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By Jaycie Doerr, WC Editor-in-Chief

MACOMB, IL (WC) – Western Illinois University uses an emergency alert system to communicate with students during crisis situations. This system can be used to send an automated phone call, text message, or email directly to students.

Alisha Looney, Interim Assistant Vice President of University Communication, Marketing, and Media Relations, said that depending on the situation and level of danger, WIU will decide how to communicate with students.

“If the students are not in immediate danger, we will use that to send out an email,” Looney said.

However, the University Housing and Dining Services (UHDS) does not use this alert system to communicate with residents in dorm halls. Instead, Jessica Butcher, Director of Student Life, said that in an emergency, resident assistants are used to communicate with students.

“We rely on our people to communicate,” Butcher said. “Each resident assistant might have a little different line of communication with their floor.”

Resident assistants at WIU are employed undergraduate students, who during emergencies are not always on campus. Butcher said there is no plan to go digital because there is no accurate way to keep students’ contact information.

This seems implausible because UHDS has information on every student regarding their official WIU email and contact information via the Student/Alumni Records System. Here, students input their contact information as well as emergency contact information.

This means UHDS has a way to communicate with students directly and it chooses to use the most unreliable method of communication, other students.

Jace Clayes, a Thompson Hall resident, spoke about a fire evacuation that happened in January of 2023. He said “(It took) about an hour before our RAs told us it would be a long time” (an hour to inform students that they would not be allowed back in their building for several more hours).

In the fall semester of 2022, Washington Hall residents were displaced for two hours without any word from the university. When residents were allowed back in the building, they had all been fined for the fire alarms going off with no explanation as to what had happened or why they were being fined. No notification was given other than a “community notice” posted by the elevators in the lobby and basement.

Residents who live on campus deserve better than mediocre communication from UHDS. Residents are adults and have the right to be informed on happenings in their housing accommodations.

By Jaycie Doerr, Editor-in-Chief

Sex education; obscene content; LGBTQ+ ideology; profanity; indoctrination; sexually explicit content; drug parifinalia; these are all reasons listed in the push for book bans in classrooms and public libraries.

Book bans reached an all-time peak during the pandemic, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. In 2020, book challenges numbered around 150, but this raised significantly by 2021, with more than 700 challenges to over 1,000 books. While most challenges come from parents and organized religious groups, in 2021 Texas Gov. Greg Abbot pushed for a statewide ban on books that he believes are obscene. Texas State Rep. Matt Krause sponsored this new bill and wrote to Texas school districts with a list of books he saw as unfit for children, demanding they be removed.

The list had more than 800 books on it, most of them written by African American or LGBTQ+ authors.

It is not just new age “woke” books that are being challenged. Classics such as Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” and Katherine Paterson’s “Bridge to Terabithia” are all being challenged in classrooms across the nation.

“I think sometimes people have good intentions to protect their children,” Western Illinois English Education Professor Alisha White said. “Unfortunately, what one person thinks is going to protect their child might not be the same as everybody else.”

This is the idea of the National Council for Teachers of English’s The Students’ Right to Read. The goal of this organization is to promote the idea that if books are taken off the shelves to protect one student, it might hinder the development of another student by them not having access to the book.

Libraries have a gap when it comes to diversity. Most students never see themselves represented in the classroom’s content. “It’s the idea that by diversifying our classrooms and diversifying the content that we’re reaching more of the students that we have,” White said.

For more information on The Students’ Right to Read, visit ncte.org and for more information on banned books, visit ala.org.

Great structures have been a testament to human evolution over centuries upon centuries of development. From cave paintings to skyscrapers, human have found ways to leave marks on the landscape of Earth. Some of the greatest examples of humans accomplishing so much with so little is ancient architecture and how peoples of old created buildings that outlived their civilizations.

Pyramid structures can be found all over ancient cultures, from the Middle East to South America, these mathematically perfect structures prove that ancient humans were no heathenish bunch. In fact, these people long forgotten were highly skilled and intelligent humans. With no modern tools, such as calculators, bulldozers, or cranes, they built these things that amaze even modern day carpenters.

The pyramids built in Ancient Egypt were tombs for great pharaohs, the kings of the Nile River. The most widely known in this region are the Pyramids of Giza. Three pyramids built circa 2500 BCE of limestone, were formed in ritual with old funereal rites. Each is named for the king encased inside: Khufu, Khafre, and Mankaure. The oldest and largest, also known as the Great Pyramid, was designated to Khufu. The middle for Khafre. The southernmost for Menkaure.

The are each mathematically perfect. Each is built on a perfectly square base, making researchers believe that the ancient people had a high understanding of geometry and has to use a formula similar to or identical to the Pythagorean Theorem (a² + b² = c²). Each side of this square aligns with the cardinal direction- north, south, east, and west. The north-south alignment holding a specific significance in the passage to the afterlife for those buried within. In addition to geometric perfection, trigonometric knowledge is used to create the sides of the pyramid. The height and slope of the sides has to have perfect calculations for the stability of the structure, otherwise they would not have lasted for us to view them today.

Despite the size, very little is actually contained within these structures. Passageways lead into a burial chambers within and below the pyramid. In Khufu's, the subterranean chambers were never finished, so his body rests in King's chamber within the middle. A Queen's chamber sits below, where the pharaoh's wife would be buried with him. Later pyramids, those built after the three found in Giza, would be decorated with hieroglyphic texts and pharaoh's would be buried with jewelry, masks, and pets.

Pyramids built by the ancient Aztec and Mayan pyramids have a visual and cultural different, but are no less spectacular of a architectural glory. While their purpose is not entirely known, it is believed they served an important ceremonial purpose for these ancient people. The most notable of these ruins are located in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, located 30 miles northeast of Mexico City. The pyramids here pre-date the Aztec Empire and are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.

The Pyramid of the Sun faces west and is the largest structure in the ruined city. It is thought to be built around 100 CE and is 216 feet tall. It sits on the east side of the Avenue of the Dead, a north-south running street in Teotihuacan. It is built of volcanic rock call tezontle, which is found in the region. Archeologists believe that a temple one sat atop the pyramid, and explorations found a system of tunnels and caves below the surface and throughout the city. Here, clay pots, obsidian, animal bones, and greenstone human figurines and masks were found.

The Pyramid of the Moon is on the north end of the Avenue of the Dead and faces south. It is the second largest structure in Teotihuacan, but older than the Pyramid of the Sun. The Plaza of the Moon surrounds the pyramid, a large area where thousands would be able to gather and watch rituals be performed.

Other pyramids exist all over ancient civilizations: Peru, Guratemala, Iraq, and Italy. Pyramids served as great structures of religious and cultural significance for ancient peoples. They serve as a reminder of what humans are capable of doing with rudimentary tools. A reminder that while we are advanced today in technology, these peoples that came before us were also advanced in their knowledge.

By JAYCIE DOERR, NEWS3 Executive Producer & WC Editor-in-chief

MACOMB, Illinois (News3 & WC) – Western Illinois University (WIU) is one of four universities in the United States with an academic minor in scuba diving.

Classes in scuba diving have been a part of the Department of Kinesiology at WIU since the 1960s, but in 2008 the classes were built into a minor by former program director Dan Walters. The department is currently searching for a new director.

The minor is made up of four classes, each with the goal of giving students different diving certifications. These begin with open water scuba certification, and continue with certification in rescue diving, wreck diving, or ice diving which is common in the midwest.

“Certainly they learn how to dive, they learn the basic skills, to become a safe and efficient diving, but along with that they learn a lot of, they learn a lot about themselves,” said Christopher Kovacs, a professor of kinesiology at WIU.

Students enrolled for the scuba minor also have the opportunity to travel to Florida, the Caribbean, or California to get real dive experience. Kovacs said that he favors great lakes diving, and taking students there to learn how to dive a little closer to home.

Students who frequently participate in the scrubs diving minor are Law Enforcement and Justice Administration majors. The specialty in rescue diving makes them an asset to any law enforcement agency they go to work at, according to Kovacs.

In the future, the Department of Kinesiology wishes to expand the scuba diving minor to offer one class, KIN 108 as a general education course to make diving experience more accessible. They also hope to open up the diving programs to local community groups, and offer dual enrollment for high school and community college students.

If you want to learn more about WIU’s minor in scuba diving, contact Christopher Kovacs at cr-kovacs@wiu.edu.

By Jaycie Doerr, News3 Assistant Executive Produce & WC Editor-in-Chief

MACOMB, IL (NEWS3 & WC) – Last fall, Western Illinois University (WIU) broke ground on the Center for Performing Arts. The university also announced was the closure of Tillman Hall, a building not far from the construction site, will be going offline.

Tillman Hall currently hosts classes and professors’ offices in meteorology, geographic information systems, and geology. All these classes and the offices will be moved to Currens Hall and Waggoner Hall.

Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management, Troy Rhoads, said the work at Tillman Hall needs done to make it functional again.

“The building has got significant work that it is requiring,” Rhoads said. “The roof is well beyond its useful life, the elevator needs to be modernized.”

He also said the HVAC system needs updating. Rhoads said that since the system is built within the concrete walls and maintenance on the HVAC system requires those walls to be removed in order to access most of the system. A few years ago, Rhoads said WIU had to spend the money to repair one of the fan blades within the system. Facilities Management had to remove walls and even had to remove part of the external wall to get the fan out of the building.

Lawren Moore, a meteorology student, attends classes in the building. She said, “With temperatures it is either warm or cold and it never matches the outside and it’s uncomfortably so. It’s not a very good building, so it doesn’t feel like the best learning environment.”

She also said that she is frustrated with WIU about the building closing.

“It’s a money issue and we don’t want to put money into it,” Moore said. “Even though I just started as a freshman, I like that building. Having to go somewhere else from where I choose to live and having to move buildings is going to be something interesting.”

Other changes to WIU include razing of Lamoine Village. Lamoine Village was three adjacent buildings for family, graduate, and international student housing. The first building was taken offline in 2010, with the second and third building closing in 2012. Now, Rhoads says they have plans to demonish the buildings.

“Definitely with Lamoine Village, we’d like to raze that area,” Rhoads said. “We have some ideas and things in the queue. We’d like to make Lamoine a much more sustainable area.”

He did not confirm any plans for the area.

At this time, there are no plans to raze Tillman Hall nor is there any timeline for when renovations will be done.

By JAYCIE DOERR News3 Executive Producer & WC Editor-in-Chief

MACOMB, Illinois (News3 & WC) – As Tillman Hall closes at Western Illinois University, meteorology, geographic information systems (GSI), and geology students are facing a move to buildings on the north side of campus.

“They are going to a number of different buildings. So some of those are going into Currens, some are likely to go to Waggoner,” Troy Rhoads, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management, said. “We have some going into Simkins. Some folks are going into Memorial Hall.”

Rhoads said that with the shutdown of Tillman, there will be a reshuffling of departments as meteorology, GSI, and geology students make the move to the south side of campus.

“They are having to move or relocate within other buildings across campus, because the space that they are in needs to be allocated to the people that are leaving Tillman,” Rhoads said.

The Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Administration (RPTA) will be moving from Currens hall to Knoblaugh. As this move occurs, WIU said they are trying to keep colleges and departments together.

While students in Tillman are unenthusiastic, students who are in Currens and Waggoner are also disgruntled about having more students crowd their hallways.

Forensic psychology student Oliver Rule said Waggoner hallways are full of students in the peak of the day.

“I understand why they’re closing down the building, but I feel like it is going to cramp these builds very much,” Rule said.

Forensic chemistry student Logan Banard said that Currens Hall already hosts many majors, such as physics, chemistry majors, nursing, and RPTA.

“I feel like it is already packed full and there isn’t a lot of space for the four majors there,” Barnard said.

Overall, Rhoads said this move will work because there are nearly 4 million square feet of buildings on campus, most of it underutilized due to the current enrollment.