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alton — east st. louis — edwardsville
vol. LXXX no. IV
Human Trafficking Seminar at ESTL: One of many to come MIRANDA LINTZENICH lifestyles editor
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill., on August 17, 2016. I Anthony Souffle/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Lawmakers finally pass state budget Chancellor, students discuss effects on university CHLOE RICE editor-in-chief BRYCE STABENOW reporter
With the state of Illinois passing its first budget since 2015, there are a lot of questions to be answered, specifically questions regarding funding for higher education. The state went 736 days without a budget and SIUE kept open with 29 percent of the state appropriation for the ‘15-‘16 fiscal year and 53 percent of the state appropriation for ‘16-‘17 fiscal year, according to Chancellor Randy Pembrook. “We crossed over from June 30 to July 1 and we thought that was the end of the ‘16-‘17 situation, and so when they passed the legislation, they not only acted on ‘17-‘18 funding, but they restored the entire budget for ‘16‘17,” Pembrook said. Katie Stuart, state representative for the 112th district, which emcompasses SIUE, voted against the override of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of Senate Bill 9, but clarified she voted to override Rauner’s veto of Senate Bill 6, which includes the funding for higher education. “I want to note the importance of higher education statewide and in the area. SIUE is one of the largest employers and having it in a crisis situation wasn’t helping anything,” Stuart said. Senior accounting major Blake Bamper, of Maryville, also expressed concern about the tax
icrease negatively affecting a lot of people, but said the benefits make up for the negatives. “It’s going to be a tough one to swallow for some people. I think overall, the benefits are gonna outweigh the negatives of the tax hike. The benefits of just having budget outweigh that,” Bamper said. Because the bill passed, SIUE will now be able to operate within the original outlined budget, provide Monetary Award Program funding and continue to work on building projects, Pembrook said. “The backfill for ‘16-‘17 is about 27 to 28 million, the MAP funding for ‘16-‘17 will be between 6 to 7 million dollars. The 90 percent [allocation for] ‘17- ‘18 will be about 53 million dollars and we expect MAP funding for about 7 million dollars,” Pembrook said. One of the immediate changes students, faculty and staff will see is the completion of construction on the Science East building, which will be done in the coming Fall. “The reappropriation for Science East is a 26 million dollar project. They had done about 20 million, so the last, between 6 and 7 million dollars will be coming forward on that,” Pembrook said. According to Pembrook, Alumni and Founders halls will see renovations after the Science East building is done, and they hope to have two auditoriums up and running in about a month or so.
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The expansion of Dunham Hall to include two new performance facilities, is also on the list of projects to be completed. Because of the state funding and private gifts, they can now move on to the next stage of planning for that renovation. Senior secondary education and biology major Heather Kotlarczyk, of Hazlewood, Mo., said she can’t think of much that needs to be changed at SIUE, regarding the funding from the budget pass. “I feel like they should talk to professors about what they want see and that would be a good idea. I like so much about this school I don’t know what I would change or want to see changed,” Kotlarczyk said. As far as new projects go, Pembrook said there are 8 or 10 things that the he and the budget committee discussed in their meeting Thursday, July 6. Pembrook said they talked about salaries, marketing and branding, retention initiatives, new programs that could help offer cutting edge things and an innovation fund. They also talked about the teaching excellence center in the library, new staffing and the IT department. “This isn’t to say that we are going to be able to afford and do all of these, I want to be clear on that, but [these are] things we discussed that maybe can be part of a discussion now,” Pembrook said. Senior computer science major John Scheibal, of Edwards-
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ville, said he would like to see the school use its funding to bring more professional degrees to the campus. “I think it needs to have more masters and doctorate like programs. Like if you could go to SIUE and get a degree in law it would draw in so many people. They should focus on making sure people have the opportunity to do what they want and not have to go somewhere else afterwards,” Scheibal said. SIUE’s Edwardsville campus is not the only place to see continued improvement. Pembrook said we should see continued improvement on the East. St. Louis and Alton campuses as well, and the progress will move faster because of the funding. Even though there is now a budget, Pembrook said they don’t plan on restoring everything they cut in face of the budget crisis. “As the institution begins to evolve, we are trying to make sure that all of things we do have a real purpose and we are efficient in doing them,” Pembrook said. According to Pembrook, the budget committee has agreed to meet again in about a month and should know more about of distribution of funding and the time in which it will happen.
CHLOE RICE
crice@alestlelive.com
BRYCE STABENOW
bstabenow@alestlelive.com
The Alestle
The East St. Louis Center hosted “Look Beneath the Surface: Understanding and Recognizing Human Trafficking” on June 29, as a part of their Destination Professional Development program series. The seminar was taught by a representative from Hoyleton Youth and Family Services, an organization that works to prevent trafficking, and was aimed to identify sex and labor trafficking, educate how to identify it in a community setting and to identify who to contact if trafficking is suspected. The representative asked not to be identified due to being trafficked in their past. According to the session, sex trafficking occurs when a commercial act is induced by force, fraud or coercion. Labor trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion. “It is difficult to estimate the number of victims,” the representative, who asked to not be named, said. “This is a pervasive issue, but the Polaris Project is a great resource. We believe there are about 2.8 million individuals being trafficked in the U.S.” Junior pharmacy major Karisma Smith, of St. Louis, said holding seminars is beneficial to raising awareness for human trafficking. “I would say yes. I feel like it is closer than we think,” Smith said. “They raided a garage and there were trafficking [victim] in it.” Smith was referring to the Federal Sex Trafficking case, where a young girl was found in a garage in Centreville. Both East St. Louis and Belleville are hotspots for trafficking due to their locations and increased risk factors, like interstates and higher populations. Another factor to consider is drugs — the girls go where the drugs go, according to the representative. “There are no uniform ways when it comes to trafficking, but the average trafficked victim age is 12 to 14,” the representative said. “LGBTQ [people] are also at huge risks right now because families aren’t accepting them. They go on the run and get picked up. The average time for a runaway to get picked up is 48 hours.” The representative said a false modeling agency in Edwardsville, a labor trafficking bust in Okawville and labor farms in Carbondale are some of the examples of trafficking near the community. According to the representative, if someone suspects trafficking, the local police usually are not able to take the case. HST SEMINAR on page 3
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