President's Message
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” said that most plain-spoken of America’s founding fathers, Thomas Paine, in The American Crisis. That description seems to ring as true today as it did then.
I have bad news for you. We have entered another political season in Illinois. My advice, for what it’s worth: watch network and local television at your own risk from now until November. Your mental health is at stake. In fact, be judicious with all your screen time, be it computer, iPad, iWatch, etc. Read newspapers produced by journalists. Read a book. Read lots of books. Enjoy the outdoors. Make and listen to music. Spend time with friends and family. Dance and sing, love and laugh. Tune out the noise.
As we enter the political season that never seems to end, we annuitants have to be ever vigilant in the face of very real threats from Springfield to our pensions and health care. Governor Rauner has proposed shifting pension costs over the next four years from the state to cash-strapped school districts and universities. He also hopes to slash health insurance benefits for retired teachers and state workers, and he wants universities to pay their “fair share” of the currently employed’s health care costs.
The Civic Federation, headed by Dan Proft, who is financially supporting one of the candidates for state representative in our 110th district, is recommending that Illinois start taxing retirement incomes and study closing or consolidating university campuses. It is also advocating for a constitutional amendment to change public pensions. EIUAA and SUAA are our most effective voices in Springfield to protect our constitutional rights through political and legal action. Our very modest dues and contributions help give our voices the strength to be heard. I encourage each of you to encourage your colleagues and friends who haven’t done so already to join our EIU chapter. With increased membership comes a stronger advocacy for us all in Springfield. Finally, do let me know what you would like to see from our local chapter. More social events? A reading group? Invited speakers? I’d love to hear from you at jplynch@eiu.edu.
Don’t forget our annual luncheon, Friday, April 27 at the LifeSpan Center, with doors open at 11:00. The Reservation Form is the last page of this newsletter; just print it out and return it by April 16. See you there!
Best Regards,
Jeffrey Lynch
EIU Annuitants Association President, 2018
Painter Discusses "Mindful Eating"
John Kilgore
Why is there an obesity epidemic in America? Jim Painter thinks he knows.
Painter, a nutritionist, creator of the well-known documentary Portion Size Me, addressed the February 22 chapter meeting of EIUAA, in a lively lecture followed by a spirited question and answer session. A retiree from EIU’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Painter is now associated with the UT-Houston School of Public Health. But he works nearly full-time as an author, researcher, speaker, and consultant.
As recently as 1970, Painter noted, the United States had no real obesity problem. Statistics charting the weight and overall health of Americans were basically in line with those of other prosperous countries. Since then, however, obesity rates have skyrocketed. Currently, said Painter, “Half the people in the country are trying to lose weight.” Fad diets and ineffective remedies abound, including one of his favorites, a spray called Spray-U-Thin that was marketed on the internet for a while.
When he asks audiences about the causes of weight gain, said Painter, the answers given seem largely valid. Stress, advertising, lack of exercise, and a sedentary lifestyle with ever more couch time all clearly play a role. But none of these factors has really increased enough since 1970 to explain the sharp rise in obesity.
What has changed, says Painter, is that “We lose track of how much we’re eating.” Our own notions of comfort and sociability, combined with plenty of prompting from the food and restaurant industries, create what amounts to a culture of overeating.
For instance, we are constantly “fooled by portions.” Muffins sold in diners used to average 200 calories but are now 400. An order of spaghetti in a sit-down restaurant used to be 500 calories but is now 1000. A Monster Burger at a fast-food restaurant can have as many as 1420 calories, while large shakes often have around 1000. The Extreme Gulp soda at Seven-Eleven weighs nearly five pounds. The huge portion sizes prompt us to eat too much because, once we have paid for something, we think we should finish it.
The key to taking back control of our diets and our health, says Painter, lies in understanding how many factors not directly related to hunger or satisfaction affect food consumption.
Much of the fun of his current work comes from experiments designed to discover just what extraneous factors may influence calorie intake, and by how much. Simple availability plays a huge role in the decision to eat something. In one study, subjects ate large quantities of stale popcorn, complaining all the while, simply because the snack had been placed in easy reach, in large bags. In another, removing a dish of candy from a desktop to a desk drawer decreased consumption by about half, though everyone in the office still knew where the treat was.
Social cues, too, play an enormous part in food decisions. In one clever experiment, Painter noted the responses of diners in a busy restaurant when they were offered dessert after someone else at the table had either accepted or declined. The person first asked the question was always an accomplice of Painter’s, one of his graduate assistants. Whether that person said yes or no, the other diners showed an overwhelming tendency to follow suit.
When to start or stop eating is a decision that requires positive energy; hunger by itself doesn’t make either decision automatically. In one experiment, diners ate from a bowl of soup that was refilled automatically through a hidden tube. They ended up eating as much as four times as much soup as the control group. Apparently, it was the sight of the empty bowl, more than the sensation of a full stomach, that triggered the decision to quit eating.
So how do we cope with constant encouragement to take in too many calories? Pay attention! Or, as Painter says, try to eat “mindfully,” not carelessly. One of the best methods he knows consists of writing down everything you eat, before you eat it. No need to record calories: just jot down the food eaten and when. A little cumbersome, but the man who told him about this strategy had lost 90 pounds and kept it off for five years.
Copies of Painter’s recent book, Let’s Eat Mindfully, were offered for sale at half price at the meeting. You can order a copy by visiting his website, www.drjimpainter.com.
Calendar
| Date | Event | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, April 27, 2018, 11 a.m. | Chapter Meeting - Luncheon | LifeSpan Center |
| Thu, May 31, 2018, 9 a.m. | Board of Directors Meeting | Neal Welcome Center |
| Thu, July 12, 2018, 8:30 a.m. | Chapter Meeting | Neal Welcome Center |
| Thu, Sept. 6, 2018, 9 a.m. | Board of Directors Meeting | Neal Welcome Center |
| Thu, Oct. 4, 2018, 8:30 a.m. | Chapter Meeting | Neal Welcome Center |
| Thu, Nov. 29, 2018, 9 a.m. | Board of Directors Meeting | Neal Welcome Center |
| Note: Chapter meetings at the Neal Welcome Center begin with an 8:30 a.m. social time and come to order at 9 a.m. | ||
EIUAA People
| EIUAA Officers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Jeffrey Lynch | jplynch@eiu.edu | President |
| John Ryan | jmryan@eiu.edu | President-Elect |
| Margaret Messer | mkmesser@eiu.edu | Past President |
| Jill Nilsen | jfnilsen52@hotmail.com | Secretary |
| Robert Whittenbarger | rwhittenbarger@gmail.com | Treasurer |
| Phone Contact: Jeffrey Lynch, 217-549-3360 | ||
| Board Members |
|---|
| Vicki Hampton, Jill Nilsen, Mary Anne Hanner, John Flynn, Margaret Messer, Jeffrey Lynch, Robert Whittenbarger, John Ryan, Gail Mason, Nancy Dole, Linda Barter, Ron Wohlstein |
| Committees | |
|---|---|
| Communications | Vicki Hampton (Chair), Audrey Edwards, John Kilgore, Roann Kopel, John Ryan, Robert Whittenbarger |
| Events | Gail Mason (Chair), Jody Horn, Marita Metzke, Rosalee Noble, Ernie Secrest |
| Legislative | Jill Nilsen (Chair), Jim Bush, Henry Davis, Sue Kaufman, Jeffrey Lynch, Gail Mason |
| Membership | Mary Anne Hanner (Chair), John Best, Kathryn Bulver, John Flynn, Norma Taylor, Dale Wolf, Joan Zieren |
| Scholarship | Nancy Dole (Chair), Nancy Curran, Brad Green, Margaret Messer |
Getting to Know You: A Portrait of John Guzlowski
Audrey Edwards
Do you remember John Guzlowski, who retired from EIU in 2005 after 25 years of teaching English? He’s now living in Lynchburg, VA, busy with writing and teaching.
A clue to John’s life story is his Polish middle name, Zbigniew. John was born at the end of World War II in a refugee camp in Germany and moved to the U.S. at age 3. The family worked on a farm for a year to repay the cost of their passage, then moved to Chicago, where they joined a community that shared their language and culture. John’s parents quickly found factory work and after three years bought a house. It was cold — it had no central heating — but owning their own home meant a lot to them.
Attending a bilingual school, John soon learned English. He went on to earn degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago and then Purdue. Except for his first year as an adjunct at Illinois State, he worked for his entire career at EIU, teaching American literature and creative writing. “I spent 25 years teaching on-site and another 10 teaching online after retirement,” John says. He now devotes much of his time to writing.
By August John will have had three novels and five books of poetry published. He writes a blog — and uses Twitter and Facebook — as a way to connect with readers without worrying about publication. “I don’t like the process of submission and editing,” John comments. “I might spend three years writing a novel and another six getting it published. The three years of writing are golden. The six years of finding a publisher are terrible.”
Through his blog, John reports, “I get feedback from readers, and they publicize my work.” One reader told him about Polish Fest, an event in Albany, NY, that last year attracted 6000 participants. He is looking forward to doing a reading there in June.
Besides writing and lecturing, John teaches memoir-writing to seniors. “It’s important to write our own life stories,” he asserts. “What I know about my life and my parents’ lives, they told me. Their parents died in World War II. I wish I knew more.”
A Few Samples of John's Work
Echoes of Tattered Tongues, winner of the Ben Franklin Poetry award for 2017 and the Eric Hoffer/Montaigne award for most thought-provoking book of 2017. Also here.
Road of Bones (due out in August), a novel inspired by his mother’s family, who were killed by German soldiers during World War II.
Suitcase Charlie and Little Schoolboys, two detective novels set in 1955 and 1965, respectively, in an area of Chicago called Murder Town. John is currently working on a third story in the series, this one set in 1975.
A video piece about life in refugee camps: https://vimeo.com/160412892
John Guzlowski: Two Poems
RefugeesWe came with heavy suitcases came with our tongues We were the children in ragged wool Remembering the air and the trees, like pennies |
PigeonsMy father dreams of pigeons, he admires most. A boy in Poznan and taught those birds to fly, to rise of angels above the crystal trees. where not even pigeons were safe, other bodies, and found only the birds without chains, |
News From Our Members
Jeff Boshart
(Art, ret. 2014)
In early February, I went to the pharmacy for a routine prescription refill, only to discover that my state coverage had been inexplicably canceled as of January 31. It was a nasty shock, since the prescription was both very expensive and (not to pun) completely indispensable. Since then I have been going round and round with CMS, Aetna, MyBenefits.com, and countless shadowy telephone reps, trying to restore my coverage. Apparently the whole problem originated with some kind of computer glitch or bad keystroke, but once the gremlin got into the system, getting it back out became a huge problem requiring heroic intervention. Also, at least one of the well-intentioned changes initiated by people I called seems to have caused a downstream, second-generation glitch of its own.
A month later, too many questions remain unresolved for me to give a complete or coherent account, but I will do so in the October newsletter, God willing and the creek don’t rise. Meanwhile, friends and colleagues, keep up your support of EIUAA and other advocacy groups. You may need them more than you know.
Laurent A. Gosselin
(Family and Consumer Sciences, ret. 2001)
It has been nearly a generation since I left the University, so I expect that some people reading this bit of news may not recognize my name. That's okay, you won't be tested. I have been living and working in Washington, DC with my wife Barbara these many years and enjoy it very much. Well, at least until about a year ago, but let's not get into politics. I have been fortunate enough to draw from what I taught and studied at EIU and apply it to employment in DC (a spin on the old "those who can't teach, do" canard). Now I'm retired, but for 15 years I worked at two different community-based, non-profit organizations serving the educational, health, and social needs of recently arrived immigrants. It was very rewarding work and satisfying to have these real-world challenges to cap my career in human development and family studies.
I have a daughter, Anne, who is married to Alan Horney's (Music) son Matt. They have two children, a boy and a girl, and live in the Cincinnati area, which is a little far away for my liking. Anyone with grandchildren knows that one can never get enough time with them. That said, thanks to my good health and everyone's willingness to travel both ways, we do see the Horney family frequently.
Washington is an interesting place to live and to visit. If any of my old colleagues and fellow annuitants are ever visiting the city, feel free to look me up. I'm always good for a sit down and a cup of coffee or maybe even a beer. I know the city quite well after these many years and could be a possible resource or guide.
Bob Hill (Building Services Supervisor, ret. 2003) and Pat Hill (Business & Applied Sciences, ret. 2002)
The Hills celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently. They were married on January 5, 1968 at the Charleston Methodist Church in Charleston by the Rev. H. L. Hayes. They met while serving in the U. S. Navy. Shortly after marrying, Bob was sent to Vietnam and Pat returned to Charleston. They are parents of five children and have ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They continue to reside in Charleston.
Stephen Lane
(Human Resources, ret. 2014)
Dedicated Annuitants John Flynn and Bob Whittenbarger are seen here (picture at left) manning the stations at our first EIUAA-sponsored American Red Cross blood drive in the University Ballroom January 10.
Jan Stevens, Jill Nilsen and Marilyn Coles must be lurking close by, as they also pitched in and helped. The drive went smoothly, our group was well received, and we hope to do it again next year. We have some ideas about improved scheduling that we believe can greatly increase our yield and impact.
Dannie Otto
(Philosophy, ret. 2015)
Thanks for your interest in our current life in Hiroshima. The World Friendship Center has a Facebook page and my wife, Barbara Shenk, posts photos regularly on her personal page.
We are volunteer co-directors of the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima. This was established in 1965 by an American activist, Barbara Reynolds, who with her husband and two children sailed a small sailboat around the world from 1956 to 1959, which included a historic protest sail into the U.S. atomic atmospheric test waters in the South Pacific. Barbara became a global activist against nuclear weapons and on behalf of hibakusha, the victims of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb.
The WFC, guided by a local board of directors, continues her vision. We are involved in the local hibakusha community (quite aged by this point) and do education for visitors to Hiroshima. There are 6 guest rooms at the center, so we also host travelers.
Our life here is interesting and very enjoyable. We are in daily contact with interesting people. The local community is very encouraged by the recognition given by the award of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to ICAN (International Coalition Against Nuclear Weapons).
You mentioned your experience in Korea, so I imagine you are following events there. The Japanese press and local people do not seem alarmed about the threat from North Korea. Even the missile test last summer which flew over Hokkaido didn't generate panic. Americans seem more easily alarmed. We had a university group from the U.S. cancel their planned stay with us in October. Few Americans seem to be traveling to Asia. We are receiving a lot of guests from Europe, Australia and South Asia.
Barbara was raised in Japan in the 1960s and is fluent in Japanese. I am learning very slowly. We both enjoy the food and culture and are having a good life post-EIU.
***
Editors’ Note: We welcome your retirement news and Snapshot Memories at any time. Send contributions to Vicki Hampton at vhampton2323@gmail.com or John Kilgore at jdkilgore@eiu.edu.
Farewells
Following are brief notices only. To read a full obituary or leave condolences, visit www.jg-tc.com and click on "Obituaries".
Aaron Hamilton Clapp (Building Services), 78, passed away on February 10, 2017. Survivors include his companion, Gloria Keener; his son, John Aaron Clapp; and John’s wife Jody.
Paul Stone (Eastern Board), 101, passed away on February 11, 2017. Survivors include his children: Elaine Heavy, Paul Stone, Michael Stone, and Marsha Daniel.
Beverly Ann Ogden (Health Services), 88, passed away on March 20, 2017. Survivors include her daughter, Jackie Creager-Edwards, and two stepdaughters, Barbara Ann Tarter and Debbie Epperson.
Evelyn L. Helton (Food Services), 96, passed away on April 26, 2017. Survivors include her sons, Jack, Victor, and Richard; and daughters Diana and Brenda.
Violet M. Pruitt (Food Services), 94, passed away on May 21, 2017. She is survived by her son, Ben Wuersch.
Karl McKinley Nielsen (Building Services), 82, passed away on June 10, 2017. Survivors include his many caring and devoted friends.
Tanya Hudson Ferguson (Building Services), 74, passed away on June 19, 2017. Survivors include a son, Mike Ford, and a stepdaughter, Kathy Carey.
Pamela J. Warpenburg, 56, passed away on July 29, 2017. She is survived by her husband, Edward, and daughter Erin Chester.
Sonna Lynn Dust (Science and Technology), 57, passed away on August 26, 2017. She is survived by her husband Scott, son Luke, and daughter Samantha.
Richard D. Andrews (Life Sciences), 84, passed away on September 6, 2017. He is survived by his wife Lylia and by daughters Kathleen Wright, Pamella Waddell, and Cynthia Andrews.
Betty Jane (Hall) Sheridan, 89, passed away on September 13, 2017. Survivors include her husband, Keith Sheridan, her stepdaughters, Twila and Nila, and their families.
Robert Eugene Strong (Library), 85, passed away on October 1, 2017. Survivors include his wife, Phyllis, and sons Richard and Thomas.
Geraldina Ortiz-Muñiz (Foreign Languages), 93, passed away on October 18, 2017. Survivors include her brother, Gabriel, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Jean Dionne (Rockwell) Weidner (Health Services), 81, passed away on October 11, 2017.
Thomas C. Hildebrand, Sr. (Building Services), 91, passed away on October 30, 2017. Survivors include his wife Gail and his son, Tom Jr.
Michael Andrew Gann (Special Education), 64, passed away on November 18, 2017. Survivors include his wife, Laurie, and his sons Adam, Drake, and Conor.
Dr. Robert Zabka (Student Teaching), 96, of Leesburg, FL, passed away on December 25, 2017.
Robert Strong (BSW) passed away on October 1, 2017. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis.
Delbert D. Faust, 88, of Urbana, passed away on January 31, 2018. He was a retired Eastern Illinois University professor and minister.
John Marlyn Finley (Business Services), 76, passed away on January 16, 2018. Survivors include his wife Bonnie; two sons, John and Nick; and their families.
Michael Duane Taylor (Registration), 72, of Marshall, passed away on January 18, 2018. Surviving are his wife, Mary Lou; a son, Michael, and family; and daughter Jolene.
Dr. Richard L. Keiter (Chemistry), 79, passed away on January 19, 2018. Survivors include his wife, Ellen; his son Eric and family; and his daughter Lise.
Roland “Rollie” Dean Spaniol (Business), 86, passed away on February 7, 2018. He is survived by his sons, Mike, Jack, and Lee; his daughter, Jane; and their families.
Committee Reports
Legislative - Jill Nilsen
After a somewhat tumultuous 2016 and a quiet 2017, pensions, healthcare costs, and potential taxation of retirement incomes are back on the table!
Governor Rauner, in his 2018 budget address, proposed saving $1.3 billion by shifting pensions from the state to school districts and universities over the next 4 years. He also hopes to slash health insurance benefits for retired teachers and state workers, and wants universities to pay their “fair share” of health care costs of currently working employees.
The Civic Federation, the nonpartisan watchdog group headed by Dan Proft, is recommending that Illinois start taxing retirement incomes and study closing or consolidating university campuses to deal with its budget deficit. They are also calling for a constitutional amendment to change public pensions.
SUAA is proposing that the state borrow $170 billion in bonds to manage the State’s unfunded pension liability. Rep. Robert Martwick, chair of the House Personnel and Pensions Committee, has agreed to sponsor HB 4371, which contains the bond language. However, Rep. Martwick has declined to take a position on the bill, and it was referred to the House Rules Committee on January 30.
And finally, although HB 4103, sponsored by Rep. Dan Brady and Sen. Chapin Rose, continues to be assigned to House Rules, its contents are the focus of a bipartisan working group of lawmakers. They are digging deep into challenges facing higher education, from declining enrollment to financial concerns. Some ideas put forth have been development of a uniform admissions application for all public universities, identification of centers of academic excellence for each campus, and establishment of a performance-based funding model.
Your EIUAA Board met with candidates Terry Davis and Shirley Bell, and President Jeff Lynch has posted on the listserv a summary of their responses to the board members’ questions.
Membership - Mary Anne Hanner
Just a reminder for those who pay their dues annually: please renew your membership as soon as you receive the dues notice from SUAA. Maintaining your membership is good for you, good for EIUAA, and good for SUAA!
Don't want to worry about dues renewal again? If you are retired, you can elect to have your dues deducted from your SURS annuity. If you are a current EIU employee, you can elect to have your dues deducted from your EIU pay. The dues amount deducted each month is $3.17.
For current EIU employees who pay dues by payroll deduction (thank you for your membership!), when you are making preparations to retire, contact EIUAA or SUAA to initiate the dues deduction through SURS. We want to make sure that you continue to receive information from EIUAA/SUAA!
Scholarship - Nancy Dole and Margaret Messer
Thank you for your contributions! We are pleased to report that your generous donations to our Eastern Illinois Annuitants Association Scholarship fund have allowed us to reach our desired goal of $25,000. This is significant, since the fund was first established with $5,000 and formerly awarded a $500 scholarship each year. We now award $1,000 each year and are grateful to our membership, who have made this possible.
Here is some history of our scholarship, in the words of the late Alan Barharlou:
The Annuitants’ Scholarship that EIUAA established in 2006 for the offspring of any EIU annuitant or employee will light a torch that will burn for the entire lives of the recipients, generating confidence and unleashing immense amounts of energy. The bonus for those of us who help to endow and enhance this scholarship is that its positive impact remains in the memories of the recipients for what we hope will be eternity. Our children, grandchildren, and their offspring will proudly remember that there were once visionaries and generous people who touched them in the early journey of their lives; a noble legacy.
EIUAA members contributed the original $5,000 to establish this scholarship and gradually increased it to about $10,000. We are appealing to individuals and groups to further endow the monetary value of the Annuitants’ Scholarship so that we may continue to award $500 and possibly more to the recipient. We will gratefully acknowledge the donors’ generosity. Please consider donating any amount to continue support for this scholarship.
[Dr. Barharlou’s letter can be found in its entirety here]
If it has been even a brief time since you retired from EIU, we suspect that you have observed some changes in the institution following your departure. If nothing else, there have been advancements in the use of technology in many areas of campus, and our scholarship is one of many impacted by such changes. The deadline for all scholarships administered though the EIU Foundation has been established as March 15 of each year, and all applications for such awards must be completed online. This means you may need to alert your child or grandchild to the EIUAA scholarship opportunity for the 2019-20 academic year. The application instructions and criteria for the EIU Annuitants Association Scholarship are available at our website.
Luncheon Reservation Form
(Printable version available here)
