The Eastern Illinois University Student Senate held a student-media-themed meeting Wednesday, hearing presentations from WEIU-TV and The Daily Eastern News.  

Olivia Bennett, a junior broadcast journalism major and anchor and investigative journalist at WEIU-TV, addressed challenges the station has recently faced and spoke about its goals for the future.  

“I have been able to do things that I would never have been able to do without WEIU,” Bennett said. “It allows you to have hands-on, first-person experience doing things that simply most other universities do not allow students to do.” 

WEIU-TV services 15 counties in Illinois and one county in Indiana.  

Bennett said one of the staples of WEIU-TV is News Watch, the 30-minute news program that goes live at 5:30 p.m. every weekday, which she said is far bigger than most other universities. 

“We are building young professionals,” Bennett said. “We are building skills in students that they simply would not get without going into the workforce.” 

With these skills, Bennett said that WEIU-TV alums are at stations in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. 

Bennett said that several factors this year have become a challenge for WEIU-TV.  

The first challenge was the elimination of the Cooperation for Public Broadcasting, which lost the station $800,000 in annual funding, according to Bennett. 

WEIU-TV was formerly an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service until Oct. 1 of this year but dropped their PBS affiliation due to the loss of funding. 

The station is also expected to lose 73% of its staff by May 2026, going from 11 faculty members to three, according to Bennett. 

Additionally, WEIU-TV News Director Kelly Goodwin is retiring in December. Her responsibilities as news director will be split up between three professors from the school of communications and journalism: Jonathan Mattson as assignment editor, Joshua Grube as evening show director and Joe Astrouski in a producing role. 

“It will take all three of them together to replace what she’s done,” Bennett said. 

Producer and Director Lacey Spence left in August of this year to become the morning show co-anchor at WAND, but Bennett said whether the position will be filled or not is unknown. 

The majority of the staff leaving are due to the university’s recent layoffs, according to Bennett’s presentation. 

Both engineer positions were cut, which Bennett said will have the biggest day-to-day impact on WEIU-TV. One engineer is being cut in November, while the other will be cut in May. 

“We heavily rely on these engineers,” Bennett said. “Hourly, we need them. They fix our equipment. They fix our programming.” 

The two master control personnel who manage the programing are also being cut in November. Bennett said the remaining engineer will take over these roles until his layoff date. 

Program Director Mac White has also been cut, with his layoff date being in May of 2026. 

After her presentation, Bennett said the impact on WEIU-TV was an emotional one. 

“I do not blame the university, but I’m still sad,” Bennett said. “These are people that I’ve grown to know and love, and it is just hard to see the fallout.” 

Bennett said the goals for the future of WEIU-TV are to maintain the student experience. 

“We are looking forward with a positive attitude,” she said. 

One way Bennett said they are looking to maintain their programming for their audience is by recruiting new student journalists. 

Bennett then presented for WEIU-FM, the radio station on campus that serves Coles County. She said that it is unique from other student radio stations because students can go on air immediately after learning how to work the board. 

Several members of the Student Senate spoke in support of WEIU-TV. One of these members was Executive Vice President Mason Tegeler, who said that the situation involving WEIU, along with other university decisions, worried him. 

“I think the university is making some incredibly short-sighted decisions,” Tegeler said. “It’s seriously scary.” 

The senate also heard a presentation from The DEN Editor-in-Chief Alli Hausman.  

According to Hausman, The DEN has experienced the largest staff it has had in many years along with increased page views and social media coverage.  

The Student Senate also approved several resolutions pertaining to staff cuts. One resolution called for the university administration to reconsider the discontinuation of many roles. 

Another resolution called for the reinstatement of education professor Brianne Eads, which was co-authored by 71 undergraduate and graduate students as well as alums.  

Special election results were also presented during the meeting, with junior political science major Jayriel Kizer and junior sociology major Emma Garner both receiving enough votes to become elected senators. 

Finally, the referendum to remove DEI verbiage in the VPSA position was not passed, following the results of a vote by the student population.  

106 votes were in favor of removing the wording, and 82 votes were against the removal. There were 75 abstentions.  

The vote was emailed to students again this week, and the abstention option was removed from the list of choices.

Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at jmcoulombe@eiu.edu.