m not surprised that students would [wonder] what it means.”

Lindberg believes the require-

ments for the program, including GPA expectations, could be more challenging.

“[One of the] biggest criticisms from faculty is that the percentage of participation is high,” he said. “EC’s average GPA is 3.2, and 3.25 keeps you in the program.”

Lindberg praised Mulvaney’s work with the program, and in particular the slate of program-ming for events. But he expressed disappointment that students sel-dom take advantage of the events.

“Is there a higher level of en-gagement in an honors class? There should be. Is there always? No. Are honors students more se-rious students? Should they be? In theory, yes. Are they always, no. You can’t speak of students in the honors program as some sort of uniform monolithic group.”

The value of honors

EC’s Honors Program par-ticipation rate remains high, and student interest in the program remains high. Housed in the CPE, it’s part of an array of op-tions where students can not only chase their degree, but also get more career-ready.

Do the words “Honors Scholar” on a diploma make a difference?

John Hudson, a human re-sources professional working with two big media companies —Discovery Communications and Harpo Studios — said it would be meaningful, particularly for new graduates at the entry level.

“[We’re looking for] anything at that level that will set you apart from the competition,” he ex-plained. “That will definitely set you apart from other resumes.”

Hudson said the ultimate im-pact of that designation might de-pend on the industry.

“The experiential element would be a plus,” he added. “It al-ways shows more initiative.”

Complicating the perspective

Mulvaney said she’s open to hearing from students who are struggling with the program, or are disappointed with their expe-riences.

“If a student is feeling a dis-connect [from the program], I encourage them to come see me, and see if we can talk about what the difficulty was.”

But she emphasizes that the program isn’t meant to be one-size-fits-all.

“Students tell me they appreci-ate the flexibility in the program,” she said.

While she wants students to succeed, Mulvaney said she doesn’t want to make that goal easy. Nor should a student leave a class with a feeling that they have “the answer.”

“Courses should complicate a student’s perspective,” she added.

Students questioning the value of the program, or wondering what the difference is between regular and honors courses, may not find a clear, singular answer. It’s a complicated question that involves multiple perspectives —of students, of faculty, of many ac-ademic departments on campus.

April 29, 2014 9

HONORS PROGRAM from the front page

Photo illustration by Peter Flockencier and Kim McElheny Some students said the Honors Program fell short of their expectations.

opinions ecleader.org10

EC is not a bubblel Convergence l

{ }April 29, 2014

PATRICK ERWINnews & online editor

Finding the college’s outlookl Editorial l

Recently, some members of The Leader’s edi-torial board had a chance to sit down with Presi-dent Alan Ray, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Alzada Tipton, and Vice President for Finance and Administration, Jim Cunningham. The meeting was an informal opportunity to discuss the state of EC, it’s finan-cial outlook, and wherever else the conversation might wander.

Upon entering the president’s office, our eyes were met with the college’s insignia, intricately carved from a block of wood. Our familiarity with the symbol precedes itself, as it has seen stamped across campus on the facade of a building, or pressed into college stationery.

While the insignia in the president’s office is static, what it represents, as this year has shown uniquely apparent, is something less clearly de-fined. The college’s identity moving forward, hides beneath, caught between a statuesque Niebuhr, and the long contemplation of a continuingly restless administration, faculty, staff, and student body.

Once we were all introduced, Ray began the conversation with the hope that we would un-derstand the administration “can’t speculate” on what will ultimately be in the final proposal to the board.

Things are very much uncertain until the board meets. This has been a motif, weaving in and out of committee meetings and classrooms over the past year.

Initially, The Leader wanted to talk progress with the administration, but inquiries on the state of the Financial Working Group, the proposals from the Innovation Task Force, or the college’s strate-gic plan, were all tightly woven in the same uncer-tainty, and reluctance to speculate by the admin-istration.

EC has been back to the drawing board again and again this year, so it’s time the college begins to hone a vision, moving forward, forming a re-tuned identity to fill the space behind its insignia again.

The Leader feels strongly at this point that trans-parency between the administration and the board and the rest of EC is a formal expectation going forward, even though the current financial task forces are only temporary. And President Ray says this level of communication recently has suit-ed EC well.

“[The task forces] are a place where you have all

the constituencies around campus,” he said. “It’s well-situated to take in innovative ideas...My thing is that nothing is lost. Everything is adapted.”

Since transparency and the collective sharing of ideas has proved beneficial to our current ap-proach, as it was appealed for by students, faculty, and staff, The Leader feels this should be taken as a mandate by the administration for the future.

In addition to transparency, talk of increased efforts by the college to attract international and transfer students was recurring as well. The Leadercommends the administration for employing rec-ommendations for the college to maximize its at-traction abroad and across college campuses. This focus will strengthen EC’s recognition beyond the confines of our cozy campus, and further legiti-mize EC as an academic institution.

On April 15, The Leader ran a front page story which examined the idea of changing the to “Elm-hurst University.” Sure, there are the obvious pains involved in changing the name on buildings and staff polos, but let’s put that aside. While there may not be “any appetite on anyone’s part in starting a big conversation like that [now],” Ray explained, if focus on international students becomes more se-rious, it would be certainly more likely to change, given the word “college” abroad indicates high school.

The Leader supports the investigation of a name change, as it will certainly remove any confusion as to what EC is as an institution. And though it is not an immediate issue, we hope the administra-tion will keep “Elmhurst University” under serious consideration.

Finally, the fate of the book cellar was discussed, as well. The proposal of creating an exclusively on-line bookstore and possibly converting the space to an extended student center.

The Leader believes a change to an online-exclusive bookstore would be a great move, and feels any opportunity for the college to strengthen campus life for students outside the classroom should be taken. An additional area for students to work or relax on campus could also decrease the amount of students leaving on the weekends.

The college is in such a malleable state, and will be for sometime to come. Because EC is in the midst of such a pivotal redefining process, The Leader hopes to push toward an identity for the college strong enough to stand behind its insignia.

Picture it: a community with pastoral surroundings, amidst the trees.

A community that can’t de-cide whether it’s in drive, neu-tral or reverse. A place that embraces history and resists change or a chance to evolve.

Am I complaining about El-mhurst College again?

Actually, no. I’m thinking about how those words apply not to EC, but rather, to the city of Elmhurst.

That feeds a question that’s been in my head for a while: How does the city of Elmhurst’s decisions affect us here on campus?

I don’t think anyone in city government holds any ill will against EC. But basic city de-cisions often affect us in ways students seldom consider.

EC’s presence in a highly residential area means zoning plays a role in what our campus looks like. We can’t expand our parking here, or build a two-story garage. There’s no quick dining options within walking distance to campus.

We’ve been talking all year about how EC is at a cross-roads, one where choices made about our mission and purpose will affect the future for years to

come.The same could be said of the

city of Elmhurst. Residents, developers and

council have been fighting over one building (a parking garage on Addison) for five years, and have been discussing a second project, the redevelopment of the Hahn Street area, for nearly a decade.

As an Urban Studies major, I find the discussions and the conflict fascinating.

I spoke to a city official who told me that many residents crave amenities. (Trader Joe’s was one ‘amenity’ that came up a lot in conversation).

But in many ways, residents and officials want to keep things exactly as they are, a liv-ing museum to past glories and memories.

Gee, this is starting to remind me of somewhere...

Of course, growth for growth’s sake, or unplanned growth and change, is not the goal. And it’s easy to see a clear path in hindsight, of course—looking ahead is far more chal-lenging.

But growing and evolving takes a clear vision and a com-mitment.

Like a strong tree, it may mean trimming some branch-es and encouraging others to grow.

The city of Elmhurst wants to grow, but also wants to main-tain the status quo. I’d argue that sometimes, EC wants it both ways as well.

Can we make tough choices, and take chances, on our fu-ture? Will the city proceed with smart growth, or live in a vir-tual Pleasantville?

It’s hard to ignore the paral-lels. The city is a bigger influ-ence than we’d like to admit.

Illustration by Tyler Kerr

opinionsecleader.org April 29, 2014 11

l Like You Even Care l

Op-ed cartoon by Tyler Kerr

I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Com-munication Studies. I like to tell people that I’m getting a “B.S. in B.S.,” and people always love that joke because Communica-tion majors have it so easy.

It sucks. If you are looking to find me

on campus, I’m most likely to be in Founders Lounge, seem-ingly doing nothing and getting no work done. In reality, I am studying for my classes, seek-ing examples of theories, terms, and principles of concepts I just learned in class.

My classes are easy because I don’t have to wait five years to see the application of a concept become useful to me—I get to see it right now.

My academic course load is fairly easy, or maybe my classes seem easy because they are al-ways subjects I find interesting, or at the very least they are easily

applicable to my life.The concepts I learn are com-

mon sense with a structured vocabulary attached, and have a myriad of examples to accom-pany them.

For example, I wrote an aca-demic paper that applied com-munication theory to a romantic relationship of mine and re-ceived an A for the assignment.

In reality, the only part of my major that I hate is the way other people treat it.

I understand where people are coming from, because I used to hold the exact same opinion.

For three years, I was majoring in Biology and often found my-self thinking poorly of commu-nications majors while I bitterly memorized all of my biological theories.

“Must be nice to sit around and do nothing all day,” I used to think to myself. But now I’m on the other side.

The worst part about other people is the lens they view Communication through. Most people do not take it seriously and often make fun of it to my face.

On top of that, even though our curricular work load is easier than other majors, the expecta-tion for our extracurricular in-volvement on campus is daunt-ing.

People have asked me, “Oh, you’re a Com major? What are

you involved in on campus?” Extracurricular activities and a

major in Communications seem to be synonymous.

A number of individuals in my classes are involved with our Greek life system, many students are juggling internships and jobs, and almost every single classmate of mine can say they are a general member of a stu-dent organization on campus.

There’s an expectation that we have the time to be in as many organizations as we want, and to be accepting of other people pil-ing on the extracurricular work-load for us.

It wouldn’t be so bad if people took us seriously.

Business majors are expected to have a high extracurricular load too, but their academic life is well-respected.

People in the Sciences are ex-pected to not have any time be-yond their academic schedule to participate in extracurricular activities.

Of all of the majors I’ve en-countered, Communications is the only one that isn’t respected, but is still held to such high ex-pectations.

I have a solution; either don’t take us seriously and leave us alone, or take our packed sched-ule seriously and respect the time and effort we put into the campus.

Katie Matthewsstaff writer

l Deal with It lJudging communicationsIs there a doctor in

the house, happy?

l Under the Microscope l

Why are so many doctors—the people charged with keeping you healthy and happy—themselves unhealthy and unhappy?

Only about three percent of physicians smoke, but six out of ten doctors and nurses are over-weight or obese, according to The Atlantic.

White male doctors are 1.87 times more likely to kill them-selves than average, according to a study of 11 million death certifi-cates from 1984 to 1998.

But here’s the zinger that burns through the catcher’s mitt.

Nine out of ten doctors would not recommend health care as a profession, according to a na-tionwide survey of over 5,000 physicians and surgeons by The Doctor’s Company, the country’s largest medical liability insurer.

Here’s the next, contradictory zinger that burns through the backstop: applications to Ameri-can medical schools have never been higher.

As reported by the American Association of Medical Colleges last October, 48,014 applications were filed and over 20,000 stu-dents enrolled in their first year of medical school in 2013.

This might be merely because of numbers; the U.S.’s population, while not winning any sprints, is still growing. There are more people, and more people who want to go to medical school just by chance.

It may be due to economics.Everyone, it seems, has a phy-

sician cousin, childhood friend, or acquaintance who could buy a small island if they wanted to. In our unstable times, many stu-dents think the benefits outweigh the $250,000 or so cost of loan debt entry.

It might even be because of al-truism, optimism, and empathy.

Though I couldn’t find empiri-cal data saying this, in my experi-ence most of the folks I know on the pre-med track are genuine, compassionate people who be-lieve the silly little notion they can improve lives in ways the major-ity of us can’t.

To realize how, more often than not, this gets stomped out of them by the time they begin practicing is heartbreaking.

Much of it has to do with the rigor of medical training.

Students are taught just about everything a person can possibly retain about anatomy, biology, physiology, and biochemistry.

They are tested in public. They are tested in private. They are scruti-nized, criticized, always asked to justify.

And these are not bad things. They are the good stuff the scien-tific method is made of.

But I figure it’s telling of hu-man nature that people must be trained so long and hard to think logically and thoroughly on any consistent basis.

We aren’t inherently logical creatures. Our basic emotions of fear, joy, sadness, and sympa-thy, our impulses for food, water, warmth, and sex usually aren’t the most rational phenomena around.

It seems medical training tries to overcome them enough—build a scaffold around them, if you will—to allow for fair diag-noses, methodical procedures, retention of what this organ does and where that muscle connects to the bone.

Doing this constantly, though, becomes dehumanizing. When you’re not looking, it can squash your love of learning, because ev-ery new piece of knowledge has strings attached.

I’m sure dozens, hundreds, thousands of other factors con-tribute to your doctor’s unhappi-ness and unhealthiness.

The flux of the field caused by the Affordable Care Act probably isn’t helping.

Paying an average of $58 to process each patient’s insurance forms probably isn’t helping. Tak-ing on 2,000 to 2,500 patients, as the typical general practitioner does, probably isn’t helping.

In the end, there’s little time for healthy diets, exercise, and stress relief, as made clear by the statis-tics above.

But what’s not helping the most is our failure to recognize that, for all of their meticulous train-ing, credentials, and intelligence, doctors are human.

They need downtime. They need opportunities to have ro-mantic partners, children, and vacations. They need things that make them happy.

While I hope healing others makes them happy, rare is the person who’s pleased by only one experience.

This isn’t an argument to leave doctors unprepared for stuffy noses and emergencies alike. No-body wants that.

But it is an argument to re-member the humanity of people we too often don’t, and work to prevent its loss.

BRETT PETOstaff writer

“Nine out of ten doctors would not

recommend health

care as a profession.”

This is the time of the year where college maybe is not so fun. With the school year winding down and the seemingly never-ending, near soul-crushing workload leading up to finals week ramps up, it is easy to just bury your head in the ground and plow through that work, and the buildup only serves as a reminder that life is only going to get harder the more time passes.

But it’s also nice outside, and the cool breeze and light sun is beckoning through the open window. When it’s time to take a break from the piles of papers that have to be written, it may be best to do something that isn’t so college-like to relieve some of that stress. Do something that harkens back to a time when determining a career path wasn’t the biggest worry on the mind; go back to a time when there weren’t that many worries at all. A pair of new stores in the downtown Elmhurst area is aiming to bring a newfound sense of cheer and excitement that’s both kid-friendly and nostalgic fun at the same time. Goalie’s Goodies, which sells pop-corn and retro candy, and Main Street Candy and Toys, which has everything from dinosaur toys to jigsaw puzzles, both have a unique style that aims to evoke a feeling reminiscent of the shops that existed years ago.

Opening the doors of a self-owned business can be like taking that first plunge into the pool. While it may be intimidating to look out that

storefront window, hoping that just one person will walk in, the dedication behind the store’s core idea can be enough to drive

customers in.

Victoria Brewton, a life-long toy lover who owns the store with her husband, wanted to open up her store not only to explore one of her interests, but also create something that her own kids can enjoy. “I wanted to find a business that I was passionate about, but

one that I can get my kids involved in,” she said. “I’m very pas-sionate about my store. I think sometimes people get into busi-

ness for monetary reasons, but if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it’s going to show.”

For Brewton, that passion has allowed her to stay afloat for some time

Starting From Scratch

now. The store in Elmhurst, which just opened on April 19, is actually the sec- ond Main Street Candy and Toys location she opened up. The first store opened

in Plainfield in 2012, and is about a third of the size of the Elmhurst location, ac-cording to Brewton. She found that the downtown Elmhurst area fit the kind of feel

they had back in Plainfield.

“We are partial to downtown suburbs, so we wanted find the perfect downtown location,” she said.

Debbie Watrous, who opened Goalie’s Goodies last June, got the tip to land in Elmhurst from a friend of hers after scouting loca-tions in the city. She decided on popcorn as her shop’s central idea after some trial and error. She originally started out baking cupcakes, but became discontent with the high demand her cakes had gotten with little return. “People wanted ‘Ace of Cakes’ style cakes, but wanted Jewel prices,” she said. “I moved onto popcorn because it was more of a blank slate and was something I knew I could do on my own. I also loved popcorn growing up, so there’s that.”

In order to navigate the initial rough waters, taking customer feedback is something shop owners can use to constantly reform to keep their businesses proudly above water.

“The hardest part about owning your own business is rolling with the punches,” said Watrous. “You have to take other people’s ideas to move forward.”

Ian Walker, beat editor

New elmhurst shops offer a sweet retro experience

Photo by Haleema Shah

Establishing a Name

A unique Sense of PlaceFor the last couple of years, Elmhurst has provided a fertile down-town area for seemingly every new food craze to sprout up, includ-ing everything from cupcakes to frozen yogurt. Retro anything always seem to be popular, and both stores have a retro feel that fits in well with the downtown scene, while also boasting their own personalities.

Walk into Goalie’s Goodies, it’s easy to see where the name comes from. A giant goalie decal adorns the back wall, and the pennants of all 30 NHL teams hang all in a row. Owner Debbie Watrous decided to run with the hockey theme because she’s been playing hockey as a goalie since she was 19.

“A friend of mine came up with the name, and I loved it,” said Wa-trous. “My husband also plays hockey, so we got a lot of the decora-tions from him.”

Look inside Main Street Candy and Toys, and it is like looking at one giant plaything playground. Buckets of bouncy balls and displays full of wind-up gizmos are laid out throughout the store, just waiting to be picked.

“This is not the place where we tell people they shouldn’t touch things,” Brewton said. “This is the place that we let them touch things and play with them.”

That retro personality really is evident in the store’s product lines. Watrous’ love of popcorn has allowed her to experiment with different popcorn flavors. Her store naturally has the staple flavors, like but-

ter, cheddar and caramel, but she also sells more unique flavors like ranch, buffalo and one she calls the Chicago mix, a caramel and cheese combo that is one of her top sellers. All of the pop-

corn flavors, plus the more nostalgic candy, is all part of a plan to bring people in seeking to relive part of their past.

“My goal is to be the corner candy store like I had when I was a kid where you felt rich when you had three or four bucks in your hand,” said Watrous. “I like reminding people of their childhood.”

All of the toy lines selected for Brewton’s store are very thought out, and a lot of them are new toys trying to make a name for themselves.

Having only been open for a brief amount of time, both stores are still at-tempting to establish their name in the Elmhurst community. With the downtown area offering a wide variety of shops, Watrous is already starting to find her niche in the Elmhurst ecosystem.

“I had somebody from the Elmhurst hospital come in one time and she told me ‘I always wanted a popcorn shop in Elmhurst.’ That means a lot,” she said.

Both stores have the retro factor emanating from their doorsteps, and while the shops are perfect for today’s young generation, they’re also lur-ing older passerby that are looking for a flashback to their childhood.

“When you see something that you’ve had when you were a kid, you’re in-stantly in feel good mode,” said Brewton. “That’s kind of the goal, to bring hap-piness everywhere.

“We bring in lines that are brand new inventions, and bring them in so that people can come in and play with them,” she said. “If you put those

products inside of a Target or Wal-Mart, those kinds of products get lost. Our store, we bring in those kinds of toys to put that name out

there.”

That’s not to say that older toys aren’t represented. There’s a tangible sense of old and new toys mixed together meant for all audiences that gives the store its own unique sense of place.

“We’ve got a lot of nostalgic flair in the store, and we’ve got a lot of vintage toys,” said Brewton. “We want to bring fam-ily time back. It’s like a blast from the past, which is always a

nice feeling.”

Layout and Design by Nikki Smith

Photo by Haleema Shah

Beat ecleader.orgApril 29, 201414

EC art professor reflects on Imagist past

Ian walkerbeat editor

For somebody walking through the EC library, set-tling into a spot along the back wall to put their bags down and study, chances are they are probably sitting next to a painting. The 120 plus paint-ing collection contains some simpler designs to some truly abstractionist stuff, all hanging together united by a theme that may not be as apparent, but is wholly intentional.

That theme is managed by Suellen Rocca, EC professor of art. Since 2006, Rocca has been the curator of the EC art collection, named the Imagist

Art Collection after the group the entire collection is meant to represent: the Chicago Im-agists. An art movement that dates back to the 1960’s, Rocca was a part of the Chicago Imag-ists and uses the collection to share a piece of Chicago art his-tory that she and her peers were associated with.

“This style of art is uniquely Chicago, it’s not really associ-ated with anywhere else,” said Rocca. “Region [of the art] does make a difference.”

Rocca was a part of a group of Chicago Imagists known as the Hairy Who. The group start-ed out as just a group of young artists who had graduated to-gether from the School of the

Art Institute of Chicago, who celebrated their similarities as much as their differences.

“We were all interested and excited about each other’s work,” she said. “There were similarities amongst our styles, but it was mostly things that we would do that were different that gravitated us towards each other.”

When the group decided that they wanted to hold an exhibition of their own, they approached the Hyde Park Art Center, knowing they were in-terested in young artists like themselves. After agreeing to take them on, Hairy Who put on exhibitions in 1966, ’67 and ’68, where they established their name in the Chicago art scene.

As for the name Hairy Who, Rocca recalls that had to do par-ticularly fussy art critic.

“It was a pun on the name of a critic who was on [the radio station] WFMT at the time who we were not fond of. His first name was Harry, and one of the group said ‘Harry who?’ So we changed Harry to Hairy and

went with that,” she said. During her time with the Chi-

cago Imagists, Rocca said she was inspired by things in popu-lar culture, similar to the kind of pop art that made Andy Warhol famous during that time period.

“Advertising was an inspira-tion, things like the Sears cata-log pages. I was also interested in children’s pre-readers that used pictures that were sort of like hieroglyphs,” she said. “In a general way, I used things that people sort of take for granted, and don’t see the sort of strange or unusual quality that they have.”

Rocca shares that inspiration she and her peers had through the Imagist collection in the li-brary. The collection was start-ed in 1971 by Sandra Jorgensen, who was the chair of the EC Art Department at the time. Having gotten to know Jorgensen for a bit, Rocca feels honored that she choose to feature the collec-tion around the Chicago Imag-ist movement, and feels just as honored in succeeding her.

While the collection is on

constant display for the EC community to see, Rocca is ea-ger to point out that people from the entire Elmhurst community come and visit it. Sometimes even the paintings do the visit-ing, when she loans the pieces out to various museums and in-stitutions all over the world. It’s all part of a job that Rocca never imagined would come her way.

“I never thought I’d be a cu-rator, but the opportunity to introduce the general public and students to our collection is very exciting and thrilling. What could be better?” she said. “Life is a journey that leads in differ-ent directions, and you never know where it’s going to take you.”

Between being the curator of EC’s art collection, teaching art to students, and still finding some spare time to paint, Rocca is just thankful for the big part art has played in her life.

“I’ve never had to do any-thing that didn’t have to do with art, and all of it was so interest-ing. I’ve been very lucky.”

Scheming gal pals fail in ‘Other Woman’ kaIley Hansenstaff writer

Could it be that the other woman is Cameron Diaz after finding out that her boyfriend is already married? Or is the other

woman the gal who the boy-friend starts seeing after Camer-on Diaz teams up with his wife

in order to get revenge? Or the woman after that? Either way “The Other Woman” parades it-self as a girl-power comedy but lacks any real substance.

The film is directed by Nick Cassavetes, known for films like

“The Notebook” and “My Sis-ter’s Keeper,” and begins with Carly (Cameron Diaz) finding out that her boyfriend (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has been keep-ing his wife Kate (Leslie Mann) a secret. So when Diaz and Mann run into each other and the truth spills out, plotting against the man who has wronged them both ensues. Oddly enough, the two become BFFs and discover that their mutual male enemy has started seeing Amber (Kate Upton). Upton’s character joins the bandwagon and together the comedic trio embarks on a quest to sabotage their former sweetheart.

The estrogen-fueled cast con-tinues with Nicki Minaj, appear-ing as Diaz’s assistant in a role that doesn’t really serve much purpose other than dishing out sass and giving a big name pop artist her movie debut. None of the roles strike as memorable and Diaz and Mann’s comedic talents are often downplayed by the crappy, unimaginitive script.

However, Mann and Diaz’s

duo do create some of the fun-nier moments on screen. De-spite the silly humor, the dy-namic of their characters earn some laughs. They manage to form a friendship similar to those seen in “Bridesmaids” or “The Hangover” but probably won’t be as memorable.

The movie seems to be an at-tempt to be a feminist flick that pushes away from the tradition-al romantic comedy. Women who can fight against heart-break and fight together may be the next string of movies that hit the theaters (Hey, we even got a little of that in “Frozen”!). However the fact that the three women almost instantaneously become besties is hard to buy and the repeated slapstick hu-mor makes for a story that lacks real emotional depth.

Ultimately the plot of the sto-ry becomes the other woman becoming the other woman becoming the other woman in a vicious cycle that will leave the audience fleeing the theater wishing for a better romantic comedy.

VERDICT:

1 PEANUT

Photo courtesy of Suellen Rocca(From left to right) Karl Wirsum, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Suellen Rocca and Jim Nutt are five of the six members the Chicago Imagist group known as Hairy Who.

Photo by Peter FlockencierSuellen Rocca has been the curator of the EC Chicago Imagist col-lection since 2006.

Internet PhotoLeslie Mann, Nicki Minaj, Cameron Diaz and Kate Upton laugh and scheme in “The Other Woman.”

Beatecleader.org April 29, 2014 15

Local indie game creators find successandy prIgnanostaff writer

As they watched their Kick-starter campaign shoot past its initial $6,000 goal from their Logan Square apartment, Dan Fitzgerald, a freelance multi-media producer, and Lisa Bro-miel, a marketing assistant at the Logan Theatre, wondered what was next for the cam-paign for “Dog Sled Saga,” the game that they’d designed.

Clearly, it was no longer a pet project.

“That one day was really stressful with all of the excite-ment of the day. That’s kind of a high anxiety moment. Lisa was at work and it’s like, oh hey, we succeeded. We had to scram-ble to come up with all of these new goals that we weren’t sure would even fit with the project yet,” Fitzgerald said.

“Dog Sled Saga” is a dog sled racing game that allows play-ers to create their own dog sled team. Players can upgrade their dogs and gear through prize money won from a series of randomized races.

How did two 26-year-old graduates from Northern Illi-nois Univ. with no experience in game development garner so much support? The answer: a solid premise, a close knit group of indie game develop-ers, and support from their friends.

Fitzgerald had always been adept at video gaming and computer programing, so his decision to develop a game of his own seemed almost inevi-

table. When he remembered how Bromiel, his girlfriend, mentioned she wanted to gain more experience working with digital art forms, he ap-proached her with the idea.

“It’s kind of my learning digi-tal art project as well as our current life project. I just didn’t realize it would be such a massive un-dertaking that, you know, would take up over a year of our lives,” Bromiel said.

When trying to figure out a con-cept, Fitzgerald kept coming back to the idea of us-ing dogs. He men-tioned how he’d never reacted to a character’s death in most other games and wanted to avoid a similar fate for the characters in their game.

He decided that it would be much easier to get players invested in the game characters by mak-ing them dogs, tapping into the connection people feel with pets.

With what Fitzgerald now dubs the “pet factor” in their minds, the couple decided upon making a game about dog sled racing.

Through the creation of the game, Fitzgerald and Bromiel soon became a part of a com-munity full of independent video game developers. The

community is made up of all different types of people, from video game fans with little ex-perience to professional de-velopers who used to work as industry leaders.

Both Fitzgerald and Bromiel express gratitude to the com-munity for giving them insight

and motivation to keep going.“It’s actually super motivat-

ing to [talk to] people [who have done] the various stages of things we’ve either done or are doing,” Fitzgerald said.

They’re also grateful for the support of friends who helped give their Kickstarter its initial boost.

It was the burst of Kickstarter support that eventually led to an invitation to present at PAX East, a major video game con-vention that was held in Bos-

ton earlier this month. “Some really great friends

donated more than we ever imagined and I think it was that beginning spike that helped us get named project of the day,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald sees their inexpe-rience as a plus in some ways.

“[Our] learning on the job has led to some rather interest-ing developments. I ended up using a ver-sion of Photoshop for the background, and I don’t think anyone really does that, but I really like how it turned out.” Fitzger-ald said

But that experi-ence also presented a learning curve.

Fitzgerald ended up taking a few months off of “Dog Sled Saga” to create a new game called “Dawn of the

Plow” in an attempt to further his skills as a developer.

“I pretty much did ‘Dawn of the Plow’ to work through some problems, and have a little more experience when I went back to ‘Dog Sled Saga.’” he said.

Since the Kickstarter whirl-wind, Fitzgerald and Bromiel have been featured in various media, including the gaming website joystiq.com and the podcast BigSushi.fm.

At PAX East, Fitzgerald and Bromiel presented their game as a part of Indie Mega Booth,

a collaborative group that buys up larger blocks of space at various conferences and con-ventions, and then distributes it to smaller independent game developers.

Fitzgerald ultimately be-lieves the interest in “Dog Sled Saga” can be attributed to a de-mographic of gamers who are seeking out newer, more char-acter-intensive forms of video games, and are turning away from the overproduced style offered by many contemporary console game, which are often dependent on graphic pizzazz, but short on character invest-ment and player engagement.

At EC’s recent Gaming Ex-travaganza, held at the A.C. Buehler Library, player desire for classic games was easily recognizable. While some stu-dents used newer consoles like Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360, many games being played were older arcade style games.

David Hudyka, Vice Presi-dent of GEEC, one of the groups sponsoring the Gaming Extravaganza, cites a combina-tion of nostalgia and simplic-ity.

“Of course there’s the nostal-gia factor,” Hudyka said as he proudly wore a Super Smash Bros. championship belt. “But these games are easy to make and easy and fun to play.”

Hudyka added it’s the Indie gaming arena where the older games, and games like them, are often found.

‘Last Winter’ marks solid debut for Basbrandon porterstaff writer

Being J. Cole’s first signed art-ist to his newly formed Dream-ville Records imprint may come with some pressure, but new-comer Bas uses this moment to further on his journey into the rap game.

With his “Quarter Water Raised Me” series of mixtapes hitting the net over the past two years, Bas is able to finally get his studio debut, “Last Winter,” to the masses. Immediately with the intro track “New World Or-der (N.W.O.)” we get a smooth flow from Bas that is prevalent

throughout the album. Bas isn’t the most technically

gifted rapper, but he does have a keen ear for beats and rides them well with his East-Coast-Snoop-Dogg type flow. He calls on his label head J. Cole for stand out track “Just Made Bail” where Cole croons the hooks in a lyrical interpolation of En Vogue’s 90’s hit “Free Your Mind.”

The most impressive track on the album might be Bas’ expres-sion of a chick’s ass on “Donk of the Day” as the beat allows for him to shine lyrically. Bas shows some versatility in his flows and ability on tracks like

“Golden Goals” and “On The Dos Equis, The Most Interesting Man In The World”. He is able to experiment with his cadence and use a more timed, rapid flow to compliment the beats.

Bas’ stories don’t move ground like those of Nas or Eminem, but they do allow the listener to join the movement of an up-and-coming rapper who is starting to make some noise. He doesn’t do any one thing great, but he does most things well, and “Last Winter” is a sol-id debut as he tries to make his ascent to the top of the buzzing rappers list.

Internet PhotoBas’ album drops through J. Cole’s Dreamville Records label.

Photo Courtesy of Lisa Bromiel and Dan Fitzgerald“Dog Sled Saga,” the game Dan Fitzgerald and Lisa Bromiel funded through Kickstarter, lets the player command their own dog sled team and race against other teams.

Photo Courtesy of Lisa Bromiel and Dan Fitzgerald(From left to right) Both Dan Fizgerald and Lisa Bromiel have been active gamers for a long time.

Beat ecleader.orgApril 29, 201416

l MiddleGround l

Dames at Sea Elmhurst’s final theatre production

of the year is a 1960s musical, paro-dying the 1930s era of musicals. First premiering Off-Off-Broadway in 1966, it then moved to the next level — Off-Broadway in 1968. The story details a young naïve woman moving to New York looking to make it big as an actress. The play features humor, romance, and vari-ous twists thrown in all along the way. Dames at Sea has successfully appeared in London, was adapted for TV in the 1970s, and has been continually revived in the time since its original premiere.

Thursday – Friday, May 1-2, 8 p.m.; Sat,

May 3, 3 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Thurs-Sat, May 8-10, 8 p.m.

$5 studentsMill Theatre

Law And Order Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has

made news in the last few years for try-ing a different way of doing business in the law enforcement and prison circles, and he will be visiting EC on May 5 to talk about his experience. He’s refused to conduct evictions on homeowners being foreclosed in the midst of the re-cession. Additionally, he’s sought out alternative methods of rehabilitation as opposed to following status quo in an overburdened system.

Monday, May 5, 7 p.m.FREEFrick Center – Founders’ Lounge

Harvey Milk, Proposition 8 and Me Dustin Lance Black is a film director,

producer, screenwriter, as well as a so-cial activist. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009 for “Milk” — the story of Harvey Milk, an early advocate for civil rights for those in the LGBT community. Black most recently wrote a play, “8,” which details the real-life account of the trial and testi-mony that resulted in the overturning of California’s controversial Proposition 8. Those interested in learning about Prop-osition 8 and same-sex marriage should be sure to check out this event.

Thursday, May 8, 7 p.m.FREEFrick Center – Founders’ Lounge

Art in the Park The City of Elmhurst is hosting their

18th annual Art in the Park this week-end. This two-day event offers an art show from 125 Midwestern artists, food, treats, giveaways, and more. There will be coffee, pastries, and lunch available inside Wilder Mansion, compliments of Café Amano. There will also be food vendors — including Cupcakes for Cour-age, Fratello’s (chicken wings & pizza), Heys Ice Cream, and Homemade Waf-fle Cones, Kettle Corn, and Italian Ice. Mariano’s is one of the major sponsors of the event, so there will be a lot of give-aways from them.

Saturday-Sunday, May 3-4, 10 a.m.-5

p.m.FREEWilder Park

Internet Photo Internet Photo Internet Photo Internet Photo

JosepH kokstaff writer Getting you through the dull days separating our bi-weekly issues... Because we care.

l Off the Wire ltyler kerrcartoonist

Politics boring you? Sick of hearing about #thirdworldproblems? Tired of seeming like an ignorant slob? Off The Wire compiles the worlds’s quirkiest news to help avoid that uncomfortable lull in conversation.

Cartoon by Tyler Kerr

Ronald McDonald RebrandedWhat before seemed an impossibility is now very real; Ronald McDon-

ald is even creepier. The McClown’s recent makeover (which according to Jezebel is “normcore,” but nobody understands what that trend really is) has placed him in the top ranks of GQ’s “scariest pieces o’shit of the year.” The rebranding has Ronnie McDonnie hanging up that ill-fitting jumpsuit and sporting an even dumber looking blazer and bow tie. But fear not (or, actually, a lot) because his super-sized shoes remain laced and his god-damn terrifying eyebrows are still frozen on that pasty forehead.

Really Bored Man on Speed VHS HuntThanks to recent publicity from Vice and

a rather successful Kickstarter campaign (those work?) “Speed” super-fan Ryan Beitz might actually achieve his dream of owning every copy of the 1994 film on VHS. The mis-sion, titled “The World Speed Project,” is not only focused on collecting the dated Reeves/Bullock classic, but also converting a broken down van into a replica of the film’s bus. And as the project picks up steam (didja catch that one?) Speed’s screenwriter Graham Yost joins in on the “fun,” offering up his own personal copy. He recently told Entertainment Weekly, “Other than world peace and ending hunger, I can think of no greater cause than what this one brave and visionary man has embarked upon.”

Filmmakers Hit a Wall, Use Peeps as Film FodderHollywood has officially run out of ideas. That sentence starts off a good ma-

jority of mediocre stories in pop culture publications several times a year, but like this is totally for real now. A movie based on Marshmallow Peeps is in the works. Not to be confused with Tyler Perry’s “Peeples,” the plot follows an avian fluff nugget as it tries to find its way back to the Easter candy diorama from which it came. Fucking thrilling. A little birdie told IMDB and several other sources that director Adam Rifkin and (maybe) Tom Arnold will be involved. No titles have hit the press yet, but one can only guess it’ll be something like “The Deathly Mal-lows” or “Jeepers Peepers.”

Franco Plagiarizes Sexy Rogen ArtJames Franco is trying SOOO hard to con-

vince the world he is gay that he just might do it this time. The way-too-long list of Franco’s recent be-gay-vior includes post coital celeb cuddling, dildo cakes, and (personal fav!) busting a nut on Batman. Franco upped the ante this past week, releasing some crude paintings of his buddy Seth Rogen titled “Seth at Play” and “Big Bear.” But according to Queerty, Franco creatively lifted these images from artist Christopher Schulz, who original-ly penned the drawings in 2011. No surprise here, especially since Franco has verbalized his support for fellow actor-plagiarizer Shia LeBeouf. “Whatever,” says the world because, in the end, it’s just James Franco.

THE FUN PAGE

Leader HoroscopesHelping you with the little things like what to have for lunch,

and the more important things like your non-existent love life. tyler kerrstaff cartoonist

The number 15 holds signifi-cance for you. It’s the approxi-mate amount of weight you’ll gain after polishing off that Easter basket.

Be safe this week or some of your crustacean friends might find a nice, bushy home.

Time to drop those old mob connections. You could be sleeping with the fishes.

Your life is bullshit (sorry, that was cheap).

To be or not to be? That is your question. Lean towards the latter.

Graduation? Ha. Think again.

Earth Day is over. Arbor Day has passed. STFU.

Need help balancing your stride? Here’s some help: left, right, left, right (repeat).

Anyone up for a game of William Tell?

Need a scapeGOAT? Blame yourself for your mis-fortune.

Water water everywhere and we’re blaming you.

Just go buy a Magic 8-Ball, whydonchya?

Across

4. Sharks

6. Jack Sparrow

7. May the Force Be With You

8. Dinosaurs

9. Nolan’s Batman (2nd Movie)

13. Superhero Supergroup

15. I’ll Be Back

16. Peter Parker

Down

1. Optimus Prime

2. Wolfpack

3. DeLorean

5. Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

10. The Boy Who Lived

11. Who You Gonna Call?

12. Simba

14. Famous Ogre

For answers to last issue’s crossword puzzle, go to ecleader.org

This issue’s crossword puzzle cel-ebrates the beginning of the summer movie season by looking at famous summer blockbusters!

Cartoon by Tyler KerrReiny and Neebs express their displeasure with the “new” artist.

Beatecleader.org April 29, 2014 17

sportsecleader.org April 29, 2014 18

ADVERTISEMENT

sports ecleader.orgApril 29, 201419

EC softball’s Tiffany Potthast embraces challenge of stabilizing pitching and hittingLUKE TANAKAstaff writer

Photo by Joseph KokPotthast has allowed five or more runs in only three of her 14 starts and has thrown 13 complete games this season.

Photo by Joseph KokPotthast’s batting average is now up to .292 and ranks second on the team in RBI with 19.

Tiffany Potthast’s competitive fire started at an early age.

“The main reason I started playing softball was because my sister [Heather] was playing and my goal was to beat her,” Potthast said in an email inter-view. “I worked so hard. When she was inside on the couch, I was outside pitching. I would stack two buckets on top of each other and throw at them all day.”

All the hard work and all the pitching in her yard eventually led to a spot on the Bluejays’ rotation where the junior has posted an 8-6 record with a 3.05 ERA in 98 2/3 innings this season. She’s allowed five or more runs in only three of her 14 starts.

Potthast’s season has includ-

ed stellar performances against No. 12 Illinois Wesleyan Univ., No. 17 North Central College, and No. 21 Univ. of Chicago.

These outings, in which she gave up a total of seven earned runs, show that she can com-pete with the best.

Her teammates, including fellow junior Meg Griffin, take notice of Potthast’s fire on the diamond.

“As a softball player, Tiffany has a competitive edge that you need to be a great player,” Grif-fin said in an email. “She always plays to her full potential every game and never lets anyone else lose energy.”

Potthast is also a staple in the Jays lineup, hitting .296 on the season. She helped out her own cause against Illinois Wesleyan and North Central with an RBI in each game.

Since opening up conference play with a 4-3 win over Illinois Wesleyan, the CCIW, one of the premier softball conferences in the nation, has been tough on Potthast and the Jays. All but one of their nine conference losses have been by three runs or less.

This season, Potthast has oc-casionally second-guessed her-self in the circle, allowing a few more free passes than she’s ac-customed to.

“I’ve had a few walks here and there that have ended up scor-ing,” Potthast said. “Every time I turn my back to the catcher I have a pitch in my head that I want to throw. I want to trust my first instinct more often.”

This offseason, she says she

will be focusing on develop-ing her secondary pitches and throwing strikes early in the count.

“My goal is to get ahead of every batter,” Potthast said. “My best games are when I’m confi-dent in all my pitches.”

The Jays completed CCIW play at 5-9, missing the confer-ence tournament. Potthast’s re-cruiting class is itching to turn around some close losses and make the tournament as se-niors next year.

But before Potthast competes in a Jays uniform as a senior, her second season softball begins this summer.

In her hometown of High-land, Ill., she plays travel soft-ball, while also coaching a 12-and-under team.

Coaching is another outlet for her competitive nature to shine.

“I love coaching,” Potthast said. “My competitive side gets [my team] going and they run with it.”

Last summer, her 12-and-un-

der team went 46-1-1. Potthast’s passion for softball

radiates and her teammates take notice.

“She lives for softball, wheth-er it be playing or coaching,” Griffin said.

Potthast’s connection with Highland runs deep. The el-ementary education major hopes to make a mark on her hometown through teaching and coaching.

“My ultimate dream would be to move back to my hometown to coach high school and mid-dle school softball, and teach

middle school math,” Potthast said.

But first, she will compete in her final season as a Jay, where

she hopes to be an emotional leader for the Jays through the quality that brought her to EC: her competitive fire.

“I’m competitive about any-thing and everything – school, who’s going to get to the ball-park first, who is going to win a 100-yard dash – it doesn’t mat-ter,” Potthast said. “If you settle for number two, you’ll be com-fortable with settling for num-ber three.”

“As a softball player, Tiffany has a com-petitve edge that you need to be a great

player. She always player to her full poten-tial every game and never lets anyone else

lose energy.”

Meg Griffin EC junior softball player

sportsecleader.org April 29, 2014 20

Wassenaar, Jays cap season on hot streak, eyes on conference championship in 2015 CHARLIE ROUMELIOTISsports editor

EC LACROSSE

Photo by Kim McElhenyThe Jays celebrate a goal in their season finale win against Augustana College.

Towards the beginning of the year, Drew Wassenaar aimed for a double-digit win season in EC’s second year of existence. The Bluejays fell two games short of that mark, earning an 8-8 overall record (5-5 in the conference), and also finished a pair of games back from clinch-ing a spot in the Midwest La-crosse Conference (MLC) tour-nament.

But don’t tell them that. The Jays believe they were closer than they were in reality, and they were.

“Realistically, we were only three goals away from mak-ing the MLC tournament,” said Wassenaar, Jays freshman midfielder, citing close confer-ence losses to Benedictine (8-6 loss) and Hanover (9-8 loss in overtime). “If we win those two games, we’re in the tour-nament. I think that proves we were one of the best teams in

our conference. It let’s us know what we need to do to be suc-cessful and helps us realize how good we can be going forward.”

By April 23, the Jays began to realize how good they had actu-ally gotten.

EC wrapped up the sea-son on a three-game winning

streak, including a 16-0 shutout against conference opponent Defiance College, and a double overtime victory against an 8-4 Illinois Wesleyan Univ. at the time.

But what sealed the deal was “the comeback” against Augus-tana College.

The Jays, down 13-10, struck three times in the final 57 sec-onds to force the game into overtime and completed the comeback on Wassenaar’s school-record sixth goal of the game and 41st of the season.

“The comeback was some-thing special,” Wassenaar said. “It was by far the most exciting lacrosse game I have ever been a part of.”

Jays head coach Mark Mor-rell said it happened so fast he didn’t even realize what had happened.

And EC believes their come-back against Augustana was just a sample size of their potential at overcoming adversity under any circumstance, something

they stressed since day one.“All year long, we talked about

being resilient and to always compete in every rep,” Morrell said. “You could see it in their body language at the end of the game that they did not want to lose and continued to fight. They definitely showed an over-

all mental toughness.” Mental toughness, indeed.

But Wassenaar also said it had something to do with the teams collective passion.

“That last minute shows what this team can really do,” Wassenaar said. “The moti-vation behind us was that we were never going to quit. We were determined to keep fight-ing until the clock ran down to zero. It was our passion to never quit and make a statement in our conference about Elmhurst College lacrosse that motivated us to believe we could win.”

A year ago, EC finished with a 4-10 overall record (1-5 in the MLC) — one win, by forfeit, but barely had enough guys to play each game. The Jays were ham-pered by injuries with a limited roster as it was, on top of every

player on the roster made up of freshman.

Starting goaltender Tyler York was an open shooting target last year, who faced 600 shots in 13 games, which was most in the MLC.

But it was much different this year.

“We accomplished so much more than last year and it only looks more promising for next year,” said York, who posted a 7-3 record and 57.8 save per-centage. “We were able to put our name out there and hope other teams would be worried to play us. For all that hard work we put in the preseason, it was nice to put meaning to it and it showed throughout the sea-son.”

Although EC saw a five-win improvement from last year, it

affected the development pro-cess by asking every player to log more minutes than normal

But Morrell certainly had more options to play with, and noticed the Jays come together in the last couple weeks of the season.

“I am pleased with how we performed this year,” Morrell said. “In a lot of ways, it was very much our real first season as a program. Last year, low numbers and injuries slowed our development down, and as a result, we couldn’t really prac-tice effectively.

Unfortunately this year, our youth got us in trouble during the beginning and middle of the season as we searched for our identity. I felt that during the last 5-6 games of the season, we found our identity and once that happened, we were much more confident and success-ful as a team. All in all, it is the step in the right direction we’ve been looking for.”

By next season (after EC wel-comes their third full recruiting class), the Jays believe they will be good and deep enough to talk conference championship with a straight face.

And they’re already getting to work.

“The guys will be diving head first into our offseason lifting and conditioning program as well as working on developing certain individual inadequacies each player has in their game,” Morrell said. “We will continue to focus on bettering ourselves and moving the bar higher and higher.”

Wassenaar set the bar for a double-digit win at the start of the season. Next season’s bar has already been set.

“I’m looking forward to get-ting right back out there and competing for a conference championship,” he said. “The goal is to get a ring, plain and simple. We want to win, and win now.”

“I’m looking forward to getting right back out there and competing for a conference

championship. The goal is to get a ring, plain and simply. We want to win, and win

now.”

Drew Wassenaar EC redshirt freshman lacrosse player

Photo by Kim McElhenyDrew Wassenaar (11) fires home one of his six goals against Augustana, to conclude the 2014 season on a 12-game scoring streak.

sports ecleader.orgApril 29, 201421

Wolak breaks EC’s all-time hits record in win vs. Millikin, Jays two games out of CCIW racePAUL ROUMELIOTISstaff writer

EC BASEBALL

Photo courtesy of Kelsey PlefkaJays senior Alyssa Poremba (27) clocked in at 35:21 at Drake Relays, earning her 3rd place in the nation and shattering a school record.

After Alyssa Poremba was declined as a participant of the most prestigious track meets, an effort by EC’s head coach Erik Guta made the committee reconsider, and last Thursday,

Alyssa Poremba breaks school record, runs nation’s third-best time in 10,000 metersPAUL ROUMELIOTISstaff writer

EC WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

she made the best of it.Poremba proved she be-

longed at the Drake Relays at Des Moines Univ. after record-ing a Division III’s third-best time in the 10,000 meters.

She crossed the finish line at 35:21, which was 1:40 minutes less than her previous record set two weeks ago at Lewis Univ.

On top of being the nation’s third-best time, her score now ranks first in EC history by 12 seconds.

Out of 37 entrants that com-peted in the 10,000 meters at the Drake Relays, Poremba was one of five Division III women to be accepted in the race.

The other competitors ranged

from professional athletes to Division III.

With the wide variety of tal-ent at the event, Poremba, a se-nior, said her finish is definition something she’s proud of.

“I honestly couldn’t be hap-pier with how Drake went,” she said. “It was an amazing expe-rience to race in a stadium like

that and against some pretty tough competition.

“It is an awesome feeling to have accomplished the time I did against girls from other Di-visions, but I think that’s what pushed me even more.”

It’s unclear why Poremba wasn’t accepted in the begin-ning, but she’s thankful she had the chance to show her talent at a big stage.

“It is kind of funny,” she said, “they had to reconsider my ad-mittance and almost didn’t let me into the meet, but I am glad they did.”

Assistant coach Kelsey Ple-fka was also proud because Poremba’s performance even surprised her.

“She ran so much better than any of us expected her to,” Ple-fka said. “It was probably the most exciting race I’ve ever watched. We are really proud of her.”

The rest of the EC women’s track and field team had the opportunity to compete on Sat-urday at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater without recording team scores.

The Jays will wrap up their season on May 2 and 3 at the CCIW Outdoor Championships in Naperville, Ill.

The approach that Guta says remains the same as it has been for the entire year.

“As always, our only goal for the CCIW Championships is to achieve personal bests in all events competed in,” he said.

In his first at-bat of the game on Sunday against Millikin, Dave Wolak registered yet an-other hit. But this one was slightly different from the other 215 career hits he’d hit before that, and he knew it.

This one — hit No. 216 —broke EC’s all-time hits record, surpassing Brad Groth, who had previously held the record since 2004.

Wolak, Bluejays senior out-fielder, was aware of how close he was to breaking the record, and knew he’d been in the re-cord books after he smacked a double in his first plate appear-ance. But he had a slight con-cern after the hit.

“I wanted to make sure someone got that baseball for me,” Wolak said.

After he, indeed, knew his baseball was secure in the dug-out, he took in the moment while standing on second base at what he’d accomplished.

“My teammates and fans gave me a standing ovation as I tipped my helmet to all my teammates,” Wolak said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and coaches. They’ve helped me tremen-dously.

Wolak’s parents and brothers were there to see it happen, and it became even more special when head coach Joel Southern came out of the dugout to con-gratulate him at second base.

“Once that happened, it was like any other game,” Wolak said. “It’s one of those dreams you have as a kid and it’s some-thing I’ll never forget.”

Southern has coached Wolak all four years at EC, and it’s surely something he won’t for-get either.

“It was great to see David Wolak set the all-time hits re-cord at Elmhurst College,” Southern said. “Dave has had a spectacular career, and it was a really special moment for him and his teammates.”

Indeed, and perhaps it was

even more special because it helped Wolak score a crucial run in a must-win game that came down to the wire.

The Jays jumped out to an

early 3-0 lead in the first inning, but Millikin retaliated by scor-ing one in the first and two in the second to tie the game.

EC freshman pitcher Ivan Nevarez started the day on the mound, but was pulled after al-lowing three earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Sophomore Ryan Millan re-lieved Nevarez in the second, but that didn’t stop Millikin from adding three more runs in the fourth.

Trailing 6-3, the Jays re-

sponded in the sixth inning by scoring five runs, which held to capture the victory in a rain-shortened finale.

“We’ve really come together

as a team here in the last few weeks and are geared up for a tournament deciding series against Illinois Wesleyan next weekend,” Wolak said. “We’ve limited the errors and our start-ing pitching has been great along with our bullpen clos-ing it down. We’ve been hitting all year but during this stretch of conference victories we’ve been scoring early and tacking on late, which is a big key to our success.”

Millan picked up the win

after pitching 4 1/3 innings, and gave up three runs (two earned) on five hits while strik-ing out three.

Southern acknowledged the difficulty of Sunday’s game against Millikin, but notes the improvement of EC from the beginning of the year.

“We had a tough game [vs. Millikin], but we were able to pull it out,” he said. “I’m really proud of this team. To start the conference season 0-8 and to now be sitting at 9-9 is a signifi-cant accomplishment.”

Despite their three victories this weekend, the Jays remain two games out of fourth place holding an overall record of 14-19, and 9-9 in the CCIW.

EC’s postseason hopes stay alive with three conference games left to play.

The Jays’ final three-game conference series against Illi-nois Wesleyan Univ. will begin on Friday, May 2 in Elmhurst, Ill. and conclude on Saturday, May 3 in Bloomington, Ill. with a doubleheader.

“I couldn’t have done it without my team-mates and coaches. ... It’s one of those

dreams you have as a kid and it’s some-thing I’ll never forget.”

Dave Wolak EC senior baseball player

sportsecleader.org April 29, 2014 22

Photo by Peter FlockencierJays junior Bella Masini, ranked third on the team in batting average with .356, gets a piece of a foul ball to stay alive in her at-bat.

Potthast, Boals throw complete games as Jays sweep Millikin Univ. in weekend seriesCHARLIE ROUMELIOTISsports editor

EC SOFTBALL

After dropping their previ-ous 11 of 12 games, the Bluejays bounced back by with a winning streak that extended to five Sun-day earning a pair of victories against Millikin Univ. 11-6, and 6-3, respectively.

Jays junior pitchers Tiffany Potthast and Katie Boals each tossed a complete game, which brings their season total up to 13.

“Both games were success-ful,” said Potthast, who allowed eight hits, five earned runs, and struck out five batters to pick up her team-leading eighth win of the season. “It’s so nice to get the sweep on ‘Senior Day.’ I feel I pitched decent enough to get the win, but still would have like to take back the homerun I gave up in the fourth inning.”

Boals gave up six hits, three earned runs, and fanned four batters in 7 innings of work to improve her season record to

7-7.But Potthast and Boals didn’t

only make their impact on the mound. It was shown with their bats too.

Potthast only recorded two hits on eight tries at the plate in both games, but knocked in a combined 3 RBI and scored a run.

Boals, on the other hand, cracked her first homerun of the year in the sixth inning of the first game to seal EC’s 11-6 win and also registered a team-high 3 RBI.

“I believe our bats are starting

to come out,” Potthast said. “We have amazing defense and just lacked the key hits from time to time. We are finally starting to piece those hits together, and

even scoring a bundle of runs with two outs.”

Jays junior infielder Bella Masini, whose RBI groundout turned out to be the game-win-ner in Game 1, agreed and said they weren’t executing the way they should have been at the be-ginning of the year.

“I believe we have finally re-alized to relax and stop putting pressure on ourselves,” said Ma-

sini, who went 4-for-8 on Sun-day. “There were multiple times where we had opportunities to get runs, but, as hitters, we wanted to hit too badly. For the last five games, we figured out how to relax during out at-bats and start playing for each other.”

EC’s hot bats have led to the Jays climbing their way back to .500, and although they aren’t satisfied, Masini said it’s better than what the preseason polls projected them to finish — last in the conference — which add-ed a chip on their shoulders.

“All of us wanted to prove something,” she said. “So we pushed each other through practices to get better. We did not end like we were hoping and we do wish we could have done things better, but we have learned a lot this season.

The scores of the games don’t show how well we played to-gether as a team. Our team had the ability to start playing for each other and for our seniors. We wanted to end strong and we

were able to.” EC stands at 15-15 with

one doubleheader remaining against Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Tuesday, April 29, and are aiming for a strong finish to send some momentum into next season.

“I hope to end on a good note,” Masini said. “This can ei-ther mean winning the game or at least have a good feeling with-in our team. We have accom-plished a lot this season. We im-proved in many ways from last year and we will only be better when next season.”

The Jays know they need to be better. And with every player on the roster returning next year, except two seniors due to grad-uation, EC is feeling confident in their chances.

“The year can be concluded as another growth season,” Pot-thast said. “We went from three conference wins last year to five this year. Next year we will be looking for 7-plus to make it into the CCIW tournament.”

“The season can be concluded as a no-ther growth season. We went from three

conference wins last year to five this year. Next year, we will be looking for 7-plus to

make it into the CCIW tournament.”

Tiffany Potthast EC junior softball player

Jays preparing for CCIW ChampionshipsTHE LEADERstaff report

EC MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

The Bluejays competed at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Whitewater Invitational on Saturday, but no

team scores were kept. The event was used more for

individual practice.Sophomore Andrew DeBolt

continued his great season by winning the 800 meters in a time

of 1:55.04, which is a new per-sonal record for him.

And head coach Jim Akita liked what he saw.

“Some of our guys looked a bit ‘stale’ but that comes with

the beginning of tapering down the intensity for CCIW,” he said. Regardless, we had some per-sonal bests and are trying to get healthy for CCIW this weekend. ... The work at this point is done,

now it’s just resting the body and working on the mental part of this sport, which is important.”

The Jays compete in the CCIW Outdoor Championships on May 2 and 3 in Naperville, Ill.

sports ecleader.orgApril 29, 201423

l Charlie’s Angles l

EC isn’t exactly in a financially stable state right now, to put it lightly. But if you want to win big, you have to bet big. The school had a chance to do so a year ago, but swung and missed at an opportunity to battle their budget crisis.

In 2012, the EC football team captured its third conference title in 62 years as a member of the CCIW, but were forced to sit on their hands in the offseason because they weren’t given a shot to build on their success.

EC football consistently makes up at least 10 percent of the incom-ing freshman class, yet receive the lowest budget per person out of any sports team on campus.

When former head coach Tim Lester arrived in 2008, he spearheaded a losing football program to a 7-3 record in his first season with a roster that consisted of 39 freshman. Since then, EC football has averaged 49 incoming freshman per year. That’s 10 more students because the football team is — was? — developing into something special. EC enroll-ment is $41,832 per year. You do the math.

President S. Alan Ray said in a round-table discussion last week that he hopes The Leader can help play a positive role by reaching out to students for feedback on the college.

Some of the feedback I’m receiving: I’ve had multiple conversations with EC football players who say they’re “pissed off ” when they travel to road games and see their opponents have much nicer stuff, and the same amount of money as EC.

North Central constructed a football team that’s been near the top of the CCIW for the past decade, and cashed in while they were ahead. They installed a new state-of-the-art Field Turf surface and resurfaced the track around it for the fourth time in 15 years, not to mention their renovated indoor facilities. The school kept feeding them money and it’s created an appetizing environment for recruits. As a result, North Central has become a juggernaut whose roster continues to strengthen in quality, and — wait for it — quantity ($$$).

Let me get this straight: EC wins the conference in 2012 for the first time in 30 years led by the Gagliardi Trophy winner — Division III’s best player — and what do they do? Redesign their jerseys ... for the third time in seven years. Yikes. The uniform designs have never been a problem. What’s really important is how many players are wearing them.

Think about the money that’d fly through the Gates of Knowledge if EC hosted playoff games at Langhorst Field on an annual basis. Better yet, winning a national title if they do it right.

Alabama hasn’t become a dynasty in Division I college football because they keep winning national championships. It’s what they continue doing after they win them, which is replenish by investing the money they collected that year to refurbish their facilities for the next class. Alabama has turned into an even bigger money-maker than it was in 2009 when they steamrolled through the regular season undefeated at 14-0 and won their first BCS national championship — a 42 percent revenue increase, to be exact.

Take notes, EC.I’m not saying empty your wallets. Just build off the successes of one of

the college’s major streams of revenue. That’s right, expand the football teams locker room into the book cellar we know won’t be there next year — conversations about centralizing the football space to the book cellar is a good first step. Pitch to recruits about the major plans coming instead of trying to sell the hell out of EC to a recruit who probably won’t have his own locker.

Rinse and repeat.You can’t win $1 million at a $5 blackjack table. We’ve been sitting at

the kiddie table for a while now. Time to pick up the chips and move on to the grown-up table.

Follow Charlie on Twitter @CRoumeliotis.

Put your eggs in Elmhurst College football’s basketCHARLIE ROUMELIOTISsports editor

MEN’S TENNISfrom the back page

Jays place sixth at CCIW ChampionshipsBRANDON PORTERstaff writer

EC MEN’S GOLF

The Bluejays placed sixth out of eight teams during the CCIW Championship tournament that occurred on April 17-19, earning a 1,251 score through four rounds.

The Jays finished behind Au-gustana College, Wheaton Col-lege, Carthage College, Millikin Univ., and Illinois Wesleyan Univ., who came in first place.

EC totaled a score of 632 at the end of Thursday’s double round, scored 315 on Friday,

and 304 during Saturday’s final round.

Jays head coach Jim Kurotsu-chi admits the team made some mistakes, but overall thought they played well.

“Our penalties hurt us,” he said. “We had our two best rounds of the year. [EC sopho-more Sean] Lenchner shot un-der par. [Senior Tyler] Beyak improved 43 shots over last year’s CCIW”.”

Lenchner, finished tied for 12th place, shooting 12-over 300, and ended as the top per-former for the Jays.

Beyak placed 30th, carding a score 316, and shot a team-leading 77 during the double round on Thursday.

Freshman Wyatt Stickey fin-ished one stroke behind Beyak finishing in 32nd place shoot-ing 317.

Freshmen Sam Slusher and Jeremy Yoder finished 40th and 43rd, while sophomore John Carroll finished in 44th place, respectively.

The Jays will take on Carthage College on Tuesday, April 29 in their final competition of the spring season.

Augustana gained control early on by taking a two of the three doubles contests.

EC seniors Alex Harbert and

Will Jung earned EC’s only dou-bles victory at No. 1 doubles, to put them down 2-1.

After that, the Jays took over during singles play.

EC won five of the six singles matchups that overwhelmed Augustana.

Harbert won his singles con-test at No. 1 singles, while Jung finished his set with 6-3, and 6-1 wins to take control at No. 2 singles.

EC lost at No. 3 singles, but juniors Vince McPherson and Luke Tanaka cruised to victo-ries at No. 4 and No. 5 singles.

Harbert and the Jays were the favorites to win the conference, and did. But the feeling is still as good as it was last year.

“It feels great,” Harbert said. “It gives us the confidence to go and repeat this year. It shows us that we can repeat and that if play our best, no one can stop us”.

EC didn’t stop there. In a non-conference game

Sunday against Dominican Univ., the Jays dominated, con-cluding the weekend with a 9-0 victory.

Each EC player won their set

at doubles and singles to cap off a great regular season.

Now, it’s on to tournament play.

“I think the team has per-formed well when we’ve needed to,” Harbert said. “We have had some bad days, but when the

match really matters we have stepped up and performed.

It goes down to confidence and coaching and we have set ourselves up to where we want to be. Next weekend will be fun and entertaining and I’m confi-dent we will perform well”.

Starting May 2, the Jays will compete in the CCIW Champi-onship tournament at Berens Park, in Elmhurst, Ill.

Photo by Peter FlockencierJays junior Vince McPherson swings away in his singles match against Augustana’s Kevin Bayles.

Jays conclude season with win over Dominican Univ.THE LEADERstaff report

EC WOMEN’S TENNIS

EC wrapped up their 2013-14 season with a dominant 8-1 win over Dominican Univ., concluding the year with a 5-8 overall record (1-4 in the con-ference).

The Bluejays swept all six

singles matches, led by junior Nicole Darga and senior Ra-gan Wilson who both won No. 1 and No. 2 singles in two sets.

Junior Jennifer Guenther, sophomores Brittany and Lau-ren Kuehn, and senior Savanna Schillinger each earned victory in their respective singles.

EC won two of three in

doubles, with victories com-ing from partners Darga and sophomore Cassie Kovach and Schillinger and Lauren Kuehn.

Dominican recorded its lone point at No. 2 doubles with sophomore Natalie Bestler and senior Stephanie Castaneda defeating Wilson and Guen-ther.

sportsecleader.org April 29, 2014 24

Jays fi nish unbeaten in CCIW for second straight season

Th e Bluejays knocked off Augustana College on Saturday 6-3, fi nishing unbeaten in the CCIW for the second consecutive season. A year ago, EC won all four conferences matches, and followed that up with a perfect 6-0 record in the CCIW this season.

See MEN’S TENNIS on page 23

BRANDON PORTERstaff writer

EC scored fi ve singles wins vs. Augustana, including one from Jays sophomore Quinn Jennings (above)

Photo by Peter Flockencier