www.easternprogress.com THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016 Independent student publication of Eastern Kentucky University since 1922 Janna Vice is a mother, wife, grand- mother, author, professor and former dean. For the past seven years, Vice has been EKU’s senior vice president for aca- demics and provost. On Feb. 15, Vice an- nounced via email that she is retiring. “I am reminded of the 1965 interna- tional hit song, ‘Turn, turn, turn,’ taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1: ere is a time for everything and a season for every activ- ity under heaven,” Vice said via email. “For me the end of a season has come. I have shared with President Benson that I will retire as of June 30, 2016.” While working at EKU for the past 40 years, Vice has helped initiate a lot of changes at the university, such as the im- provement of online classrooms. Despite all she's done for EKU, there’s one subject she’s not fond of talking about. “If you know me at all, you will know that the person I like to talk about least is myself,” Vice said. Prior to being a professor, dean and provost, Vice first attended EKU as a stu- dent, where she met her husband. Vice graduated in 1973 with a bachelor’s de- gree in business education, and the fol- lowing year received a master’s degree in the same field. Vice said she decided to study business because she had an excel- After 40 years at Eastern, provost calls this her last year By NOENA ZERNA [email protected]Known to many as a hard worker, Janna Vice, senior vice president for academics and provost, has dedicated a lot of time to the university and cherishes the memories she has made at EKU. PROGRESS FILE PHOTO “I’ve learned, as a historian, that the African American experience has either been erased, de- stroyed, or denied,” said Gerald Smith, a Ken- tucky author and educator who delivered a Chau- tauqua lecture last week in celebration of Black History Month. "People just don’t want to deal with it." Smith's lecture on ursday, Feb. 25, in the Ferrell Room of the Combs Building was titled “Something Old and Something New: Research- ing and Writing Kentucky African-American His- tory.” Introduced as one of “Kentucky’s most accom- plished scholars,” Smith is the chief editor of e Kentucky African-American Encyclopedia and author of Black Educator in the Segregated South: e Life and Times of Rufus B. Atwood, 1897- 1983. Smith said making the encyclopedia “gave us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in books and articles, and travel around Kentucky meeting with historians.” Smith is a professor of history and the Martin Luther King Center Scholar in Residence at the University of Kentucky. He has appeared in his- torical documentaries aired on CBS, NBC, KET, CBS Sports Network and TrueTv. “e African American experience in Ken- tucky is complex and always changing,” Smith said. “After attending UK and teaching in Mem- phis, it became clear to me how little I knew about African-American History.” He then proceeded to tell the audience of his journey to learn more, showing photographs In response to student outcry over the closing of residential parking be- hind New Hall, an email was sent on behalf of President Benson outlining a new initiative the university will take to help ease parking congestion on campus. e email, sent Sunday, Feb. 28, offers residential parkers who rare- ly use their cars--excluding those in Grand Campus--the opportuni- ty to park in the Lancaster and Ash- land lots further from their dorms in an attempt to free up room for those who make frequent trips off campus. Students who participate will receive a purple permit, which will forbid students from parking anywhere but the Lancaster and Ashland lots. "A limit of 100 spaces and per- mits will be available, and the pro- gram will be administered on a first come, first served basis by the Office of Parking and Transportation locat- ed in Mattox Hall," the email said. As an incentive, the university is offering the 100 residents a free park- ing permit for the 2016-17 academic year, as well as a $20 gift card to Wal- Mart. STUDENT SENATE TALKS PARKING Residents offered parking incentives, to ease congestion Speaker notes Kentucky's forgotten African-American culture › SEE CULTURE, PAGE 3 › SEE PARKING, PAGE 3 › SEE SGA, PAGE 3 › SEE PROVOST, PAGE 3 Eastern’s Student Sen- ate met Tuesday, March 1, for its weekly meet- ing. Among the items dis- cussed were: ·Senate redistributed money to the final three student organizations in last week’s appropriations meeting. At last week’s meeting, one organization was denied funding after it was discovered that the sponsoring senator was also serving as the repre- sentative, which was at the time believed to be a viola- tion of the Student Senate rules for RSOs. However, after review, the Student Senate confirmed that nei- ther the Student Senate’s by-laws nor the appropria- tions packet explicitly stat- ed that a senator couldn’t serve as both sponsor- ing senator and RSO rep- resentative. As a result of the finding, the Student Senate opted to award the College Democrats $258. ·Another group, the Student Occupation- al erapy Association, which had been award- ed $299 last week, had its funding award changed to $66—which was all that SGA changes funding for three student groups By TAYLOR WEITER [email protected]By EMILY VINSON [email protected]By MARY MCGILL & KORI HINKLEY [email protected]Gerald Smith, a Kentucky author and educator who spoke at EKU last week, said much of the state's African-American history has been erased. Members of Student Senate listen to Mark Jozefowicz discuss a new parking incentive that is designed to alleviate current parking lots. EMILY VINSON/PROGRESS
Transcript
www.easternprogress.com
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016
Independent student publication of Eastern Kentucky University since 1922
Janna Vice is a mother, wife, grand-mother, author, professor and former dean. For the past seven years, Vice has been EKU’s senior vice president for aca-demics and provost. On Feb. 15, Vice an-nounced via email that she is retiring.
“I am reminded of the 1965 interna-tional hit song, ‘Turn, turn, turn,’ taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1: There is a time for everything and a season for every activ-ity under heaven,” Vice said via email. “For me the end of a season has come. I have shared with President Benson that I will retire as of June 30, 2016.”
While working at EKU for the past 40 years, Vice has helped initiate a lot of changes at the university, such as the im-provement of online classrooms.
Despite all she's done for EKU, there’s one subject she’s not fond of talking about.
“If you know me at all, you will know that the person I like to talk about least is myself,” Vice said.
Prior to being a professor, dean and provost, Vice first attended EKU as a stu-dent, where she met her husband. Vice graduated in 1973 with a bachelor’s de-gree in business education, and the fol-lowing year received a master’s degree in the same field. Vice said she decided to study business because she had an excel-
After 40 years at Eastern, provost calls this her last yearBy NOENA ZERNA
Known to many as a hard worker, Janna Vice, senior vice president for academics and provost, has dedicated a lot of time to the university and cherishes the memories she has made at EKU.
PROGRESS FILE PHOTO
“I’ve learned, as a historian, that the African American experience has either been erased, de-stroyed, or denied,” said Gerald Smith, a Ken-tucky author and educator who delivered a Chau-tauqua lecture last week in celebration of Black History Month. "People just don’t want to deal with it."
Smith's lecture on Thursday, Feb. 25, in the Ferrell Room of the Combs Building was titled “Something Old and Something New: Research-ing and Writing Kentucky African-American His-tory.”
Introduced as one of “Kentucky’s most accom-plished scholars,” Smith is the chief editor of The Kentucky African-American Encyclopedia and author of Black Educator in the Segregated South:
The Life and Times of Rufus B. Atwood, 1897-1983.
Smith said making the encyclopedia “gave us an opportunity to immerse ourselves in books and articles, and travel around Kentucky meeting with historians.”
Smith is a professor of history and the Martin Luther King Center Scholar in Residence at the University of Kentucky. He has appeared in his-torical documentaries aired on CBS, NBC, KET, CBS Sports Network and TrueTv.
“The African American experience in Ken-tucky is complex and always changing,” Smith said. “After attending UK and teaching in Mem-phis, it became clear to me how little I knew about African-American History.”
He then proceeded to tell the audience of his journey to learn more, showing photographs
In response to student outcry over the closing of residential parking be-hind New Hall, an email was sent on behalf of President Benson outlining a new initiative the university will take to help ease parking congestion on campus.
The email, sent Sunday, Feb. 28, offers residential parkers who rare-ly use their cars--excluding those in Grand Campus--the opportuni-ty to park in the Lancaster and Ash-land lots further from their dorms in an attempt to free up room for those who make frequent trips off campus. Students who participate will receive a purple permit, which will forbid students from parking anywhere but the Lancaster and Ashland lots.
"A limit of 100 spaces and per-mits will be available, and the pro-gram will be administered on a first come, first served basis by the Office of Parking and Transportation locat-ed in Mattox Hall," the email said.
As an incentive, the university is offering the 100 residents a free park-ing permit for the 2016-17 academic year, as well as a $20 gift card to Wal-Mart.
STUDENT SENATE TALKS PARKING
Residents offered parking incentives, to ease congestion
Eastern’s Student Sen-ate met Tuesday, March 1, for its weekly meet-ing. Among the items dis-cussed were:
·Senate redistributed money to the final three
student organizations in last week’s appropriations meeting. At last week’s meeting, one organization was denied funding after it was discovered that the sponsoring senator was also serving as the repre-sentative, which was at the time believed to be a viola-tion of the Student Senate
rules for RSOs. However, after review, the Student Senate confirmed that nei-ther the Student Senate’s by-laws nor the appropria-tions packet explicitly stat-ed that a senator couldn’t serve as both sponsor-ing senator and RSO rep-resentative. As a result of the finding, the Student
Senate opted to award the College Democrats $258.
·Another group, the Student Occupation-al Therapy Association, which had been award-ed $299 last week, had its funding award changed to $66—which was all that
Gerald Smith, a Kentucky author and educator who spoke at EKU last week, said much of the state's African-American history has been erased.
Members of Student Senate listen to Mark Jozefowicz discuss a new parking incentive that is designed to alleviate current parking lots.
EMILY VINSON/PROGRESS
Page 2 The Eastern Progress, Thursday, March 3, 2016
BEATPOLICEBEATPOLICE
Feb. 24 � A person reported
a vehicle backed into her parked vehicle and drove away.
Feb. 25 � A contractor report-
ed criminal trespass at 7:57 a.m., in the New Science Building.
� A 47-year-old man from Richmond was cit-ed for possession of bur-glary tools at 3:27 p.m., on Crabbe Street. He
was transported to the Madison County Deten-tion Center for a bench warrant.
� A person reported someone had stolen his bicycle.
Feb. 26 � A person report-
ed his personal proper-ty had been stolen from the basketball courts in the Weaver Building.
Feb. 28 � A fire alarm was ac-
tivated at 3:13 p.m., in Palmer Hall. Responders determined the cause was from a fire extin-guisher that was used
for no apparent reason in the third floor laun-dry room.
Feb. 29 � A staff member re-
ported criminal mis-chief at 7:07 a.m., in the Begley Building.
� A staff member re-ported damage to a pa-tronage sign for the Burke Fitness Center at 11:06 p.m., in the Weav-er Building.
� A person reported theft of university prop-erty in Grand Campus.
Publication discusses Kentucky women
EKU Professor of History Tom Appleton will discuss his recent publication “Kentucky Women: Their Loves and Times” at 4:30 p.m., Tues-day, March 8, in Room 204D of the Main Library.
The publication discusses a dy-namic and diverse history highlight-ing Kentucky women who illustrate the state’s role in political and social reform and cultural development.
The event is part of the Live @ Your Library’s presentations for Women’s History Month.
Come Sail Away with StyxThe EKU Center for the Arts
and 100.1 WKQQ will present Styx at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 5. The band will play their top hits, includ-ing Renegade, Too Much Time on My Hands and many more.
Ticket prices range between $35 and $59, excluding the VIP Package which is $175. The package includes one ticket, tour t-shirt, tour poster, embroidered hat, button and sticker set, commemorative laminate, com-memorative ticket and a limited edi-tion merchandise item.
Page 3The Eastern Progress, Thursday, March 3, 2016
SGAFROM PAGE 1
PROVOSTFROM PAGE 1
PARKINGFROM PAGE 1
CULTUREFROM PAGE 1
Student Senate had left in its budget after its change-of-heart with the Col-lege Democrats. In addition, since the Student Senate’s budget was exhaust-ed, it also rescinded its $25 award to the Student Economics Globalization Association.
·Mark Jozefowicz, director of park-ing and transportation, visited Student Senate as a guest speaker to answer questions regarding recent parking changes. Jozefowicz spoke about the new incentive for students to trade in their residential parking pass in ex-change for a special “Z Zone” pass that would be good only for the Ashland and Lancaster lots, but would include a $20 Wal-Mart gift certificate and a $60 credit toward a parking pass next se-mester. Since the new incentives were issued earlier this week, nearly 30 stu-dents have availed themselves of the program, Jozefowicz said.
·Jozefowicz also said he monitors President Michael Benson’s Twit-ter feed, taking note whenever a stu-dent complains about a lack of parking spaces in various lots across campus. Jozefowicz presented the senators with pictures of empty parking spaces, la-beled with the dates and times that the pictures were taken, coinciding with the tweets. “People say they cant find parking, but there are spaces, “ Jozefo-wicz said. “I’ve got pictures that I can show you.”
·Student Body President Katie Scott updated the senators on the LiveSafe app, which launched last month. Since its launch, the app has been download-ed more than 1,000 times and students have requested more than 250 “safe walks,” Scott said.
·The Student Activities Council an-nounced last week that pop group DNCE will perform at the SAC spring concert series. SAC sold 600 student tickets in the first 36 hours after an-nouncing the concert, Scott said.
The email also relayed information about EKU's safety-walking service, as well as times and routes for shuttles to and from the Ashland Lot. More infor-mation can be found at http://parking.eku.edu/fall-spring-shuttle-schedules.
The email also unveiled the universi-ty's plan to add new loading and unload-
ing zones near residential halls--building on those already available at New Hall and Greek Towers--so that students can park legally while moving in and out.
"As we work to improve our living and learning facilities, the construction on campus does require significant ad-justments to parking areas," the email said. "We continually ask for your pa-tience and understanding in this period of growth for the Campus Beautiful."
lent business teacher in high school who inspired her. Vice also said she enjoyed the business subjects and how they were relevant to the real world.
As for the education portion of her major, Vice said she initially had no in-tention to be an educator. Her mother was an elementary school teacher and suggested that Vice take some education electives. Vice admitted she ended up loving the classes and enjoyed teaching and collaborating with other people.
“It was very challenging to be a good teacher,” Vice said, “It’s really important to enjoy what you do. The bumper stick-ers that say ‘Teachers change lives’ are true.”
Vice also received her doctorate in ca-reer and technical education from the University of Kentucky in 1981. In 1976, Vice was invited to be a professor at East-ern. She was promoted to associate dean in the College of Business and Technolo-gy in 1999, and stayed in the position for eight years.
Vice was selected to be interim asso-ciate provost after the previous provost stepped down in 2007. Then President Whitlock and the committee searched for a permanent provost. However, in 2010, Whitlock said he felt Vice was the best choice for the position and the com-mittee agreed with him.
“I’ve never had a single reason to sec-ond guess my decision to appoint Jan-na Vice,” Whitlock said, “I’ve always felt very good about my decision. You nev-er had to worry about any secret agenda with her.”
Whitlock and Vice first began to know each other when they worked together in the athletic committee. When he began working with her, Whitlock said he was impressed with how she handled things. Whitlock said Vice is very analytical, and
was impressed with how she knows there is more than one side to the problem and is always fair in her approach.
“As I got to know Janna, my respect for her began to grow,” Whitlock said.
Whitlock also said that Vice is a joy to work with, adding that he’s heard from more than one source that she is a good leader.
“It’s been a real pleasure to see her grow,” Whitlock said.
While reflecting on the years spent at Eastern, Vice said she has made many memories. Some of the highlights: first lady Michelle Obama receiving an hon-orary degree from EKU in May 2013, leading the faculty in the inauguration of President Benson, participating in the ice bucket challenge with the President’s Council and working with the phenom-
enal deans, chairs and staff, including President Whitlock and President Ben-son.
“I’ve very fortunate, very blessed,” Vice said.
Despite her excitement and feeling as though it is time for her retirement, Vice said she will miss many things about Eastern. She said she will miss being en-gaged with academic affairs and the ex-citement of revitalization, as well as the faculty and student interactions.
Aside from her numerous profession-al accomplishments, Vice said she is also a proud mother of two, a son and daugh-ter who both graduated from EKU, and a grandmother of four children. Vice said she believes family is very important and spends a lot of time with her husband, children and grandchildren.
Case in point: Vice had to end the in-terview early to pick up two of her grand-children from school.
“I’m definitely spending a lot more time with my family and grandchildren,” Vice said about her plans after retiring.
Vice plans to continue living in Rich-mond after her retirement and spend time with her husband. Otherwise, she said she has no other plans at this time. Even though she is leaving after be-ing with EKU for so long, Vice said she will never stop representing EKU and is grateful for all the benefits being a colo-nel has brought.
“The greatest opportunity is to brag about Eastern,” Vice said, “I’m focused on the next four months to do the best I can.”
along the way.Smith focused on his fascination for
graveyards and them being the ultimate symbol of the past. He spoke of a tour he took of at Kentucky Home at Federal Hill, and how he noticed the tour guide had at-tempted to skim over the more delicate details regarding the slaves that the house once held.
A silence fell over the audience as
Smith showed photographs of the “slave cemetery” at Federal Hill, which he sug-gested was a pathetic excuse for remem-brance.
“We have to do something about the integrity of this shrine at my Old Ken-tucky Home,” Smith said.
Smith said evidence has shown that no bodies were even in what workers claimed was a graveyard.
“So you are telling me that there are no bones beneath these stones?” Smith said in closing. “That tells me that, as a histo-rian, I’ve clearly got to dig a little deeper.”
Cake Wars winner and Eastern student Meghan Smith sculpted a cake boasting the likeness of EKU President Benson at his surprise birthday party in Middle Powell on Monday.
Benson, who turned 51 Feb. 28, was under the impression that he was heading to a meeting, but was greeted by a crowd singing Hap-py Birthday instead. Students from the Latino Student Association, who were holding an open house in Pow-ell lobby, also sang Happy Birthday in Spanish.
“I was floored and flattered,” Ben-son said. “I had no idea.”
Benson said his biggest sur-prise was the cake from DoodleBug Cakes, created by Smith, 18, a mar-keting sophomore from Berea. The cake featured an EKU water tower—made of Rice Crispy Treats, a choco-late-cake-filled Keen Johnson (with a Twitter Bird on top), slopes from the Ravine and even a pastry sculpture of Benson himself.
“We are very proud of Meghan and were pulling for her on Cake Wars,” Benson said. “Now my 7-year-old wants to be a baker.”
Benson also presented Smith with a certificate from Eastern for her accomplishments. Smith start-ed baking cakes at 12-years-old af-ter being inspired by cooking shows.
She now co-owns a cake business with her mom, Doodlebug Cakes, in Berea. She recently won $10,000 on the Food Network show, Cake Wars, which aired Feb. 22. She noted her appreciation for her certificate from
EKU.“I feel like it is such an honor,”
Smith said. “I was proud to represent EKU.”
Benson said he was planning on taking the cake to Model Laborato-
ry to share with the students in the auditorium.
For more information about Doo-dlebug Cakes visit www.doodlebugs-cakes.com or @doodlebugcake at In-stagram or Twitter.
Senior vice president for academics and provost Janna Vice has served a long career in education and has announced her retirement at the end of the fiscal year.
In honor of his birthday, President Benson was surprised with a small celebration and a cake from Cake Wars winner, Meghan Smith.
ZEYNAB DAY/PROGRESS
President gets birthday surprise from Cake Wars winner
Cassy Grey, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, March 3, 2016
It seems like once a week we get an email from President Benson updat-ing us commuters and residents about the parking situation on campus. With Case Hall and Case Annex closing down after the spring semester, parking will become even more limited.
According to the President’s office, “the construction on campus does re-quire significant adjustments to park-ing areas,” meaning that more changes are going to happen, causing even more inconvenience for residents, commut-ers, and staff.
The most recent update came Sun-day, Feb. 28, at 8:38 p.m., to inform stu-dents and staff about the new opportu-nity for parking on campus. President Benson’s message primarily consisted of him asking students take a “special free permit for parking in a designat-ed area of the Lancaster Lot and Ash-land lot.” President Benson even took to bribing students to take this pass with the incentive of $20 Walmart gift card, and credit for a free residential permit for the Fall 2016-Spring 2017 year.
The only problem with this “special” permit is that you cannot park any-where but the Ashland or Lancaster lots. This limits mobile transportation on campus as a resident, and still re-sults in an inconvenience for residents.
As a resident, I feel that we have a more inconvenient parking situation than commuters do.
Like many other students on cam-
pus, I am currently a resident at Keene Hall. Unlike the residents living clos-er to the main part of campus, I have a 10-15 minute walk to class every day. Some days when I'm running late for class, I do not have the option of jump-ing in my car and parking somewhere on campus in order to make it to class on time.
Yes, there is a shuttle system that will transport me to main campus, but it is unreliable and must make multiple stops before getting where I need to go, creating yet another inconvenience.
Residents have the option of park-ing at these lots on campus: Keene Hall, Burnham, Sullivan, Kit Carson, Wal-ters, Lancaster, Ashland, Brockton and Brockton Residential, Commonwealth and the Telford lot. That's 11 lots total.
Commuters have the option of park-ing at these lots on campus: Alum-ni Coliseum, Van Hoose, Lancast-er, Brockton, Summit, South Second Street, University Drive, Business & Technology Center, Stratton, Whitlock, Crabbe Street and Crabbe St. park-ing lot (which you have to pay to use). That's 12 lots total.
Along with having fewer parking lots than commuters, residents also have to adapt to their parking lots be-ing located further away from campus than commuter lots. Commuter lots are generally located throughout cam-pus or relatively close to the center of campus, whereas residential lots are lo-cated generally along the outside/bor-der of campus.
With the constant changes and lim-itations of EKU parking lots, it is hard on everyone to adapt to the inconsis-tency of campus parking. This is col-lege. We are all going to have to walk a lot, but I do think that there is a smart-er and more efficient way to organize parking throughout campus to accom-modate both residents and commuters needs.
BENSON GETS A LITTLE TOO EXCITED ABOUT THE UPCOMING CONSTRUCTION
Residents have fewer options Commuters have more hurdles
Finding a parking spot is a difficult challenge all students face. EKU likes to brag and say that there’s plenty of parking for residents, commuters and employees, but they forget that we are a growing campus. With over 16,000 students and numerous employees it’s difficult to find a decent spot to leave your car for the day. This is especially tough for commuters.
Students who live in residence halls fail to realize how lucky there are. If a resident were to wake up 10 minutes before his/her class, he/she would be able to grab some clothes, clean up and head out the door to make it to class on time. However, if a commuter were to wake up 10 minutes before his/her class, they may as well not go.
If I were to go ahead and attend the class I woke up incredibly late for, I would have to go through at least five minutes of traffic while driving to cam-pus and then find a parking spot that is probably really far from the build-ing I need to be in. Everyday is a con-stant battle between commuters to find a parking spot that doesn’t feel like it is light-years away from their destination.
Aside from fighting other stu-dents for a spot on campus, commut-ers don’t have as many parking spots available for them. The parking spots that are available, such as Summit Lot and South Second Street, are nearly off campus and limit the amount of stu-dents that can park there. Other spots
such as Alumni Coliseum and the Van Hoose Lot are able to fit more vehicles, but during the fall semesters, they are often closed for football games.
Other parking spots, such as the Brockton Commuter Lot, now requires commuters to share with resident stu-dents, leading the area to fill up much quicker than before.
The only other available commut-er spots are Adams Lot, Business and Technology Lot, Lancaster Lot and University Drive, but those particu-lar lots are employee lots first and al-low commuters to park there after 4:30 p.m. If a commuter parked there before the time, they are positive to receive a parking ticket. Despite all these ar-eas seeming like they are available, it’s merely an illusion.
Outside of the lack of parking spaces and the tedious amount of time it takes to drive to campus, there are also oth-er negative influences. As a commuter, I face the dreaded two-hour delay.
If someone is living on campus, they just have to deal with walking in some gross, gray snow. For a commuter, though, I have to make sure that I drive as safely as I possibly can to make it to campus in one piece and hope someone else doesn't hit me.
Another issue is that driving back and forth to campus everyday becomes expensive. Currently, gas prices are low and that is wonderful. Going every day from one place to another ends up costing me more money than I have to spend.
In the end, being a commuter is only fun when you’re in high school. Being a commuter in college just makes me do extra work. I wish I could live on campus and not have to deal with driv-ing everyday just to receive an educa-tion. At the same time, I’m grateful that I commute, so I don’t have to spend thousands of dollars a semester to live in a closet.
As one of the biggest court cases of 2016 thus far, the music industry is find-ing itself once again under close watch following the accusations of mental and physical abuse, drug and rape charges re-lated to an ongoing lawsuit between plat-inum selling artist Kesha and Sony Mu-
sic Entertainment.Although this case has been going on
for over two years now, pictures released of the singer-songwriter crying in court have had the media up in arms over the case decision. Even though Kesha was denied release from her contract, ripple effects stemming from the attention of the case have been seen throughout the industry. This is not only affecting Kesha, but other abuse victims as well.
This whole controversy shows exact-ly what is wrong with the music industry and is a slap in the face to up-and-com-ing artists. Denying Kesha freedom from her contract is condoning the abuse that female artists potentially face in the mu-sic industry. Are they supposed to en-dure this abuse without any rebuttal for the sake of being able to make what little
music they can?Sony claimed that after the trial that
Kesha was “allowed” to work with other producers. However, this doesn’t cut it. Kesha is still trapped within the bound-aries of her contract and the fact that the judge ruled against Kesha is in blatant disregard of her health and well-being.
With such a verdict, a much larger and darker message is being spread to other victims of abuse. Coming forward with allegations like this is not easy and takes a great deal of bravery. It throws your personal information and secrets out into the open for the public to in-spect. This verdict is very discouraging to other victims of abuse, making them less likely to come forward about their own abuse and/or their abuser.
By the letter of the law, Kesha is still
contracted through Sony for another six albums and must fulfill those obligations. The major issue for Sony is that this law-suit has blown up into a PR nightmare, causing the label to look heartless by fa-voring their investments over the health and well-being of one of their artists.
If Kesha’s claims prove to be true, then a truly shocking picture is paint-ed by those in positions of power. How-ever, the Kesha case may act as a litmus test for those in other situations of abuse signed to major labels. This could mean that those who are abusing others are ex-posed and driven out of the music indus-try.
As for Kesha, there is an interesting artist under that red tape and legal con-troversy. Here’s to hoping we get to see her for who she really is.
PARKING PA S SE S: WHO' S GOT I T WORSE?
Social media supports Kesha's attempt to flee Sony
NOENA ZERNA
AMBER BOOTH
KATELYN FRAELEY
Taylor Weiter, Editor The Eastern Progress | www.easternprogress.com Thursday, March 3, 2016 Page 5
Theatre Department shines in musical on man-eating plant
Crowds swarmed into Gifford Theatre from Feb. 24 to 28, as the EKU Theatre Department performed their production of Little Shop of Horrors, a comedy-horror musical originally written by Howard Ash-man. I, personally, was pleasantly surprised with the Eastern’s take on the classic musical, directed by Pro-fessor Alana Ghent.
The musical features a clumsy young man named Seymour, played by Sean Sullivan, who was orphaned as a child and now lives in the in-ner-city. Seymour works in the des-titute flower shop of Mr. Mush-nik, played by Nicholas Hemlic, and loves his job. Seymour pines after his coworker, Audrey, played by Abi Moore, and attempts to impress her with a weird plant he happens upon, which he names Audrey II.
After much trial and error, he finds that the plant only responds to being fed fresh human blood. How-ever, he cannot keep giving the plant his own blood, so he must search for the blood of others. He maintains the plant at its request by murder-ing those he deems worthy of death to further his fame and fortune in hopes of wooing Audrey. This causes
some complications.The talent within this play was ob-
vious. Each character sang and spoke with clarity and precision. Each song was performed without a gimmick. The acting didn’t feel forced. From the audience’s perspective, it really felt like the actors were entirely their characters.
One of the more interesting parts of this production is Ghent’s choice to have Audrey II voiced by a wom-an, Joelle Camillo. Normally that part is given to a man. Camillo did incredibly well in this role, though, and really brought the man-eating plant puppet to life.
My absolute favorite charac-ter from the performance would be Orin, the sadistic dentist and abu-sive boyfriend of Audrey. His char-acter was completely ridiculous, and the concept of a dentist who loves laughing gas and the pain of others is bound to be fun.
Dominique Norris did a great job in making his character dislik-able, yet interesting, played Orin. His laugh was contagious and fun, but when he was angry, it was almost frightening. His role in the musical is crucial to Audrey and the charac-ter development alongside Seymour.
While the musical was fun and overall entertaining, it did tackle
some issues I was not expecting. For instance, sexism served as a topical issue within the play. The character of Audrey is a staunch stereotype of femininity and the ideal female--which is made fun of throughout the musical. From Audrey’s dreams of frozen dinners to a chain-linked fence, her ideas of a perfect life are mediocre at best.
Watching the musical, I only had one issue: domestic abuse is fre-quently mocked throughout the sub-text of Audrey’s storyline. But this
isn’t something that can be taken up with the theatre department, and in-stead the playwright, so I’ll leave it be.
The music was catchy. The actors were talented. The set and Audrey II looked intricate. The best part: it was only $6.
EKU Theatre’s next performance will be The Little Prince, a renowned play based on the book of the same name, and I know I’ll be looking for-ward to it. For more information go to theatre.eku.edu.
Eastern fell to Belmont University for the second time this month after host-ing the Bruins at Paul S. McBrayer Are-na last Wednesday, Feb. 24.
A strong Bruins team (21-8, 13-3 OVC), ranked second in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), started the game off by leading EKU (16-11, 10-6 OVC) 17-7, and maintained its lead over the Colo-nels for the duration. EKU’s 51 points were the lowest scored all season.
At its last home game of the regular season, the Colonels finished 9-4 at Mc-Brayer Arena. It was an improvement over its ’14-’15 season, where EKU fin-ished 3-8 at home.
During the game, the Colonels shot 25 percent from the field, while only scoring two 3-point field goals out of 24 attempts. Despite committing less turn-overs, and going 13-14 from the free-throw line, EKU couldn’t close the gap and surpass Belmont.
Junior forward Jalen O’Bannon was the star for the Colonels, leading the team in free throws (9-10) and to-
tal points (23). On the defensive end, O’Bannon blocked three shots and col-lected eight rebounds, also grabbing six offensive boards.
Senior Miranda Maples scored seven points and pulled down nine rebounds. Senior Shameekia Murray and junior Mariah Massengill each scored six points and combined for ten rebounds. Michaela Hunter dished out four assists to her fellow Colonels.
Eastern 71 Tennessee Tech 67
Three days later in Cookeville, Tenn., Eastern played its final regular season game, winning in overtime against Ten-nessee Tech (10-19, 6-10 OVC). With five Colonels in double figures, EKU was able to win the contest, firmly placing Eastern as the fourth ranked team in the OVC.
The onslaught was led by Hunter and O’Bannon, who scored 17 and 13 points respectively. Murray, Maples and fresh-man Abby Wright each scored doube figures for EKU.
The Colonels out-rebounded the Golden Eagles on offense 14 to 10, but tied for defensive boards at 33. Hunter and O’Bannon extended Eastern’s offen-sive chances, with Hunter grabbing five
offensive rebounds and O’Bannon grab-bing three.
Defensively, O’Bannon pulled down eight boards and the bench picked up another seven. Hunter stole the ball three times, while O’Bannon and Mas-sengill each had two steals.
Maples scored six points during the overtime period, while Hunter account-ed for four points. Combined, the Col-
onels were able to pull ahead and hold Tennessee Tech for the remaining 30 seconds of the contest.
The Colonels will enter the Ohio Val-ley Conference tournament in Nash-ville, Tenn. and face Austin Peay (10-19, 8-8 OVC), Thursday, March 3. Tip-off is at 1 p.m., and if Eastern advances, the semifinals are the following day. The championship game is on March 5.
Women finish regular season fourth in OVC standings
After losing three of its first four games, the Eastern baseball team put together a couple of strong outings during its four-game road trip in Wilm-ington, N.C. this past weekend.
The Colonels, struggling to put runs on the board so far this season, came out swinging in its first game against Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
The Colonels finished the game with 12 runs on 15 hits in the 12-2 win over VCU. Junior center fielder Shea Sullivan led the team with five hits. Sullivan also tallied an RBI.
Senior infielder Mandy Alvarez also performed well offensively, going 4 for 5 with a base on balls (BB), a homer-un and five RBIs. Senior infielder Doug Teegarden tallied two hits on three at-bats with two walks. Junior infield-er Ben Fisher went 1 for 6 at the plate and helped the Colonels cushion its lead with two RBI’s.
Senior left-fielder Kyle Nowlin went 1 for 6 with an RBI.
Junior Eric Nerl earned the start at pitcher for the Colonels. The right-hander allowed only one earned run on five hits through six innings.
Following the outstanding offen-sive performance by the Colonels, EKU dropped its next game against the Uni-versity of North Carolina Wilmington 10-7.
The Colonels jumped ahead early, scoring a run in the second, third and fourth innings before losing its lead and falling behind 5-3 during the fifth inning. The Colonels were able to de-crease the deficit in the seventh inning, but couldn’t get over the hump and lost. The Colonels scored seven runs on 10 hits.
Despite its loss against U.N.C. Wilmington, the Colonels were able to regroup and win its next two games against South Dakota State University. During the two-game series, the Col-onels outscored the Jack Rabbits 16-5 and combined for 21 hits.
The Colonels look to kick off its first home game of the season against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore at 4 p.m., Friday, March 4.
Senior forward Miranda Maples (24) putting up a layup during EKU’s 71-67 win over Tennessee Tech.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EKU SPORTS
Senior outfielder Kyle Nowlin taking an at-bat for EKU over the weekend.
Eastern 76 Jacksonville St. 53
The Colonels won on the road last Thursday against conference opponent Jacksonville State, 76-54. The win put the Colonels in a tie for the eighth spot in the Ohio Valley Conference, giving EKU a shot to advance to the OVC tour-nament.
The Colonels (15-16, 6-10 OVC) came out with a balanced attack, with 11 play-ers scoring by the end of the game. Ju-nior forward Javontae Hawkins led the Colonels with 14 points, while freshman forward Nick Mayo added 13 points.
The Colonels shot 51 percent from the field and 50 percent from the 3-point arc. EKU also out-rebounded the Gamecocks (8-23, 4-12 OVC) 48 to 27, which was its highest rebounding margin of the year.
The Gamecocks only had one player score in double figures.
Tennessee Tech 92 Eastern 82
With its OVC tournament hopes on the line, the Colonels returned to ac-tion on Saturday, closing out its road trip against Tennessee Tech (19-10, 11-5 OVC).
However, EKU was unable to pull the game out, losing a heart-breaker 92-82.
Hawkins, Mayo and sophomore guard Paul Jackson led the Colonels with 16 points apiece. Jackson matched his season high in points.
The Colonels shot 44 percent from the field, but ended the year shooting 49 percent on the season, which was a program best. The Colonels were also out-rebounded by five, while shooting an abysmal 59 percent from the free throw line.
Tennessee Tech guards Aleksa Ju-govic and Torrance Rowe combined for 53 points and gave the Colonels prob-lems all night.
With the season over, EKU will turn its focus to the offseason. Head Coach Dan McHale will look to improve on what was a promising season, despite what the record shows. With almost the entire team coming back, the Colonels look to take a huge step forward next season.
