NEWS
F R I DAY, J A N UA RY 28, 2011
N o. 14, V O LU M E 96
ON C AMPUS
T H E DA I LY E ASTE R N NEWS
DENNEWS.COM
5
E VENTS
Graduate leaders Boswell reads satire piece by
conference today Benjamin Franklin
Goal is to make
‘Eastern the
premiere school for
graduates studies’
By Seth Schroeder
Activities Editor
Eastern’s graduate education future will be reviewed today during
the graduate leaders’ spring seminar
conference from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. in
the 1895 Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
The conference will feature presentations and workshops led by several department chairs and graduate
program coordinators and will build
on a report known as “The Path Forward” given by Council of Graduate
Schools.
Mona Davenport, Minority Affairs director, is a member of the
CGS Enrollment and Diversity
Board.
“We will talk about what we want
to accomplish to make Eastern the
premier school for graduate studies,”
Davenport said.
Some of the topics discussed during the conference will be money for
scholarships, internship options, the
enrollment quality and diversity of
the graduate school, as well as different recruitment strategies for the
school.
Lori Henderson discussed some
of those recruitment strategies,
“We want to make sure our pool of
graduate students is as diverse as it
should be.”
Davenport agreed with Henderson saying that, “(The Graduate
School) should not only be the best
academically, but as diverse as possible so our students leave with a global experience.”
Henderson, the event coordinator and a member of the Graduate
School’s Deans Office, said that the
Graduate School is looking to start
a new academic group known as the
Hamand Society Scholars as well as a
new award called the Rane’s Faculty
Mentor Award, which would award
a faculty member with funding for
research projects.
Henderson explained that while
the event is mostly for faculty, it is
open to the public and anyone interested in graduate studies is allowed
to come.
She also explained that while the
event is a formal meeting, some in
attendance will be in and out during
the proceedings.
“We understand that people can’t
sit down for a full meeting all day,”
Henderson said.
The event will begin with a networking breakfast with the actual
presentations starting at 9 a.m.
Seth Schroeder can be reached
at scschroeder2@eiu.edu.
By Steven Puschmann
Staff Reporter
Satire of serious events is often seen
now in mainstream media, but it can
also be seen in history through Ben
Franklin’s essay, “The Speech of Miss
Polly Baker.”
Thursday, Booth Library hosted
an event pertaining to the Benjamin
Franklin: In Search of a Better World
exhibition.
This event examined the comical side of Franklin’s personality, as
he was the first to create a character,
Miss Polly Baker, exploring the double standards of illegitimacy.
The essay, which is known as “The
Speech of Miss Polly Baker,” was
about a woman who was prosecuted
for the fifth time for having a bastard child.
The essay was read by Ann Boswell,
an English professor, to participants
in the conference room of the library.
In the essay, Baker gave a speech in
front of a court of judicatures attacking her generation’s laws regarding
marriage and illegitimacy.
She discussed how women
are held to a double standard
when it comes to marriage;
she argued how she has done nothing wrong, as she has not slept with a
married man or a youth.
The most humorous part of the essay comes when Baker argued how
she is actually doing good for the
country and should be given a statue.
Many people attending the event
laughed and smiled as Boswell read
the essay.
One of the people who found the
essay amusing was Stephanie Evensen,
a senior English major with teacher
certification.
“I thought the essay was extremely
informative, funny, and was relevant
to how our culture today deals with
serious issues by adding a humorous
spin to it,” Evensen said.
Boswell said she was pleased that she
was able to read the essay and discuss
the idea of the essay with the audience.
“It was a delight and pleasure of
being given the chance to discuss the
essay written by Franklin. The speech
was very controversial for its time, as
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Franklin was making fun of a serious
situation and an issue that most people at the time were trying to avoid,”
Boswell said.
When the essay was printed in The
Maryland Gazette, the story caused
quite a controversy because many
people reading the newspaper believed the story had actually happened
and Baker had actually induced one
of her judges to marry her the next
day. Boswell said she believed this was
one of the essays that really showed
Franklin’s talent as a writer.
“Franklin’s essay is relatable to our
society now because we see so many
TV shows that are satires of serious news. The Daily Show, Saturday
Night Live, and the Colbert Report
are all forms of satire in our media
now. This speech is one of the funniest written by Franklin,” Boswell said.
Steven Puschmann can be
reached at 581-2812
or srpuschmann@eiu.edu.
THE CAPE, from page 1
Titley was the first Eastern alumnus to be recognized with the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award and
the Distinguished Alumnus award.
Titley said there is not a lot of
room to juggle projects when work-
ing on a show and when working on
feature films he would juggle two to
three projects at a time.
“With ‘The Cape’ I am consistently busy, but I am always thinking of
the next 10 possible projects down
the road,” Titley said.
“The Cape” is on at 8 p.m. Mondays on NBC.
Rachel Rodgers can be reached
at 581-7942 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.
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