The Daily Egyptian - Feb. 3, 2021

THE

Daily Egyptian Serving the Southern Illinois University community since 1916.

dailyegyptian.com February 3, 2021 Vol. 104, Issue 3

Who is Mathew Capsel?

A look at Illinois resident charged for involvement in Jan 6. Insurrection

Danny Connolly | @DConnollyTV

It had thriving businesses and a youth center, it was really a game changer for the north east side in a most positive way,” director of the Eurma Hayes board, Bob Wills said.

The center was closed in March of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it remains closed.

“When a building is sitting idle for that long you get a lot of issues, so we’ve been cleaning and painting and tearing up carpeting and trying to get the center back so the community will have full use of it,” Wills said.

Wills became director of the Eurma Hayes board in August 2020 and he has been working on renovations to improve the Center.

In October of 2020 Will asked the City to be a part of the Center’s renovations and he offered a work space to the Carbondale Police Department.

“I requested them to come and I think it serves as a real way of saying let’s try to fix this and not just leave it as

Mathew Capsel, from Marselies, IL was arrested on Jan. 27 multiple charges for endangering police, unlawfully entering a restricted building and resisting law enforcement. He posted on TikTok that he was pepper sprayed after charging at the national guard’s riot shields, and multiple social media followers reported it to the FBI. Capsel was released on bond Jan. 29. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, he is under house arrest and can only travel to northern Illinois and Washington DC, to appear in court where he faces federal charges.

While in court, Capsel claimed “ I got banned on Facebook for life.” The Daily Egyptian was able to access this Facebook account up until the evening of Jan. 28, a day before he testified in court.

While his most recent account was banned, the DE was able to find three of his past Facebook accounts.

All are still active as of publication.

One of these accounts, last publicly updated in May 2018, had dozens of pro-Trump, white nationalist and neo-confederacy posts, along with sharing several conspiracy theories including flat earth theories, chemtrails and the “murder” of Seth Rich and that Post Malone is not an actual person.

Capsel also believed that the 2018 Illinois primary election was rigged. ”Fuck Illinois election vote Dr Pepper,” Capsel posted with a picture of a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. “I don’t even wast (sic) my time with Illinois election. Talk abt demacradicly (sic) rigged” he explained in a comment.

Capsel also posted a 2018 letter from President Donald Trump on his Facebook page, thanking him for the “invaluable contributions to the advancement of our great nation.”

Additionally, the DE found a Twitter page and a different TikTok account Mathew Capsel used as of June 2020. On both accounts he posted multiple tweets and videos promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The tik tok account he used on the Jan. 6 insurrection was “banned due to multiple Community Guidelines violations.”.

Please see EURMA HAYES | 3

Please see CAPSEL | 2

Volunteer Janet Lilly, 75, sits for a portrait Tuesday, February 2 at the Eurma Hayes Center in Carbondale, Illinois. Lilly said the substation will be a good addition to the Eurma Hayes Center. “People like to feel secure and when you feel secure you’ll come. When you feel insecure by whatever it is causing that fear you’re not going to come in fear of but I feel the substation will provide some sort of security,” she said. Madison Taylor | the.madisontaylor

Mixed response to new police station in Eurma Hayes Center

Janae Mosby | @mosbyj

The Eurma Hayes center has been in the Carbondale community since the 1970s and there has recently been some controversy surrounding the announcement that a police substation will be housed there.

Carbondale Police Department’s Interim Chief, Stan Reno, announced they were provided a small space in the Center “so both sworn and civilian department employees could further enhance services to Carbondale community members.”

Some people of the community do not support the inclusion of the substation inside of the Center.

“I think it would defeat the purpose of a community center where people will feel comfortable coming there,” leader of the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition Nancy Maxwell said.

Maxwell said if they have a community center where kids can go and there are programs for the community that will take down some of the violence.

Carbondale Spring has started

a petition to the Carbondale City council, the Jackson County State’s Attorney and the Carbondale Police Department.

“There are some groups that are writing a letter and they have a petition circulating letting their concerns be known about [how] they don’t believe a substation will help the community and it may be more of a hindrance,” Maxwell said.

As of Monday evening, 942 people signed this petition.

“While it is true that the city of Carbondale has a problem with violent crime and shootings, we also know true violence prevention does not come from increased policing and interaction with the criminal justice system,” the Carbondale Spring petition said.

The Center has been an important part of the Carbondale community, it provided resources for the community like a business center and a youth center.

“It has had a tremendous positive impact on the community, when it was implemented it did so much for people.

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About Us The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale on a weekly basis. Fall and spring semester editions run every Wednesday. Free copies are distributed in the Carbondale, Carterville, and Springfield communities. The Daily Egyptian can be found at www. dailyegyptian.com or on the new Daily Egyptian app!

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Submissions should be sent to editor@dailyegyptian.com

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Letter to the Editor: We must die

The killing was seven years ago on a Monday afternoon.

On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old African American, was shot dead by former police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.

Brown was walking down the street with his friend, not knowing it was moments before he took his last breath.

Lifeless, face down in his own pool of blood, on the pavement near the Canfield Green Apartments, it took four hours for investigators to remove his body from the street.

Within the black community it was seen as a public lynching.

His death was a glimpse into the harsh realities of race and justice in America.

Brown was shot just eight days before he graduated high school and according to the Washington Post, the day after this fatal encounter “he was to start at a local technical school to learn how to fix furnaces and air conditioners.”

I could have been Michael Brown.

On the day of his death, Brown and I were the same age, 18 years old.

I never felt unsafe in my own neighborhood, until then. After Brown’s death, I felt as if I could be perceived as a target in the neighborhood I once felt completely safe in.

There were many images of Lezley Mcspadden, Brown’s mother, crying and mourning her son’s death.

Those images are raw reminders that truly haunted me.

I imagined, “What if my mom had to bury me?”

The thought alone angered me. It was the same feeling stirred among hundreds in Ferguson and thousands nationwide.

The discord in Ferguson sparked a vigorous debate about the relationship between law enforcement officers and African Americans, the militarization of police, and the use-of-force law.

Officers used assault rifles and canine units during the protests in Missouri. It was racial imagery, reminiscent of the civil rights movement. These actions only exacerbated the issue.

The constant unrest in Ferguson was an arduous start to my senior year at McCluer North Highschool.

capsel

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Classes were postponed for two weeks as hurt and anger grew in my community. Many people, including myself, were not satisfied when the grand jury declined to indict Officer Wilson.

The frustration continued when information about the investigation was slow to be released to the public.

My anger turned into rage. My hope for justice, fairness and integrity in our court system was shattered.

It seems the more we talk about racism, the stronger another narrative becomes—one that paints white people as the ones who are truly oppressed.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute survey released in 2017, 54% of white Americans believe discrimination against them is on par with discrimination faced by Black people and other minorities.

This demonstrates a lack of understanding of the basic concept of racism. In this instance, there is a difference when white people who are in a position of power espouse a hatred of minorities than when it’s done the other way around.

When you’re so deeply invested in privilege, and in this case white privilege, racial equality feels like oppression.

This is why groups like Black Lives Matter are being painted as divisive and race baiting when really all they’re doing is fighting for social, economic and political equality: the power to thrive.

Similar ideals the Black Power Movement held during the revolutionary movement of the 1960s and 1970s which focused on striving for democratic socialism to meet all people’s needs, not to make profits for a few.

Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) popularized the term “institutional racism”, as it originated in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and thus receiving far less public condemnation than individual racism.

Individual racism is often identifiable because of its overt nature, institutional racism is less perceptible because of its “less overt, far more subtle” nature.

These racial inequalities being produced through routine

institutional practices, regardless of intentionality, are rooted in the historical process of racialized and classed exclusion.

Economics commands politics and politics commands social techniques, meaning wealth has been accumulated for some to have power and influence.

Understanding this fact is instrumental when trying to navigate through a capitalist system. However, it feels that a Black man is given only the slightest chance to succeed.

Society fears a Black man who has knowledge of himself, is conscious of the world around him and the condition of his people.

Police murdered Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

At the time, Hampton led the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and played an active role in his local branch of the NAACP. Clark, known for founding the Black Panther’s free breakfast program for Black residents, also dedicated his life to revolutionary change and reform for our people.

A massive cover up ensued with the police lying about what happened that night, saying there was a shootout. The FBI and COINTELPRO hid their involvement in the raid.

There was so much done to take down a man who just wanted to see people of all colors live in peace.

Black people endure the pain of death even when we are physically still alive. The intensity of our pain goes unvented. All of the pain, frustration, humiliation, and bottled up, unexpressed, centuries of pure anger have been passed onto the present generation of young Black men and women.

Hate is just fear untamed and time is nothing without change. If we must die, let it be our ego. If we must die, let it be our lies for we must live in truth. Get rid of the toxic ego and operate in the spirit of love, peace and joy.

A call for oneness is most needed today.

tagging him in several posts on his now-banned account. One of Capsel’s siblings shared a link to a Youtube video titled “Trump Calls on Supporters For “Wild” Protest of Electoral Count, Democrats Fear War Is Coming” by political commentator Tim Pool on their personal page in December.

Capsel’s wife filed an order of protection against him last year, which included Capsel not leaving the state. The US attorney mentioned him violating his court order for the insurrection attempt on Jan 6 as evidence against him being released on bond. Their court date for their divorce

is in March, according to the LaSalle County Circuit Clerk’s court records.

Capsel taunted his followers that reported him to the FBI. On his now deleted Facebook, after screenshotting an account that doxxed him and used screenshots of his TikTok at the protest, he said “Antifa think they scare me”.

The DE tried to reach Capsel and his family and company for comment, but received no response as of publication deadline.

— Eyaan Mahone President of SIU’s National Association of Black Journalists Chapter

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His support for Trump was documented in 2016. Getty Images photojournalist Scott Olson published a photo of Capsel holding a sign reading “The silent majority stands with Trump’’ at the cancelled Trump Rally on Mar. 11, 2016 in Chicago. CNN also including him in a thumbnail confronting antiTrump protestors that same day.

According to one of his Facebook pages, Capsel owns his own moving company, called Capsel’s Pro Moving Labor. He was doing a job in southern Illinois when he was arrested.

Capsel’s siblings seem to have been aware of his far-right political postings,

Staff reporter Danny Connolly can be reached at dconnolly@dailyegyptian. com or on Twitter at @DConnollyTV.

NEWS

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Food deserts impact

southern Illinois

Courtney Alexander | @___Courtney_alex23______

Food deserts are geographic areas that have limited access to affordable and fresh produce.

Carbondale is one of the cities in southern Illinois that lacks various resources as a result of lower income and poverty.

Dr. Jessica Crowe, an associate professor of sociology at SIU, said southern Illinois would be considered a food desert since it’s an area of lower income and this area has less access to resources.

“Southern Illinois is a big place, but definitely there are areas in southern Illinois that would be

considered food deserts. The USDA has a formal definition of what’s considered a food desert. Which is usually the definition that I go by. [...] To be considered a food desert, typically you need to be a low income area, and a low access area as well,” Crowe said.

There aren’t as many grocery stores in the area to purchase fresh produce at. There are more gas stations and convenience stores where people have limited options, and this can impact their health.

The west side of Carbondale is more than a half mile from the nearest grocery store, so the city is considered a food desert.

“Most of our grocery stores are

on the east side of town, there’s also the southern part of Carbondale, which is also technically considered a food desert. If you go to other areas of Southern Illinois, like for instance Cairo, most of Cairo is a food desert. Most of the rural areas in southern Illinois are food deserts,” Crowe said.

Jackson County is one of the counties in Illinois that’s considered to be a food desert. This is an area of low income and low supermarket access. For vehicle availability and supermarket access, 76 out of 1,243 households, or 6.1%, don’t have vehicles, or are located within one-half mile of a supermarket. And for the group

Page 3 quarters population, there’s 0 of 3,115 total people, or 0%, that reside in group quarters, according to the USDA Food Access Research Atlas.

Nancy Maxwell, the director of Carbondale United, said there is limited access to affordable food in Southern Illinois, and it’s impacting counties outside of Jackson County.

“I wouldn’t say so much as Carbondale, as I would the counties and cities further down from Carbondale. More so like Cairo and Miles, Pulaski County, and Alexander County, I believe faces that problem greater than Carbondale or Marion,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said these counties in southern Illinois don’t have access to as many grocery stores or markets compared to other counties. There are typically a few stores the community can shop at, but now that’s not even an option in some areas of southern Illinois.

Maxwell lived in southern Illinois for several years and not only were there a lack of stores, but there were also a lack of jobs.

“From the point when I moved down here to now, I believe right now if I’m correct, there’s one grocery store in Niles and that’s it. It used to be a couple grocery stories in Cairo, the Piggly Wiggly and Wonder Mart. And then because Cairo borders closely to Missouri, you could go over to Walmart. But all those things are gone now,” Maxwell said.

Jennifer Paulson, the director of the Carbondale Community Farmers Market, said there is a limited access to fresh produce in Carbondale and in Jackson County.

“There absolutely is limited access to healthy fresh food. Carbondale is in Jackson County, which is one of the poorest counties in our state. It has some of the highest levels of poverty, then when you travel outside of Carbondale, you’re

traveling to rural places that also don’t have access to fresh healthy food,” Paulson said.

Southern Illinois is a rural area of high agriculture and they aren’t producing a vast amount of food for direct consumption, which could otherwise sustain the community.

Members of the community often have to travel a greater distance to obtain fresher produce.

“It’s kind of strange that we can live in a highly agricultural area, and many of these rural counties outside of Carbondale have farms everywhere, but they aren’t producing foods that we can eat.

And so people end up having to drive quite a distance just to get to a grocery store, and then in those cases that food is often not the freshest,” Paulson said. “So even if they can get to it, they’re not necessarily getting food that is fresh and full of life-giving nutrients that are needed for human health.”

The Farmers Market gives back to the community by providing a resourceful SNAP program, which contributes to people who need additional assistance with purchasing fresh produce.

“It is a concern that low-income populations in our area don’t have good access to healthy fresh foods, so one of the things we’ve done is implement SNAP at our farmers market, and also a double value coupon program called Link Match,” Paulson said. “The way it works is that a customer who receives SNAP in Illinois through the link card, brings their link card to the market, they can swipe their card for any amount they’d like to spend and then we will match them dollar-for-dollar with link match coupons. And those coupons are good for fruits and vegetables up to $25 a day.”

Courtney Alexander can be reached at calexander@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @___Courtney_ alex23______.

Eurma Hayes 1 continued from

as is,” Wills said.

Wills said he thinks the substation is a good thing and it is really more of a resource center. It goes along with the theme of the community center.

“It’s a very small space in the center and the idea is to become a healing portion of the community,” Wills said.

Maxwell said she would like to see the Eurma Hayes board, the City and some community leaders sit down and have a meeting to discuss the substation.

“The overall goal is to maybe a compromise that could be a community officer or a resource officer who is a civilian and doesn’t carry a gun and he could build a relationship with the community,” Maxwell said.

Wills said the board has been meeting to discuss the positives and negatives of the substation.

“Our board went into a lot of detail about it, what’s the negative and what’s the positive.

The positive is you start to try to mend and make everything better,” Wills said.

The Carbondale Police Department and Carbondale City Manager Gary Williams released a statement saying: “The City of Carbondale and the Carbondale

Police Department support the rehabilitation work taking place at the Eurma C. Hayes Community Center.

The City recognizes the historical importance of this building and the potential community services it can offer,” The goal for the substation is for department employees to be available to help educate the public on services provided by the City and the Police Department.

“It’s also important to know that this plan is conceptual at this point and there is no scheduled start or completion date to open a community resources office Volunteer Kendall Woods, 72, poses for a portrait Tuesday February 2 at the Eurma Hayes Center in at the Center,” Carbondale, also a community advocate at the Eurma C Hayes Center, said the police substation Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbyj.

is a good thing for the community. “It’ll give security for our building, security for the eldery and even the young children that walk places. It will also help the parents have a little more insight into what’s going on in the community when it comes to their children,” Woods said. Woods said for those who are petitioning against the substation they are just misinformed but the substation will be a great help for the community. Madison Taylor | @the.madisontaylor

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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

State’s Attorney and Chief of Police discuss improving city Keaton Yates| @keatsians

Joe Cervantez, Jackson County’s State’s Attorney, and Stan Reno, Carbondale’s Interim Chief of Police, held a forum hosted by the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition on how they plan on improving police relations, violence and crime in Carbondale.

Cervantez spoke about his plans for Jackson County, his primary focus being criminal justice reform.

“I believe our criminal justice system is supposed to work for everyone, not just for some,” Cervantez said.

Cervantez said he doesn’t want to just focus on prosecution, but also ensuring that victims and community members are being heard and that healing and crime prevention are being talked about.

Within his first couple of months in office, Cervantez has started to make sure their office is data driven. In order to do this, he is working with Southern Illinois University to give Criminal Justice and Law students the opportunity to work in the State’s Attorney office for credit.

In March, Cervantez will be setting up a Citizen’s Advisory Board, he said. Cervantez said there are numerous other programs in the works as well, such as an Alternative Prosecution Program and a Warrant Amnesty Program.

“Sometimes we have to prosecute, we do that often.

Sometimes we have to take care of violent crimes and make sure that people who commit violent offenses are not in the position to make our neighborhoods less safe,” Cervantez said. “It’s the toughest part of my job.”

Reno said he is excited to start working with newlyelected Cervantez. Since late 2020 when he stepped into the

“As long as someone hurts and as long as they have a reason for me to look at a case, I’m going to continue to look at that case.”

- Joe Cervantez Jackson County State’s Attorney

Interim position, Reno said he has started many programs as well.

Reno said he has started working with the Human Resources Department to have officers meet with selected members of the community to talk about issues.

Another goal of Reno’s is to increase transparency in the department, he said. Now citizen’s can view things such as the Use of Force Policy on the website along with Mobile Video Recording Policy. There will also be a daily report of arrests on the website.

An arrest was made last night at The Cellar, a pub on 101 W Monroe St, that citizens were concerned about in the forum.

“I only know very few facts about the arrest reference from last night at The Cellar. I’ll share with you what I do know: our officers responded to a disorderly subject who was intoxicated,” Reno said. “The subject became belligerent and battered one of the police officers, which resulted in his arrest.”

The case will have to go through a chain of command before it gets to Reno and then ultimately Cervantez.

A member of Carbondale also sent in a question asking about Xe’Quan Campbell’s case, a 16-year-old shot and killed in November of 2019, and gun control.

Cervantez said since the case has not been closed, he has started looking into the case.

“There are still answers to be found and our office will continue to look at that case and review it,” Cervantez said.

“As long as someone hurts and as long as they have a reason for me to look at a case, I’m going to continue to look at that case.”

Cervantez said he will be working with the Carbondale police department about gun violence, referring to it as a “health crisis.” He said the case numbers are staggering.

Reno said gun violence in Carbondale is a problem and agreed that cases were staggering.

“It’s a community problem we need to work on together,” Reno said. “It takes all of us to come together and solve this problem.”

Staff reporter Keaton Yates can be reached by email at kyates@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @keatsians.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

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Stage Company to stream witty feminist play ‘The Revolutionists’ Elena Schauwecker | eschauweker@dailyegyptian.com

The Carbondale Stage Company will be bringing history to life in a witty and powerful format with a production of Lauren Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists.” The play will be streamed online Feb. 5-7 and 11-14 for viewers to enjoy safely at home.

The play is about four women—an assassin, a playwright, a queen and an abolitionist—living in the midst of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Though it is a historical activist story of feminism and diversity, the show has a comedic, satirical style.

Gunderson said she wrote the play intentionally as a comedy in order to showcase the talent that a female-lead cast could have.

“Comedy requires both power and intelligence to pull off. I wanted comedic roles for women to prove their prowess and brilliance on stage,” Gunderson said.

The diverse cast consists of volunteers from the community, many of them coming from different backgrounds. The four leads, portrayed by Liz Newman, Susan McLernon, Terrisha Adams, and Charlie Hope Dorsey, said they have formed a strong bond throughout their work together.

Dorsey, a masters student of communication studies at SIU, said, “There’s a sisterhood, a commonality, even though we’re different bodies and different ages. We’re all rooting for each other.”

Adams, a freshman theater student at SIU, commented on the importance of a show written, led, and directed by women in the midst of a changing political climate.

“History has literally been made. We have a woman as vice president, and then they’re appointing all these other awesome women,” Adams said. “I feel like this is the perfect time for this.”

Director Elyse Pineau, a retired associate professor of communication studies at SIU, believes this show is important to the community at this particular time period, though she chose it for a different reason. She said during a time of crisis such as the current pandemic, the passion and humor of “four extraordinary women” will brighten morale and bring the community closer together.

“The performing arts draw people together for a common experience and a shared vision;

Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

they help us to see the best and the worst of ourselves, and to imagine together a world more hospitable for all,” Pineau said.

Pineau also said the Stage Company has been sure to keep all cast and crew members safe and adhere to CDC guidelines for COVID. The majority of rehearsals were held via Zoom, staging was all socially distanced, sets and props were frequently sanitized and everyone was required to wear a mask.

“It was a new way of making theater for all of us, but theater folk are the most creative, adaptable folks I know; we make it work!” Pineau said.

Several of the actors noted that the show was very relatable to them and they were able to connect on a personal level with the characters.

Newman, an actress who has appeared on the Kleinau Stage and in local comedy clubs, said of her character, “Olympe is afraid, and she’s vulnerable, and I think that it helps the audience relate to the situation and to her more.”

Gunderson said it is her hope that all kinds of people, especially women, will be able to connect with the characters and to look at history in a new light. She said she wants to dig deeper into history and reframe events that were previously centered on only one perspective.

“Women have been locked out of the stories in literature and history for so long that it is still empowering and exciting to see our stories told,” Gunderson said.

The show will be pre recorded at the Varsity Center in Carbondale. All performances will be streamed via the SHOWTIX4U website, and tickets can be found at: https:// www.showtix4u.com/event-details/44167.

2021 HIRAM H. LESAR DISTINGUISHED LECTURE

Racial Awaking, Reckoning and Mindfulness in 2020

John C. Brittain Olie W. Rauh Professor of Law – UDC David A. Clarke School of Law

Professor Brittain received his BA (’66) and his JD (’69) from Howard University. John C. Brittain joined the faculty of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law in 2009 where he served as Acting Dean from 2018 to 2019. Prior to joining UDC Law, he served as Dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston, as Emeritus Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law where he served for twenty-two years, and as Chief Counsel and Senior Deputy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C. Professor Brittain writes and litigates on issues in civil and human rights, especially in education law. Professor Brittain was one of the original counsel team in Sheff v. O’Neill, the landmark school desegregation case decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1996. He has been president of the National Lawyers’ Guild, a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of the ACLU, and legal counsel to the NAACP at the local level and national office of the General Counsel.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 • 5 - 6 p.m.

This lecture will be held virtually at the following web location: http://bit.ly/2021-Lesar-Lecture Webinar ID: 999 4696 2170 • Passcode: 427206

Staff reporter Elena Schauwecker can be reached at eschauwecker@dailyegyptian.com.

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NEWS

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Ronan Lisota | @r_lisota

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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

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Protestors march in front of the Varsity theater in downtown Carbondale during the March on Washington event, lead by Nancy Maxwell Friday, Aug. 28, 2020. Jared Treece | @bisalo

Meet the Race Unity Group of Carbondale

Jamilah Lewis | @jamilahlewis

The Race Unity Group of Carbondale has been trying to connect the racial divide and bring light to racial issues in the Carbondale community since December of 2015.

“I would say for me the goal of the group is to come together and learn.

I have seen a lot of learning take place over the years,” Race Unity Group member Chasity Mays said.

“Having those hard conversations is really important because I think just racism is kind of an ‘under the rug’ type of thing, but we have the hard conversations that are to be had.”

Mays joined the organization after she and her husband were invited by one of the founders, Scott Martin and the two started going whenever they could.

Along with the group talking about the issues in the U.S., they’ve discussed the murder victims of police brutality and how these killings have affected them.

During the time of the murder of George Floyd, Mays made herself available to be of help to her community.

“My family actually organized the George Floyd vigil that was in Carbondale,” Mays said. “Of course I reached out to my Race Unity Group members and let them know this was happening. I appreciate the support the members give me all the time.”

Group member 80-year-old Ella Lacey joined the group when it was founded.

Lacey said the group gives awareness to ongoing race

“White supremacy is alive and well especially in Southern Illinois and we have to know that and we have to try to make those changes; and I think Race Unity Group is part of that change.”

- Chasity Mays Race Unity Group of Carbondale member

controversy in the country.

“The thing about this particular group was founded for the purpose of discussing race issues more toward the objective of understanding and developing friendships,” Lacey said. “It’s more a group focused on self development and helping others that are in the group to develop as well by sharing our own stories, allowing others to share their stories and on whatever topic we discuss, letting people freely discuss.”

According to Lacey, even places like SIU suffer from structural racism. It’s seen in the faculty, staff and involvement in events that lack diversity.

Group member Dr. Dora Weaver talked about all the involvement the Race Unity Group participated in to help SIU. “We get involved with the cheerleaders,” Weaver said. “So the cheerleaders on SIU’s campus they also took a knee and they felt threatened. They didn’t want them to cheer because they were taking the knee and not standing and saying the [national anthem] so we went to go support them.”

Weaver said the group was

involved on campus in 2016 as well when a Black SIU student was allegedly racially attacked by young republicans on campus. The group tried showing films about race to SIU students that didn’t quite get the audience it needed to keep going.

Lacey said the insurrection at the Capitol appalled her.

“I have visited the Capitol building probably at leasts 15 times out of the last 20 years and that’s a pretty secure building,” Lacey said.

“It certainly had been secure since 9/11 and just trying to understand how they got into that building still mystifies me.”

As President Biden begins his first year in the presidency, the members of the Race Unity Group hold big expectations for his administration.

Some of these expectations include controlling the pandemic, correcting the police system and helping the environment.

Currently, one of the things the group is focused on is the search for a new police chief in Carbondale as the committee that was created to hire a new chief lacked diversity.

Mays said before the pandemic the group would meet at the Newman Catholic Center where they would come together and talk about racial and political issues.

Now the group meets on Zoom weekly on Monday evenings at 7:00 pm. Anyone is able to join as long as you reach out to a member of the group for the Zoom link.

For Mays, the insurrection at the Capitol wasn’t anything new for her looking back at the history of our country.

“For me it wasn’t surprising. I know history, and that’s who they are and that’s what they do. America was built on the backs of slavery, so no one should be surprised about anything that happened if you know your history,” Mays said.

“White supremacy is alive and well especially in Southern Illinois and we have to know that and we have to try to make those changes; and I think Race Unity Group is part of that change. We bring people together who did not grow up with the same types of mindset and that’s where the change starts to happen.”

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@dailyegyptian. com or on Twitter @jamilahlewis.

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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

ACLU holds panel discussion on racism in policing

Oreoluwa Ojewuyi | @odojewuyi

The American Civil Liberties Union held a virtual “How do we end racism in policing” discussion on Monday.

The moderator, Jeffrey Robinson is the deputy legal director at the ACLU, Carl Takei is a senior staff attorney and Paige Fernandez is the ACLU’s policing policy advisor.

Takei explained the recent shifts that have occurred in the ACLU on the subject of policing.

“This summer the ACLU took a position in favor of divesting from police and reinvesting in communities,” Takei said.

Takei said this process has been years in the making. The ACLU went to grassroots organizations and collected feedback on how to approach police practices at the ACLU. “One of the most consistent pieces of feedback that we got was that we needed to shift away from just the focus on trying to make police better at what they do and focus instead on divesting functions, power and responsibilities from police departments and instead into life giving non police dependent alternatives,” Takei said.

Fernandez said many of the community activists they met with are directly impacted by policing which made these conversations and meetings intense and emotional.

“Policing is such a localized community

“Campaign Zero tracked police killings since 2014 and according to their findings 98% of police who kill people have not been charged.”

- Jeffrey Robinson ACLU deputy legal director based problem and it looks different everywhere across the country. I think we often forget when we talk about it in an intellectual matter but this is at its core a human problem. That deeply impacts people emotionally, mentally and physically,” Fernandez said.

She said it is important that they allow these emotions to be expressed to make sure that any position the ACLU takes is informed by those that have been most harmed by the institutions of policing.

“ACLU lawsuits in the past largely were focused on police departments engaging in inappropriate, unnecessarily violent and unconstitutional behaviors,” Robinson said.

According to Robinson, they would sue the

department and often ask money to go to the department for more training and implicit bias instruction but he sees that this approach and theory is shifting.

Takei said the ACLU has done some work to shift away from dependence on police.

“Why we really wanted to shift toward this focus is first following the lead of Black led grassroots organizations, who have increasingly aligned around this larger critique of the enormous role that police play in the lives of Black and Brown people,” he said.

The panel went on to discuss their expectations of the Biden administration regarding police reform and legislation.

“The first is qualified immunity [...] something that a lot of people across the political spectrum can agree on is that police should be held accountable,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez said the ACLU is trying to push the Biden administration to set a federal lethal force standard so officers can only use lethal force when absolutely necessary.

Takei said the Supreme Court has set a nationwide minimum standard of objectively reasonable force.

“That means that when police officers create the danger that they then use to justify to kill somebody, that could be considered objectively reasonable,” Takei said.

This makes it difficult to sue police officers for harming people unnecessarily despite having other non lethal options of deescalation, Takei said.

“I often reflect back to the revolt of enslaved people. In the 1600s a revolt in Stono, South Carolina where white people were killed by enslaved people. In 1640, [South Carolina] passed a law basically saying that the enslaved people were going to be kept in due subjugation and obedience. Virginia

passed a law saying if a slave person is killed while resisting a master no felony has been committed,” Robinson said.

Robinson said the law isn’t on the books in any state in America right now but that it’s still in effect when it comes to policing Black communities.

“Campaign Zero tracked police killings since 2014 and according to their findings 98% of police who kill people have not been charged. 99% of police who killed people have not been convicted,” Fernandez said.

Instagram user @wil_greer asked, “How does qualified immunity impact holding police accountable and justice, are there any legal remedies being sought to address qualified immunity?”

“The ACLU along with the CATO institute and many other organizations have been trying to raise the issue of qualified immunity before the Supreme Court,” Takei said.

Takei said the Supreme Court refuses to hear a whole series of cases to abolish qualified immunity and this might be because the court is waiting for action from congress.

The discussion closed with a conversation about the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“This was white supremacy at work in multiple ways, not only in the demands of the crowd that stormed the Capitol, but the high level brass in the Capitol police discounted the risk that this crowd of white people would engage in a violent insurrection and did not prepare for that risk,” Takei said.

Fernandez said the United States cannot refuse to name white supremacy as a driving force in this country.

“We truly will not get anywhere in changing and transforming the institutions that further white supremacy until we acknowledge how embedded white supremacy is in these institutions,” she said.

Robinson closed the discussion by stating, “The ACLU is continuing to learn and evolve in our thinking as we go forward and the efforts that were made before we go into a major policing platform wouldn’t it be a good idea to listen to the experiences of people who are living with the experiences of police impact every day.”

Staff reporter Oreoluwa Ojewuyi can be reached at oojewuyi@dailyegyptian.com or on twitter @odojewuyi.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

NEWS

Page 9

SIU student wins $125,000 in tuition in Dr. Pepper giveaway

Jared Treece | @bisalo

Each year, Dr. Pepper gives away a million dollars in tuition, this year the award was doubled to two million dollars, to financially support select college students during their academic journeys.

For the last twelve years, the company selects ten finalists out of the thousands of applicants to receive $75,000 dollars in tuition. The finalists are also given the chance to compete for an additional $50,000, for a grand total of $125,000 dollars in tuition.

Finalists are paired up and compete against one another by throwing the most footballs into an oversized can of Dr. Pepper within thirty seconds. These competitions are usually held during the halftime of the Power Five football conferences’ championship games.

Haines, a junior at SIU, was selected as a finalist during the 2020 Dr. Pepper tuition giveaway. Haines, who is from Farmington, Ill, is currently studying biomedical science while also minoring in both Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL).

She found out about the tuition giveaway on social media. “It popped up on my Instagram I think and just thought I’d give it a try”, Haines says. For her application, she produced a oneminute video and wrote a paragraph detailing what goals she hopes to achieve with the help of the tuition money.

Haines illustrates her goals of becoming a Physician Assistant to better help deaf and Spanish-speaking patients. In her video submission, she explains,” My goal is to become a trilingual PA, who can change and bring awareness to these communities that are struggling to receive adequate medical care.”

Haines filmed her video submission in front of different locations around campus while incorporating cans of Dr. Pepper in the background.“A few weeks after the submission date, they gave us a call and then they emailed us,” Haines describes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was altered. Haines and the other finalists were all flown to Frisco, Texas to a closed set at the Dude Perfect headquarters. The finalists spent a few days in Frisco, where they were paired up and filmed their pre-recorded segments “We got to view the Dude Perfect headquarters. We got to take a tour around there. Then they took us around the Dallas Cowboys headquarters. So we got to see the practice fields and where they do everything. So that was pretty cool,” Haines explains about her favorite moments of the experience.

During the halftime of the ACC championship game between Notre Dame and Clemson, Haines took on Naomi Cho, a creative producing student from Chapman University.

Within the first eight seconds of the competition, Cho took the lead by making three footballs inside the can. But Haines soon came from behind and ended up tying Cho at five footballs each with two seconds left to spare.

This forced a fifteen second tie-breaker, where Haines would later be declared the winner after beating Cho with a total score of 5-4 in the tiebreaker.

“I definitely thought I was gonna lose for a hot second there. I wasn’t doing too good. It was just like getting into the groove felt nice. I definitely didn’t think that would happen. So I am glad,” Haines said. “Shout out to Dr. Pepper for paying for my tuition.”

Staff Photographer Jared Treece can be reached at jtreece@dailyegyptian.com.

Marianne Haines poses with a stack of Dr. Pepper soda cans in the Communications building Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 at SIU. Haines, a junior at SIU studying biomedical science, was selected as a finalist in the Dr. Pepper tuition giveaway. Haines competed against another finalist to win a grand prize of $125,000 in tuition. Jared Treece | @bisalo

Marianne Haines holds up a Dr. Pepper can in the Communications building Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 at SIU. Jared Treece | @bisalo

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NEWS

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Eligible students aren’t applying for food assistance despite hunger spike Jason Flynn | @dejasonflynn

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in food insecurity nationwide and people are turning to government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to fill gaps in their budget.

College students in southern Illinois are likely among the hardest hit by food security issues, as college students nationwide experienced much higher rates of food insecurity before the pandemic and Southern Illinois counties are the most food insecure in the state.

“Eight of the nine counties that experience the most food insecurity are in southern Illinois, including Jackson County,” wrote Dawn Null, Assistant Professor of Human Nutrition & Dietetics at Southern Illinois University.

“A study that Loran Morris, one of our nutrition graduate students conducted in 2015, assessed food insecurity among SIU students. She found 20.3% of our students had very low food security and 16.5% had low food security.”

In Illinois the number of households that received SNAP benefits went from 887,753 households in February of 2020 up to 1,089,945 in October of the same year, a 22% increase, according to data from the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Yet, many eligible people are not receiving benefits because they are

unaware they are eligible, or are turned off by the complicated application process according to Teresa Schryver, the Advocacy Manager at the St. Louis Area Food Bank.

“Forty-one percent of households [nationwide] who were served by pantries reported that they received SNAP, but it’s estimated about 88% of households that utilize food pantries would actually be eligible for SNAP,” Schryver said.

Despite high rates of insecurity, students are even less likely to utilize food assistance programs because of a combination of cultural norms of a “starving college student,” federal work requirements, a lack of application assistance, and a lack of available time to go through the application process Schryver said.

In order to qualify, students enrolled in a four year college half-time or more must meet one of the following stipulations: • Are under 18-years-old or over 50-years-old; • Work an average of 20 hours per week; • Participate in a state or federal work study program; • Receive TANF cash assistance; • Are responsible for the care of a child between 6 and 12 years old and adequate child care is not available for school or work; or • Are single parents of a child (or

children) under 12 and are enrolled in school full-time.

A study by Young Invincibles, a national student advocacy group, found that only 3% of college students nationwide receive SNAP benefits.

For those seeking benefits, the St. Louis Area Food Bank provides assistance to people in the region who may be intimidated, or confused by the application process.

“Melanie will be on the phone with someone, and she will be going through

the application online with them, asking the questions right off of the application, helping them fill it out,” Schryver said.

“And then she can help kind of navigate with them the process of if they need to get any additional information in.”

Staff reporter Jason Flynn can be reached at jflynn@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @dejasonflynn.

The Daily Egyptian is accepting applications for newsroom positions for the Spring 2021 semester. For employment, all applicants must be in good academic

standing and be enrolled in at least 6 credit hours.

Laborers’ Local 773

Pandemic Reflief Food Distribution Starting Friday Feb. 5th at 9 A.M. Drive-up to Banterra Center 1400 Arena Drive, Carbondale, IL Event will run until supplies last.

35 lb

of fre

sh pr oduc and d e airy f Cusu rom mano ’s & S ons

Jacqueline Boyd | @jacqueline.ciera

In conjuction with TLC of Southern Illinois

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

NEWS

Page 11

New Illinois House Speaker signals pandemic housing, ethics, restorative justice are among legislative priorities Jamie Munks| jmunks@chicagotribune.com

Newly inaugurated Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has signaled some of his legislative priorities with the creation of special committees on ethics and elections, restorative justice, and housing and immigration.

“We want to continue to be the voice of the most vulnerable,” he said. “But I also think one of the things that we need to focus on is rebuilding trust in the legislature and the legislative process.”

Welch also canceled most scheduled House session days in February but did set one for Feb. 10, when representatives will vote on whether to allow them to work remotely. Welch, of west suburban Hillside, made history earlier this month when he became the first Black Illinois House speaker and the first legislator other than Michael Madigan to lead the chamber in decades.

Madigan was ousted after being implicated in a federal bribery investigation into Commonwealth Edison. He has not been charged, and he has denied wrongdoing and knowledge of the scheme. That came after a number of state and local politicians were charged or tied to a federal corruption probe, which triggered a legislative push on ethics.

Welch said one of his goals is to pass an

ethics reform package before the General Assembly adjourns in May. The General Assembly in late 2019 created a 16-member commission to recommend changes to state ethics laws, and ethics were seen as a top legislative priority leading into the 2020 spring session. But the session was cut drastically short by the coronavirus pandemic, and after a series of hearings, the commission’s work was also truncated and a final slate of recommendations was never made public.

The package legislators will consider this spring “will probably include several components” from the joint commission’s work, Welch said. He named Rep. Kelly Burke, a Democrat from Evergreen Park, as chair of the new ethics and elections committee.

Welch last year chaired a special investigating committee convened to look into Madigan’s conduct in connection with Commonwealth Edison, which agreed to pay a $200 million fine after admitting to participating in a “yearslong bribery scheme” to reward the longtime speaker’s allies in an effort to win his favor.

Welch blocked Republican efforts to subpoena witnesses, including Madigan, and after scant testimony a vote to charge Madigan with conduct unbecoming a

legislator failed along party lines, effectively ending the panel’s work. The special housing committee Welch created for the spring session will take up issues related to the pandemic.

“People are struggling during the pandemic; rental assistance is desperately needed. Mortgage assistance is desperately needed,” Welch said. “People are struggling and we’re going to find ways to help them.”

Welch has indicated he intends to be a more collaborative leader after Madigan’s decadeslong steely grip on the House. He has named chairs to the regular slate of House committees, and members will be able to say what committees they want to be assigned to. The House will return to the Capitol next month for one day with a plan to adopt rules authorizing for remote legislative work.

Welch canceled all the other scheduled February session days, and anticipates that committees will largely meet remotely during February and March.

“I anticipate that we will actually be able to increase our work performance significantly even though we’re working remotely,” he said. Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday said after the legislature’s fall session was canceled and the “very short” lame-duck session earlier this month, “it’s time to get back to work” for the legislature.

“The sooner the legislature gets to work, the better, whether it’s remotely or in Springfield, but we need legislation to keep moving,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference.

When the House meets on Feb. 10, it will be in the chamber at the Capitol, for the first time since early 2020. In order to provide more space, the House met in May and earlier this month at the Bank of Springfield Center, with individual desks spread across the arena floor. The plan is to operate similarly to how the state Senate has held session during the pandemic, allowing a certain number of members at a time in the chamber and rotating through to allow for physical distancing.

Renting the convention center for session was “extremely expensive,” Welch said. “Even after using the big, expensive BOS Center, we had positive tests. That didn’t work so let’s try something different,” Welch said.

Jamie Munks jmunks@chicagotribune.com (c)2021 the Chicago Tribune Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune. com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Samaritan of the Week

Graduate student advocates for Graduate Assistant protections amid pandemic Sara Wangler | @sara_Wangler

This week’s featured samaritan of the week is Anna Wilcoxen, who advocated for the rights and protection of Graduate Assistants at SIU during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilcoxen is a 5th year Ph.D. student in communication studies and president of Graduate Assistants United.

“The GAU is a labor union that represents all graduate assistants that work for SIU, we deal with collective bargaining to ensure rights like payroll, medical leave, and dangerous working conditions on campus,” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said that a graduate assistant role at SIU varies.

“Many undergraduate student general classes are taught by

graduate assistants, some lead lab research or work in housing,” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said at the beginning of the pandemic, they and the GAU worked to maintain safety across the board.

“We wanted to make sure no one would be penalized for trauma, a lot of change happened at one time,” Wilcoxen said. “I worked really closely with the administration over the summer to make sure the university provided protective gear of every kind.”

A change in the way SIU operates signals the need for change in the contracts of graduate assistants, Wilcoxen said.

“Essentially what we did over the summer and into the fall was adding material to grad student contracts regarding COVID to

allow them a choice based on if they felt comfortable teaching in person,” Wilcoxen said.

As online classes became more practical for the fall 2020 semester, Wilcoxen said they wanted to give teachers options.

“We wanted to make sure teachers with underlying health conditions or those who didn’t feel comfortable teaching in person, weren’t required to teach face to face,” Wilcoxen said.

Over the summer, Wilcoxen got as many suggestions and feedback as possible to meet the needs of soon to be teachers.

“I conducted a survey through the school, as well as my own survey to see what grad assistants wanted and or needed out of the school year,” Wilcoxen said. “Grad assistants by and large said they

wanted to teach online, although some did want to teach in person.”

Wilcoxen said at the end of the day it’s about protecting people.

“We wanted to meet the desires of teachers who wanted to teach in a classroom atmosphere, all while keeping balance,” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said in previous years, GAU hosted mixers to connect graduate students and inform them on what GAU does.

“This year we didn’t do any inperson events for obvious safety reasons, so we started a campaign to say if you’re a GAU member you can get a free mask,” Wilcoxen said “So we worked with Silkworm, and mailed custom masks to members.”

Wilcoxen also handled issues with international students in the GAU program.

“There were concerns regarding

international grad assistants being able to stay if they weren’t teaching in person, in response I created a COVID response task force,Wilcoxen said. “That looked at and handled problems international students had.”

While taking care of all of these issues Wilcoxen is also completing work on their doctoral dissertation.

“My dissertation I’m working on involves precarious workers within the academy and outside of the academy, I look at people who work in the service industry to those working in higher education,” Wilcoxen said.

Staff reporter Sara Wangler can be reached at swangler@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @sara_Wangler.

Super Bowl LV: Can Mahomes and KC win two in a row, or will Brady win his seventh?

Ryan Scott | @RyanscottDE

Super Bowl LV will be played by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5, 14-5 overall) against the defending super bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (14-2, 16-2 overall) in Florida at Tampa Bay’s own Raymond James Stadium. Though, there will be limited capacity of people in attendance, which could temper any true home field advantage.

The offenses will be led by Patrick Mahomes, a fourth year quarterback for the Chiefs and Tom Brady, the most accomplished quarterback of all time, who will enter his 10th superbowl seeking his seventh victory. Brady is in his 21st season and 20th as a starting QB, though it’s his first season as the QB for the Bucs.

Preview: The two QB’s are at very different points in their impressive careers, with 25-year-old Mahomes having been drafted in 2017 and currently has the most impressive career ever at his age. This is his third season as the starting QB and he has 5 playoff wins, has hosted three AFC championship games, and has now made two Super Bowls.

Brady, at 43, and after a 20-year career with the New England Patriots, with which saw the franchise win six Super Bowls, was expected to retire in this past offseason by many fans, but he opted to come to a very talented offensive team in Tampa Bay. Brady and Mahomes have previously met in the playoffs in January 2019, when Brady and the Patriots went to Kansas City and pulled out the upset victory in overtime to clinch a spot in Super Bowl LIII, which the Patriots won 13-3.

The two teams have seen very different paths to the Super Bowl this year, with the Kansas City Chiefs being the favorite since the odds opened just after Super Bowl LIV, where they defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 to win their first super bowl in 50 seasons.

The Chiefs have looked like the best team just about the entire season, especially as the Pittsburgh Steelers faltered in the AFC after an 11-0 start to their season.

The Chiefs opened up their season with a 4-0 record before being upset by the Las Vegas Raiders. Kansas City then proceeded to win their next 10 games, and their week 17 loss came with their former MVP quarterback Mahomes benched as the team had already clinched the AFC’s one seed.

The Chiefs are also led by two of the best targets in the entire league, with Tyreek Hill, a wide receiver, and the

league’s best deep ball threat, and Travis Kelce, arguably the NFL’s best tight end.

After a bye week, the Chiefs defeated the Cleveland Browns in a close game after Mahomes got a concussion and had to be replaced by Chad Henne.

They then hosted the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship, and as expected, with Mahomes back, they controlled the game most of the way to win their second consecutive AFC title.

The Chiefs haven’t lost their spot as the NFL’s favorite all year and are three-point favorites over the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl.

Before this season, the Buccaneers hadn’t made the playoffs since 2007 and still have the NFL’s worst win percentage of all time at 39.3%.

Tampa Bay was one of the most active teams in free agency this past offseason, signing Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown. They added that to an already strong receiver core with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin coming of 1,000-plus yard seasons The Bucs lost their very first game of the season against the New Orleans Saints, though they were able to move to 3-1 after the week one defeat. They then dropped a game to the Chicago Bears but responded with the most impressive win of the season by any team, beating the eventual NFC runnerups, the Green Bay Packers, 38-10.

After that, the Bucs started slipping and fell to 7-5 heading into week 14, but they bounced back with wins in their final four games to advance to the playoffs at 11-5.

The Bucs saw a much tougher path than the Chiefs as they would have to win three consecutive road games to win the NFC. They were fortunate to start their playoff journey in Washington against the 7-9 NFC East Champion Washington Football Team with a backup QB playing and were able to hold onto the lead as Washington nearly made a late comeback.

They then headed to New Orleans and avenged their two regular season losses to the NFC South division champion Saints after a few costly mistakes down the stretch by QB Drew Brees.

The Bucs then headed to Green Bay for a spot in the Super Bowl and were able to fight off the cold as well as the NFL’s MVP favorite in Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. A hail mary touchdown to wide receiver Scotty Miller at the end of the first half was the difference at the end of the game in their 31-26 win.

Prediction: Even though Kansas City is expected to win back to back Super Bowls by the odds and most of the media, they have to play the NFL’s best team in the last two months who has now won seven-straight games and is led by the most experienced QB in the Super Bowl ever.

The Bucs defense has looked strong in recent weeks and if they put pressure on Mahomes, he could make some critical mistakes.

The Bucs also have a deeper offense with more high quality targets and Super Bowl experience in another former Patriot, Rob Gronkowski. Leonard Fournette also looked good running the ball in Green Bay in the NFC Championship and I expect he will have a repeat performance.

This game will be more of a challenge for the Chiefs than last year’s Super Bowl LIV, when they were facing an inexperienced QB in Jimmy Garroppolo who was more prone to making mistakes.

Tom Brady hasn’t made mistakes in the same situations, which is why he has six Super Bowl titles already and why I think he will get number seven this Sunday, Feb. 7.

I expect Super Bowl LV will be a high-scoring game and I think in the end, Tom Brady will take over, though if he makes the same mistakes he has the last two weeks, Kansas City will win.

Final Score Prediction: 41-37 Tampa Bay Super Bowl MVP Prediction: I think Tom Brady is going to win his fifth Super Bowl MVP at 43-years-old, and we will see if he is finally ready to retire or if he finishes out the final year of his contract with the Bucs.

Sports reporter Ryan Scott can be reached at rscott@ dailyegyptian.com or on twitter @RyanscottDE.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Sports

Page 13

Philip Archer, first baseman on the SIU baseball team, poses for a portrait Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at SIU. Archer was off to a hot start in 2020, where he had a batting average of .344 in 18 games before COVID-19 uprooted the season. Archer has played for SIU for the last two years since transferring from Olney Central College. The 2020 season was Archer’s senior year, but it was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He will return to compete this spring for the 2021 season. Jared Treece | @bisalo

‘Play until you can’t play no more’

Philip Archer prepares for final season as a Saluki Adam Warfel | @warfel_adam

In early May 2020, Philip Archer faced the decision of either graduating and leaving Carbondale or to use his one additional year of eligibility offered by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One thought that stuck with Archer during this time of contemplation was one that comes from his dad: “Play until you can’t play no more.”

Archer, now in his third year with the Salukis after two years of junior college play at Olney Central College, did not start his baseball career in the Southern Illinois region.

Archer grew up in Greenville, Ind., which is just more than a three hour and 49 minute drive mostly on Interstate 64 for him.

“There is where I learned everything, baseball, education, everything,” Archer said.

Archer is the middle child of three boys but sports is no joke in their household, his older brother competed in track and field in college.

“He threw shot and disk at college at the University of Indianapolis,” Archer said. “ [My] younger brother he actually was at John A. Logan and he transferred to Oakland City University, which is probably about an hour, hour and a half west of

where I live.”

Despite the fact that his father played college basketball, Archer said that his athletic abilities come from his mother.

“Dad, he played basketball in college for a few years,” Archer said. “ I like to say I got my athleticism from my mom; she’s an athletic woman.”

Archer said that his love for baseball came early in life because he found success on the diamond.

“It was probably about the only sport I was good at,” Archer said. “I found a love for baseball early, I think it was because I had a lot of success with that compared to other sports.”

Archers’ memories as a young baseball player extend back to when his dad coached, where he remembers him as a great coach and never being too mean.

“I was lucky enough that my dad actually coached me all through travel ball as we liked to call it when I was younger,” Archer said. “I just remember all the times when he would come out on the mound and say,’Listen Philip, you throw one more ball and I’m going to have to pull you.”

On the mound, Archer was not one that would blow hitters away with heaters rather he was a lefty who was smart in the way he pitched.

“I used to be a little filthy on the mound, definitely didn’t throw hard,

I was just a little crafty lefty, “ Archer said. “My last year of pitching was senior year of high school.”

After his time in Greenville, Ind., Archer found himself in Olney, Ill. at Olney Central College under head coach Dennis Conley.

“I really liked the coach. I really wasn’t a big recruit out of high school,” Archer said. “Didn’t have a whole lot of offers, mostly just junior colleges, Olney was a really good place for me.”

Looking back at his time in Olney, Archer said upon arriving there, he was not the same caliber of player he is now.

“Walking in there, I was certainly not a Division-I baseball player,” Archer said. “I definitely molded into one over the years.”

Archer had success in his time with the Blue Knights, earning Great Rivers Athletic Conference and Region 24 player of the year awards in his sophomore season.

“It’s always nice to be acknowledged for the things you do throughout the year,It was a really good year [my] sophomore year,” Archer said. “ I played really well, it’s all because of the coaches there and the work that we put in there.”

From there, Archer moved to Southern and for junior outfielder Justin Weber this is when he remembers the first time meeting Archer.

“I remember his swagger, he definitely has a presence when he’s on the field,” Weber said. “He’s got his wristbands and his sunglasses on.”

Across 18 games last season,

Archer hit for a .344 average with five doubles, one triple, and one home run letting his presence be known on the field.

Both Weber and Archer were performing well in their respective positions, before the MVC cancelled the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Archer believes both of them will be back where they were last season.

“JT is a phenomenal hitter. Just yesterday we were joking about it,” Archer said. “We had a little intersquad and he jacked an absolute bomb and later that day I hit one too, and we were like man every time he hits a homerun I hit a homerun.”

Weber said that even though they are different kinds of hitters they approach it the same way when it comes to the mental aspect.

“We are two completely different kinds of hitters, but I think we kind of approach the mental side of it the same,” Weber said. “He’s got a pretty powerful swing, but he plays it to his advantage.”

While most people think about the bat when it comes to Archer, head coach Lance Rhodes said the way Archer plays first base helps the infield.

“Phil, he’s a really steady defender at first base, he makes our infielders better,” Rhodes said. “He does a really good job of picking the ball out of the dirt.”

As a senior last season Archer had the choice to come back and finish what he had started or graduate and start his life after school, but

one quote from his dad rang true in coming back.

“My dad obviously is a mentor and he always made the quote play until you can’t play no more,” Archer said.

“That was his big thing, Coach Rosie called me and said would you want to do this, there is unfinished business as I like to call it.”

The COVID-19 pandemic ended several seniors final year in their respective sports. The NCAA then chose to extend eligibility and time clocks for those players.

When looking at the fact of the players that chose to come back and play a fifth year this season, Rhodes said it’s big in many ways.

“One, they were some of our better players from a performance standpoint,” Rhodes said. “All the leadership skills that those guys bring, [...] they’re extremely hard workers.”

Looking back on the way he wants to be remembered by Saluki fans, Archer wants to be known as a highly energetic guy.

“I want to be remembered as a high energetic guy, positivity and energy mainly,” Archer said. “Me and John Lock [a sports information director in the department] we have a little saying: a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm.”

Although the Saluki baseball schedule has not been finalized yet, Saluki fans have the bat of Archer to look forward to this season.

Sports Reporter Adam Warfel can be reached at awarfel@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @warfel_adam.

Page 14

Sports

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

27 points from Lance Jones powers Salukis past UNI

Steven Verplancken Jr. (22) dribbles past the opponents to setup a way to score during the SIU vs Northern Iowa basketball game Jan. 31, 2021, at the SIU Bantera Center in Carbondale, Ill. Subash Kharel | @pics.leaks Adam Warfel| @warfel_adam

Seven threes by sophomore guard Lance Jones helped propel SIU to a 71-68 victory over the UNI Panthers.

“Today to come back in a back-to-back and be able to get a win over a championship program, it says a lot about the character of our young guys,” Saluki head coach Bryan Mullins said.

Jones finished the game with 27 points to go along with six assists.

“Lance is a great player, he’s got a chance to be a really high level player,” Mullins said. “Yesterday he was disappointed in himself in how he played. We talked last night late, he came ready to go today.”

The win marked an end to a six game losing streak by the Salukis (8-6, 2-6 MVC), their first win since Dec. 27 over Evansville.

“It feels really good to get back on the winning side, it was a long time coming, the guys worked for this,” Jones said.

The first half proved to be one of runs, as both SIU and UNI (5-11, 3-7 MVC) went on scoreless droughts of their own after the Panthers opened up a 6-4 lead early in the first half.

After a jumper by freshman forward Tytan Anderson for the Panthers, the game was tied at 12 at the 8:48 mark.

Southern answered that jumper with a 16-3 run led by three 3-pointers from Jones to push out to a 28-15 lead.

“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive, I felt like I let my teammates down yesterday,” Jones said.

Southern forced 10 turnovers in the first half which led to nine points that gave them a 37-24 advantage at halftime.

The second half opened much the same way the first half did, with neither team scoring until the 17:34 mark when UNI senior guard Trae Berhow scored on a layup.

Jones added two more 3-pointers and sophomore guard

Steven Verplancken Jr. added a 3-pointer to push the lead out to 48-34.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Anderson cut the SIU lead down to five at the 10:04 mark of the second half.

The Panthers closed the gap to as close as three points, but a 3-pointer from Verplancken gave Southern a 58-52 lead.

Northern Iowa cut the lead down to two at the 2:23 mark after freshman guard Bowen Born made a 3-pointer.

“We’ve got to do a better job defensively in the second half, that’s been a huge focus for us in these series,” Mullins said.

Southern was up 63-61 with 1:21 left, Mullins called a timeout and the Salukis responded with another 3-pointer from Verplancken in the corner to push the lead back out to five.

“Stephen puts some consistent work in day in and day out,” Jones said. “I felt like today was his day, he made big time shots.”

Verplancken finished the game with 14 points adding four rebounds.

“I’m so happy for Stephen, he’s a tireless worker, the whole staff, all the players and teammates believe in him,” Mullins said.

Jones made a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left at the buzzer of the shot clock with Born in his face to give Southern a 69-63 lead.

“Shot clock was running down, I tried to get downhill,” Jones said. “I kind of just put it up there and it went in.”

Senior forward Anthony D’Avanzo capped the scoring for SIU with two free throws and Born made a last second 3-pointer for UNI to make the final score 71-68.

“I never thought they wavered today, even though we made a ton of mistakes, we didn’t execute sometimes, but they believed they were going to win the whole time,” Mullins said.

SIU will have a week off before facing off against Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. at Carver Arena with tip off set for 3 pm.

“Bradley has [gone] to the tournament the last two years,

we’re going to have our hands full in Peoria,” Mullins said.

“We’ve got to really worry about ourselves the next couple days and then start preparing for Bradley.”

Sports Reporter Adam Warfel can be reached at awarfel@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @warfel_adam.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Study Break

Seriously. Get out from under there!

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Editorial Cartoon Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

Page 15

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Page 16

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