The Daily Egyptian - March 17, 2021

THE

Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.

DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM MARCH 17, 2021 VOL. 104, ISSUE 9

A year later, southern Illinois remembers Breonna Taylor George Wiebe | gwiebe@dailyegyptian.com Keaton Yates | @keatsians Jamilah Lewis | @jamilahlewis

A year later, southern Illinois remembers Breonna Taylor.

Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman shot and killed in her home

by Louisville police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove on March 13, 2020.

Hankison has been indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting the neighboring residence through Taylor’s apartment, but Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced no direct charges would be brought for the raid.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was cleared of shooting a police officer on March 8, 2021.

Hosted by the Southern Illinois Unity Coalition, more than 50 people gathered at the Carbondale Pavilion to speak and march in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Naomi Love, Ella Howard, and Benjamin Whaley congregate before the protest on the one year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death Saturday, March 13, 2021 in Carbondale, Ill. Chris Bishop | @quippedmediallc

Please see TAYLOR | 3

Couple designs mural to bring racial unity to Carbondale Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

Artists and community activists, Cree Sahidah Glanz and Marquez Scoggin have partnered with A Gift of Love Charity to create a mural to bring beauty and unity to Carbondale.

“Me and my wife, Cree, are both facilitating this community mural [...] we want to send a message of racial unity, you know, human beings of different skin colors coming together and living in harmony, so that’s what this mural is going to be symbolic of,” Scoggin said.

Glanz and Scoggin worked to create a space where artists can feel free to express themselves and their beliefs through their pieces. They began their journey

at their current location in November of 2019 but only recently opened a new space at the same location about a month ago.

With racial tensions high around the country, Glanz and Scoggin decided to use art as a means of unity through their organization, Project Human X. “Art has a lot of healing properties, and Carbondale and southern Illinois really needed something nurturing,” Glanz said.

On March 13 Glanz and Scoggin revealed an untitled project where many people from the community have

Community activist and leader, Michael Coleman, paints the Art Reconciliation community mural Mar. 5, 2021, in Carbondale, Ill. “Just being able to just give time to give back to your community, I think that’s really important. We take so much but, like, we have to keep giving back to the community and Please see MURAL | 2 this is my way of doing it,” Coleman said. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Mural continued from

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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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Cree Sahidah Glanz and Marquez Scoggin’s daughter, Masterpeace, paints part of the Art Reconciliation community mural March 5, 2021, in Carbondale, Ill. Glanz said that art is for people of all ages and they like to expose Masterpeace to it for that reason. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

contributed in creating over the past few weeks. The painting is of a face with a brain floating above it, with over thirty people adding to the face by painting patches of skin color to symbolize the togetherness of all races and ethnicities. The artists were also able to add color to the brain which represents the growth and higher understanding of the community.

“When you’re doing art, you’re not doing anything violent. You’re creating instead of destroying,” Glanz said.

On Saturday, Apr. 3, 2021, Glanz and Scoggin will unveil their Art Reconciliation community mural as part of their project for racial healing. The mural is based on the painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat, however, unlike the original, this mural more accurately depicts the diversity of the community.

“We put a diverse twist on it because the original only has caucasian people so we wanted people of all different skin colors [...] that’s what Carbondale is and that’s what the world we’re living in is. It’s not just one color,” Scoggin said.

The other objective of the painting is to project the idea of peace between the people in the image. They wanted the mural to showcase a place where people

“When you’re doing art, you’re not doing anything violent. You’re creating instead of destroying.”

- Cree Sahidah Glanz Artist

are relaxed and enjoying their time together without the outside stress of the world.

“I want people to look at this and feel calm and know that beautiful things are happening in their community,” Glanz said.

“We’re bringing human beings together,” Scoggin said.

Staff Photographer Sophie Whitten can be reached at Swhitten@dailyegyptian.com or on Instagram @ swittenphotography.

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The untitled Art Reconciliation project is unveiled March 13, 2021, at Project Human X in Carbondale, Ill. The painting was sketched by Cree Sahidah Glanz and contributed to by over thirty community members. Each person could add to a patch of skin color or part of the brain. The different skin colors represents the unity of every race and the floating brain represents a higher understanding of the community and world around us. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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Protestors march on East College St. through downtown back to the Carbondale Pavilion on Saturday, March 13, 2021 in Carbondale Ill. Keaton Yates | @keatsians As the protesters marched down East Main St., South Washington St. and South Illinois Ave., they chanted “Breonna Taylor, Rest in Power!” and “ No justice, No peace!

Prosecute the police!”.

Ashayla Mathis, Carbondale resident and participant, said she wants to see change in law enforcement and more awareness of Taylor’s murder.

“I just feel this degree of unprotected-ness,” Mathis said, “It really goes to show that just the amount of disrespect and the lack of value of life whenever law enforcement are able to get away with things like this.”

Mathis said the charges brought against the officers for property damage felt like another “slap across the face.”

Abigail Cullum, 30, of Herrin attended with her 8-year-old daughter, Teagan, and her husband, Lukas, 30, to try and bring justice to Taylor.

“It’s been a year since she has passed away and justice has not been served for her,” Abigail Cullum said. “It’s important for our family and for her family that we’re here together.”

With her mother’s arm wrapped around her, Teagan Cullum said, “I want to see that even though we have different skin tones we should be treated equally because we are all people.”

Naomi Love, a senior at Carbondale Community High School, said she wants to see change in the way society depicts Black women in America.

“As a Black woman, I've seen the erasure of Black women’s death is a tragedy that is oftentimes really overlooked and it’s disgusting that our society ignores a black woman’s death,” Love said. “I just think it’s something that people really need to pay attention to right now.”

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

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

Left: Matt Wilson, one of the participants, gives a speech during the protest on the one year anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death on Saturday, March 13, 2021 at the Carbondale Pavilion in Carbondale, Ill. Subash Kharel | @ pics.leaks

Scan the QR code to view the video accompanying this story.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

This is not how your story ends: The shadow pandemic of domestic violence

Oreoluwa Ojewuyi | @odojewuyi

We’re taught that love is patient, gentle and kind. Love is not meant to hurt, but a year into isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic there is another harmful virus affecting lives behind closed doors- domestic violence.

Just like COVID-19, domestic violence is not picky about its victims. It affects anyone no matter race, occupation or gender.

Shelby Swafford is an SIU graduate assistant and graduate student in Communication Studies, with an emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Swafford said it’s important to discuss abuse in relationships because the more we talk about it, the more we can instill prevention and exit strategies for survivors.

“COVID obviously did not create intimate partner violence but the two conditions that were worsened by COVID are isolation and financial insecurity,” Swafford said.

Isolation is one of the most powerful tools that abusers use according to Swafford.

“In those situations of intimate partner violence, abusers use isolation as a tactic where slowly over time, they take the victim or the survivor away from family and friends, and that allows for abuse to occur because then the victim or survivor becomes more dependent on the abuser,” Swafford said.

Roxanne Thompson is a Southern Illinois native and survivor of domestic violence and abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

Thompson currently works at Jan Payne CPAS as a client service associate. Thompson’s abuser’s name has been changed to Alex for the safety of the survivor.

Thompson said she met Alex when she was just the age of 17. Alex supported her through “hardships and difficult times in her life.” She was living in Chicago and struggling with school and some relationships with friends.

“I think that Alex picked up on that. He reached back out to me.

I had reached out to him as well.

He had come up from St. Louis, [to Chicago],” Thompson said.

“The things that I was on the fence about he just came in and was like ‘No, this person is bad’, and he immediately took this role in my life where he was performing like my best interest was in mind.”

Thompson said Alex used intimate details she had shared with him later on to humiliate and hurt her.

“He had known me since I was 17. He had known what I’ve gone through, and he would bring up things about my sexual assault or things about my car accident just to hurt my feelings. He knew that that’s what would make me upset. It was all about keeping me in this big cycle of being devastated and then love bombing me,” Thompson said.

Before the physical abuse began, Alex and Roxanne dated during these back-forth trips from St. Louis to Chicago. After several trips, they decided to go on a trip to Oregon.

“During the second week of our vacation, I decided that I wanted to live there. I was like, [to Alex] ‘You don’t have to live here but I think this is what I’m going to do.’

I got a job interview and got hired at a preschool, which is what I’m passionate about,” Thompson said.

After Thompson got the job, they moved to Oregon. She moved with the intent that financially supporting the two of them would only be a temporary arrangement.

“Very quickly, it turned into, he would get a job and have a job for a week or two then there would always be a reason as to why he couldn’t or didn’t want to work there and he would quit. He kept this cycle of hope going,” Thompson said.

Thompson said this cycle continued for several months and with the downtime Alex spent at home, he began to abuse her.

“From the start of my day, really, I would wake up in the morning and immediately get torn apart.

My character was attacked. My appearance was attacked and there was nothing I could do that was right. There was no outfit that I could wear, that was appropriate for work,” Thompson said.

It wasn’t until the day before Thompson’s 20th birthday that Alex took the control and psychological abuse to the next level, she said.

“The night before my 20th birthday. He had gone into the city for some job fair and it didn’t go the way that he had wanted, because he had never graduated from college.

It was all this big, elaborate lie. The whole time he was actually just like, living with his friend that went to the college,” Thompson said.

In preparation for the job fair Thompson said Alex accessed her computer to print some materials. But he also read her text conversations with other people that dated back to 2015, before she even knew Alex.

“He came home from the job fair and came into the apartment, grabbed me and started beating me.

He had me down on the ground and he slapped me so hard on either side of my face that I had two black eyes. I had my arms out yelling back at him and he punched me in my bicep hard enough that you could make out the knuckles between his fingers on the bruise on my arm,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she put up a fight during the attack and afterwards felt alone, isolated and devastated that someone she loved could hurt her so violently.

“It was just me and him all the time. I didn’t have people to run to and bounce that off of and say ‘Hey, is this a bad situation?’ He sufficiently isolated me where I didn’t feel comfortable reaching out to my family or my friends and

I remember that night, just crying myself to sleep because I was so hurt and so confused,” Thompson said.

Swafford said isolation is key to keeping someone in the cycle of abuse. She said it’s more difficult to recognize warning signs of abuse in a pandemic when people are so physically isolated.

“The reality is, it’s harder to identify those times when we are so disconnected from each other.

I feel like the only tool we have at our disposal is really to try and try and keep connections as much as possible,” Swafford said. “So, if we are worrying about someone that might be in this situation, maybe we can pull them back from that isolation somehow, by sending them resources.”

Part of the abuse is the abuser convincing the victim they are being used by the people who want to help them according to Swafford.

“I wasn’t supposed to go hang out with anybody or have friends outside of Alex. The minute we got to Oregon, his entire focus was isolating me from my family and isolating me from my friends.

I couldn’t talk to my parents on the phone without him listening in on the conversation. I couldn’t talk to my friends on the phone without him tearing apart the entire conversation immediately after,” Thompson said.

At the time, Thompson thought the attack was a one time occurrence. The next morning she called her best friend to tell her about the incident. Her friend called Thompson’s mom and told her what occurred the night before.

Thompson said her mom didn’t force her to make any decisions about leaving Alex; instead she made plans to visit Oregon to see Thompson that weekend.

“It took me so long to wrap my mind around that it’s not just, how you see domestic violence portrayed on TV. It’s not just the woman that doesn’t have her own income, it’s not just the woman that saw it growing up, it’s not just, the woman that has no other option and she’s staying with him because that’s her only way out,” Thompson said.

“I had my own means of income.

I could have cut him off. I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t put enough value in myself or my own well being and I thought that I deserved it.”

Swafford said it’s important to note that domestic violence doesn’t only happen against one kind of person.

“It’s important to remember that when we say women, that means a whole lot of different kinds of women: trans women, disabled women, women of color [and] working class women. And also that domestic violence happens in same gender relationships.

Domestic violence happens in your relationships. Domestic violence happens in hetero relationships, against men,” Swafford said.

Sarah Settles is the domestic violence case manager at the Carbondale Women’s Center. She also spoke at the “Love Shouldn’t Hurt” seminar, held by Women Gender and Sexuality Studies at SIU in collaboration with other organizations. Settles said it is important to not force people in situations of domestic violence to leave before they are ready.

“It takes about seven times for that person to really pick up and leave. This affects every walk of life, I mean I’ve been here for over 10 years now … I’ve seen women that drive up in [a] Mercedes Benz and they say, ‘I have nothing. I walked out with nothing, I don’t have a penny to my name, but I’m out,’” Settles said.

Thompson went into work after the phone call. Her bosses took her to a domestic violence resource center.

“I appreciated the help, but I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. When you’re in a situation like that and you’re getting opinions from the outside, I think it’s so important when you’re reaching out to people you think might be suffering from domestic violence that you don’t try to put yourself in their shoes. At the end of the day, I was hearing what they were saying to me but in my mind, it was like ‘Okay, well they’re not living it,’” Thompson said.

Thompson said Alex proceeded with other toxic behaviors following the first physical attack.

“Alex was intentionally making me late, or like getting in my way and like faking like ruining my morning and then I’m like trying to get myself back together before I go into work. Eventually my boss called me downstairs and she’s like, ‘We love you so much, and this is not something that I want to have to do, but we’re gonna have to let you go’,” Thompson said.

Thompson, who held a job since she was 14 years old, said she initially felt abandoned by her employers when they fired her. She said she didn’t understand the extent of the risk Alex posed to not only her but the children she worked with at the preschool.

“Every day when I was with Alex I just wanted to die. Getting up and like going to see those kids every day and going to see my co-workers and having that time during my day away from him was my only escape,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she was so desperate to get away from home and the torment Alex put her through that she picked up two jobs while Alex was still unemployed.

Months of unemployment and excuses led to an intense argument where Alex threw Thompson’s small dog, Blue, across their living room.

“I remember seeing that happen [...] and grabbing her and going outside. I remember sitting outside, watching her run around still, so happy. I just decided right then

and there […] I didn’t care enough about myself at the time to leave.

But I cared about Blue,” Thompson said.

It was in the process of saving Blue’s life that Thompson saved her own. She began to make plans to leave and visited shelters.

Unfortunately, the shelters had no space for Thompson and Blue but they provided her with other resources for young women in her situation.

Thompson said the help she received from her coworkers, friends, family and domestic violence resource centers led her to be an advocate for the Carbondale Women’s Center upon her return to Southern Illinois. The center offers an array of resources for victims of abuse.

“For a long time, it was under the assumption that men could not come to the shelter but it is for men, women and children. If you have an emotional support dog, we have facilities for the animals too,” Settles said. “Some of the services that we have are the shelter of course, legal advocacy, we have counseling, child counseling, case management, real housing group support, emergency food supplies, lots and lots of referrals, transportation and different activities.”

Settles said The Women’s Center is in the process of changing their name to make it more welcoming to all victims of abuse. The Women’s center also offers transitional housing units for victims or survivors of abuse.

“We pay their rent for up to two years … they can stay there with their children […]. I help them along the way, maybe looking for a job, looking for a car, applying for Social Security and you pay a minimal rent based on your income [...],” Settles said.

Swafford said education about healthy relationships and resources is key to decreasing the rate of intimate partner violence.

“We have a very limited view of what this actually is. Some places actually showed a decrease in calls to domestic violence hotlines at the beginning of lockdown, because certain areas just can’t access those resources. They can’t make a phone call if their abuser is sitting on the couch next to them,” Swafford said.

Thompson said her privacy was invaded by Alex almost daily. In search for a final reason to leave Alex, Thompson said she decided to retaliate and search through his phone.

“I had to hide that I was still selling myself on the idea that I had to leave. I went through his phone, and it turns out that for maybe six months in Oregon, he was cheating on me and had been in contact with multiple women [and] women from St. Louis came to Oregon to visit. I didn’t know about any of this because I was Please see VIOLENCE | 2

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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Women provide a foundation for the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Jason Flynn | @dejasonflynn

Bethel AME Church sits at 316 E Jackson Street, tucked only slightly away from the busy shop and restaurant intersection of Washington and Jackson in Carbondale.

The Bethel congregation was organized in the home of Spencer Williams in 1864, the year before the end of the Civil War according to a written history forwarded by Elizabeth Lewin, a Bethel member and former superintendent of school district 95.

“Bethel is the actual first church of color, organized church of color, in Carbondale,” Lewin said.

“Within 10 to 15 years Rock Hill Baptist Church, Freewill Baptist Church, and New Zion, they kind of came along after Bethel.”

In 1868 the congregation erected the first church on North Marion.

The church’s location has changed a couple times since its founding, at one time residing on West Oak Street before settling on its current lot in 1909.

Since its founding, Bethel has been a center for community and service for locals and a historic haven for visitors and the women of Bethel played a key role in the history and present of the church.

“Eurma Hayes was a force unto herself. I mean, this was a lady I think all of us could have really wanted to model ourselves off of,” Lewin said.

Carbondale was segregated when Lewin was a child and Black students weren’t allowed to reside on campus at Southern Illinois University. “[Hayes] would always support college students,” Lewin said. “To make sure that they had a proper place to stay and that they were

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fed and whenever housing was a problem, she sort of stepped up and would advocate to the city and the state politicians to provide support in Carbondale.”

Hayes also helped integrate the Carbondale school system.

“I lived on Jackson Street as a little girl and Attucks School, which was the public school at the time, was right down the street,” Lewin said. “There was a movement to integrate [Attucks], the high school and then the elementary schools, and Mrs. Hayes, along with my dad and others, were pretty active in trying to make that a relatively smooth and safe transition for the children of the northeast side.”

The Eurma C. Hayes Center was eventually named in her honor due to her work in the Model Cities Program which eventually led Hayes to meet with then-President Richard Nixon in Washington, DC, according to History Makers interview with her son William Hayes.

“She had been so vocal on deterioration of the northeast side of town, and had created some noise in the town,” William said. “Nixon was calling representatives to the White House and she was there for a meeting with him.”

Throughout the civil rights movement most women didn’t hold public facing positions like Hayes, but Lewin said the work of the movement wouldn’t have been possible without the work of women, like Lewin’s mother, in support roles.

“There were four little girls that she had to keep track of so I am sure she could have been far more active, but we kept her busy enough keeping track of us,” Lewin said. “She was a member of the missionary and she helped out and

led whenever she could.”

Joyce Hayes began attending Bethel, where she met her late husband Richard Hayes who is Eurma’s son, soon after moving to Carbondale for college.

Joyce said she also had a role of support during the civil rights era.

“My husband was really involved in [the civil rights movement], and I had the children at home,” Joyce said. “I know I supported him and everything that he did, and that gave him an opportunity to go out and do what needed to be done.”

Joyce would later help Richard and Rev. Rick Jackson found the Feed My Sheep program where she still volunteers.

“When it first started I would

actually be there to help in the kitchen with the cooking and setting up the dining room or some dishes cleaning up afterwards,” Joyce said. “[Later] we started delivering to homebound people, and in the last few years that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Feed My Sheep partners with multiple other churches that contribute money and volunteers throughout the year, and since starting in 2002 has contributed tens of thousands of volunteer hours and hundreds of thousands of meals.

“I really have a lot of admiration for Dolores as the coordinator of the director of the Feed My Sheep Program that actually, you know,

it’s hands on and serving people,” Lewin said.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic normal church operations have been in flux.

Gatherings were largely moved online, and fewer volunteers were available or able to safely work in the space.

Despite the difficulties Bethel was, among other things, still able to do a clothing drive, a bagged lunch program for school kids, and help Women for Change during their summer program Penn said.

that moment, when I started to lose oxygen, the look on his face showed me that he had no mercy for me at all at that point.”

Alex released his grip around her neck suddenly and Thompson said that moment would change her life forever because she truly came to terms with what was happening to her.

“I went into the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror. I spit in the sink, I’d been strangled so hard that I was spitting up blood.

I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like, ‘I am not going to die today. Today is not my day.

There’s so much more that I have to give in this world that I have not. This is not how I’m going to go out. I have not made it through all of this and survived all these near death experiences for Alex to be the one taking me out of this world,’” Thompson said.

After gathering herself in the restroom, Thompson fled in her pajamas, barefoot with blood

coming from her mouth. Her only goal was to find a phone to call her mom. As she ran for help, Alex trailed behind her telling their neighbors in the apartment complex that she was having a mental breakdown. Thompson then decided to run to the grocery store for help.

Thompson’s downstairs neighbors heard the attack occurring and called the police.

When the cops arrived and assessed the situation, they saw the wounds on Thompson and noticed no marks on Alex except for residue drywall on his hands. After taking statements the police arrested Alex.

“I know that, they’re supposed to be a neutral party, you know, but they were on my side, for sure. It felt really good to have that. I know that in a lot of situations, especially down here in Southern Illinois, you’re in a smaller town and the police are someone you know uncle or family member,” Thompson said.

“If I was in St. Louis with Alex

and that happened, it would be a completely different story, because his brother’s a police officer and I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable as I did in that situation.”

Alex was convicted on November 12, 2019 for felony strangulation and two counts of fourth degree assault. Thompson said she warned law enforcement multiple times that Alex would flee back to St. Louis upon his release from jail and the halfway house he was placed in.

Unfortunately, Thompson said her fears became a reality when Alex fled to the St. Louis area when it came time for their restitution hearing in February 2020. Oregon police are unable to act due to COVID restrictions and he now has a national warrant out for his arrest.

“I feel a lot of unrest with my continuing legal proceedings pending on the status of the pandemic on the west coast,” Thompson said.

Thompson said despite

the trauma and hardship this relationship has continued to cause her, she is a brave survivor.

“I feel the situation has only made me stronger. I will not allow this to stop me in my tracks,” Thompson said.

Victims or survivors of abuse need support from their community, family and friends. Although it is difficult with the restrictions due to the pandemic, organizations like the Women’s Center need community donations to provide adequate support to those in need.

If you or someone you know is struggling with abuse of any form please refer to this resource list: • Crisis Services | Student Health Services | SIU • Donations • Safety & Escape Plan • About the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline

Photo courtesy of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Staff reporter Jason Flynn can be reached at jflynn@dailyegyptian.com, by phone at 872-222-7821 or on Twitter at @dejasonflynn.

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just working all the damn time,” Thompson said.

She took the information she found out about him cheating and confronted him with it, which threw him into a blind rage.

Thompson said Alex threw her to the ground and beat her before she got up and began to run away.

Thompson locked herself in the bathroom. She said during this time, Alex grabbed her car keys and phone and eventually broke down the bathroom door and chased her into the living room.

“He grabbed me and threw me on the couch and he was strangling me with one of his hands. The other hand punched a hole in the wall above my head and it felt like he was going to punch me straight through my face. I bit him because I was so angry. I spit on him,” Thompson said. “He took his hand back out of the wall and started strangling me with both hands and pushed my body off the arm of the couch and had my head upside down. At

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

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Ronan Lisota | @r_lisota

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

international student feature

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Gustavo Felicio Perruci, a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering from Brazil, prints a sample in a 3D printer for his research in the Metrology Laboratory at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill. Perruci remembers the friend circle he had before the pandemic. “I badly miss the International coffee hour. I had a big friend community back then,” Perruci said. “I hope SIU organizes in-person activities frequently following proper guidelines so that I could feel the same again.” Subash Kharel | @pics.leaks

John & Marsha Ryan Bioethicist

2020-2021

Ryan Bioethicist-in-Residence

Glenn Cohen,

Deputy Dean, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Health Care: Legal and Ethical Issues

March 22, 2021 • 5 p.m.

This will be a Zoom Webinar: http://bit.ly/2021-Ryan-Bioethicist Webinar ID: 924 0204 1180 Passcode: 049982 This lecture is free and open to the public.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Beth and Linda Bivens wait for their ice cream at Dairy Queen March 11, 2021, in Carbondale, Ill. The two said their favorite memory from coming to Dairy Queen as a kid was sitting on the curb and eating ice cream as a family and watching parades as they went by. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

Sandra Bollinger, an employee at Dairy Queen, makes a shake March 11, 2021, in Carbondale, Ill. “I have a lot of favorite memories. The owner’s father is who trained me, Joe Waicukauski, he was just always a joy to work with,” Bollinger said. Waicukauski passed away in 2016, but his son, Mark Waicukauski, continues to own the business. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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Dairy Queen’s neon sign lights up along U.S. Route 51 Saturday, March 13, 2021 in Carbondale Ill. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

Scan the QR code to see the video associated with the story.

Sophie Whitten | @swittenphotography

For the past seventy years, the Carbondale Dairy Queen has been a place for anyone to enjoy ice cream and spend the afternoon with friends and family.

Joe Waicukauski gained ownership of the Carbondale Dairy Queen in 1966, just over a decade after it was built and his son, Mark Waicukauski, who currently owns the building, grew up in and around the business.

Joe Waicukauski passed away in 2016, but Mark continued to carry on his and his business’ legacy.

The Dairy Queen creates a sense of nostalgia for many members of the Carbondale community. Many people remembered eating ice cream on the sidewalk with their friends and family when they were kids and watching the cars and floats during the Halloween parades pass by.

“Everything has changed so much downtown so when alumni come back to town, everything is so much different for them. But when they come see the Dairy Queen, everybody’s got memories of coming to the Dairy Queen, sitting on the wall and talking, and it just brings

back good memories of everything,” Mark Waicukauski said.

Because of COVID-19, the business had to close until they decided to reopen again this spring, taking precautionary measures.

Waicukauski said that with the only available seating being outside, it felt safe for both the employees and their customers to reopen.

“They can come up here and be normal like they used to. I mean, so it was good for people to have some normalcy in their lives,” Waicukauski said.

Waicukauski said the Dairy Queen corporation asked them multiple times about updating and renovating their facility, but he always declined, saying there are too many memories people have of the current building to replace it with a newer one.

“We get ten people a week stopping and taking pictures of this place and we want to keep the nostalgia of this as long as possible,” Waicukauski said.

Staff Photographer Sophie Whitten can be reached at Swhitten@ dailyegyptian.com or on Instagram @ swittenphotography.

Braylin Bostic and Kimora Brown receive their ice cream March 8, 2021, at Dairy Queen in Carbondale, Ill. Bostic and Brown said they begged to go get ice cream because they love the Dairy Queen in Carbondale. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

Kimora Brown holds up her Dairy Queen Blizzard. Brown said she loves coming to Dairy Queen and eating the ice cream with her family March 8, 2021, at Dairy Queen in Carbondale, Ill. Sophie Whitten | @swhittenphotography

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

How are we represented?

An understanding of Illinois’ Congressional delegates and their voting records

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof George Wiebe | gwiebe@dailyegyptian

The United States House of Representatives is made up of 435 members across the country, 18 come from the State of Illinois and these officials speak for their districts and represent the average person in the federal government.

Both Senators from Illinois are Democrats and five Republicans join thirteen Democrats in the House.

Every two years citizens get to decide the people representing them in the federal government, and knowing what they do is vital towards deciding who returns to office and who goes home.

Since Congress reconvened at the start of 2021 major legislation has passed through the House, though their chances in the Senate are not assured.

Some of the Bills passed cover a wide range of important topics like COVID-19 relief, civil rights, police reform, gun control and wildlife protection.

The average person will catch a few of these Bills in the news, but understanding the major and minor decisions made by our representatives is the only way to keep them honest and accountable

to the people who voted for them.

In order of when they were introduced to the House, here is a list of major legislation passed, and how Illinoisans were represented: H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2021 H.R.1 is a bill that would expand voter access in all 50 states, as well as establish independent redistricting commissions for the sake of drawing up congressional districts and reform campaign financing by further limiting contributions from foreign nationals.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush (D)- Yea 2. Robin Kelly (D)- Yea 3. Marie Newman (D)- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia (D)- Yea 5. Mike Quigley (D)- Yea 6. Sean Casten (D)- Yea 7. Danny Davis (D)- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi (D)-Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky (D)- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder (D)- Yea 11. Bill Foster (D)- Yea 12. Mike Bost (R)- Nay 13. Rodney Davis (R)- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood (D)- Yea 15. Mary Miller (R)- No Vote 16. Adam Kinzinger (R)- Nay 17. Cheri Bustos (D)- Yea 18. Darin LaHood (R)- Nay “The For the People Act ends

many discriminatory practices like voter intimidation and distribution of misinformation, used to prevent Latino, Black and other marginalized communities from exercising their voting rights,” Democratic Rep. Jesus Garcia (IL-4) said.

H.R.1276 - VA VACCINE Act of 2021 Passed unanimously by the house the H.R. 1276 would cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccines for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush- Yea 2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- Yea 13. Rodney Davis- Yea 14. Lauren Underwood- Yea 15. Mary Miller- Yea 16. Adam Kinzinger- Yea 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Yea H.R.803 - Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act Wildlife conservation has

not been a major talking point, especially since the start of the pandemic, but H.R 803, which would designate a significant amount of Colorado wilderness as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush- Yea 2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- No Vote 13. Rodney Davis- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood- Yea 15. Mary Miller- Nay 16. Adam Kinzinger- No Vote 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Nay H.R.5 - Equality Act Previously voted down in the Senate back in 2019 H.R.5 would amend the Civil Rights Amendment to prohibit discrimintaion based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush- Yea

2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- Nay 13. Rodney Davis- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood-Yea 15. Mary Miller- Nay 16. Adam Kinzinger- Nay 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Nay “No one should be denied housing, education, and public services in this country just because of who they are and who they love,” Democratic Rep. Marie Newman (IL-3) said, “Americans like my daughter deserve every right to be legally protected from discrimination, and with the passage of this legislation, we are one step closer to that reality.”

H.R.1280 - George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police in 2020 massive Please see REPRESENTED | 2

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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civil unrest led to the creation of a nationwide police reform bill; the objective of H.R.1280 is to increase transparency in departments and improve training policies.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush- Yea 2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- Nay 13. Rodney Davis- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood- Yea 15. Mary Miller- Nay

16. Adam Kinzinger- Nay 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Nay “There is no doubt that law enforcement officers who violate their oath to protect and serve should be held accountable for their actions,” Republican Rep. Mike Bost (IL-12) said, “but defunding the police and removing protections for good officers is a recipe for lawlessness.”

H.R.1319 - American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 The $1.9 trillion stimulus bill is one of the largest, widest reaching public expenditures aimed at relieving American people and businesses that have been most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

(The numbers represent districts)

1. Bobby Rush- Yea 2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea 9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- No Vote 13. Rodney Davis- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood- Yea 15. Mary Miller- Nay 16. Adam Kinzinger- Nay 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Nay “Congress has a responsibility to deliver a robust and equitable recovery, and I will work diligently to

ensure that is the case,” Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush (IL-1), Illinois’ longest serving Representative, said.

H.R.8 - Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 Anxiety over gun violence in America has made room for H.R.8 to pass the House of Representatives, expanding background check requirements for the transfer of firearms between private parties.

(The numbers represent districts) 1. Bobby Rush- Yea 2. Robin Kelly- Yea 3. Marie Newman- Yea 4. Jesus Garcia- Yea 5. Mike Quigley- Yea 6. Sean Casten- Yea 7. Danny Davis- Yea 8. Jaja Krishnamoorthi- Yea

9. Jan Schakowsky- Yea 10. Brad Schnieder- Yea 11. Bill Foster- Yea 12. Mike Bost- Nay 13. Rodney Davis- Nay 14. Lauren Underwood- Yea 15. Mary Miller- Nay 16. Adam Kinzinger- Yea 17. Cheri Bustos- Yea 18. Darin LaHood- Nay “I firmly believe in the right to keep and bear arms, legally,” Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) said. “I’m also a strong advocate for concealed carry, and have permitted myself to do so. But we have a violence problem in this country and it cannot be ignored.”

Staff reporter George Wiebe can be reached at gwiebe@dailyegyptian.com

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

From furloughed to fulfilled

YouTuber uses pandemic to rekindle love for travel, content creation Sara Wangler | @sara_Wangler

After he was furloughed from his day job in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, part-time Youtuber Chris Harden rekindled his passion for traveling and content creation.

The pandemic might seem like a setback, but Harden found a way to make profit from YouTube all while doing something he loves.

Harden’s channel, Nostalgia Tours, has 151 videos and 10.6k subscribers.

His most-viewed video is on Cairo, Ill., with 124k views.

“I always wanted to produce good quality videos and I love to travel,” Harden said. “I grew up in five states, so road trips aren’t anything new to me.”

Harden and his family always drove on the interstate through the Midwest, never stopping or traveling through different towns. Harden said

Scan the QR code to visit Chris Harden’s YouTube channel.

he was always curious about the small towns they passed.

Harden’s videos feature guided tours of cities and small towns. All the viewer needs is to sit back and literally enjoy the ride.

“I started my channel in 2017, but the videos were bad quality, it went to the back burner until last year when I had more time. I bought better equipment and it became more serious,” Harden said.

While on furlough, Harden said, he took two or three trips through Illinois just getting as much footage

as he could.

“I’ve wanted to start a YouTube Channel for a while so while I had all the time in the world I decided to go for it,” Harden said.

Harden said he started the channel right before the pandemic hit, uploading once a week.

“I would do videos about places where I’m from [suburban Detroit], then when I got furloughed I had so much time on my hands so I took a trip to Memphis, Tennessee,” Harden said.

Rental car prices were down and so

were gas prices, so Harden went for it.

“Originally I planned on going to Memphis and on the way back to Cairo, Illinois,” Harden said. “I winged it and decided to go to other towns just for more content. Those towns happened to be Carbondale and Marion.”

Harden said he tried to get 10 to 12 videos out of the road trip.

Carbondale was a decent size town and it was close by; coming there just kind of happened by chance.

“Carbondale is definitely one of my best and most popular [videos]; bigger cities with a metropolitan feel tend to do better in terms of views,” Harden said.

A year after the Cairo video was uploaded, it took off and is more popular than the Carbondale one as of now, said Harden.

“Carbondale has over 20k views and Cairo has over 100k. For some reason, YouTube promotes some

videos over others,” Harden said.

Harden said the process of creating a route includes finding interesting places, then creating the route he will take from there.

“I have plans on doing more than just having a camera on my dash and driving around, I bought a drone and got certified to fly it commercially which was a long process,” Harden said.

The future of his videos will be more entertaining and just better in general, Harden said.

“If I take videos and upload them to YouTube or sell pictures taken with a drone I need a permit to do so,” Harden said. “I also plan to get out of my car and show certain buildings or landmarks, almost like vlogging.”

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

Infrastructure bill aims to end ‘digital divide’

Dean DeChiaro, CQ-Roll Call Tribune Content Agency

Now that President Joe Biden has signed into law the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package that Congress passed last week, Democratic lawmakers are beginning to focus on the next big-ticket item on their legislative agenda, a massive infrastructure package, and the broadband money they plan to include in it.

Several coronavirus-related aid packages that Congress passed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic included money for broadband, but not on the scale that Democrats are eyeing for the upcoming package. Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said broadband would be among the priorities for the upcoming infrastructure package, which she called “big, bold and transformational.”

Right on cue, all 32 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee proposed a far-reaching infrastructure measure that would authorize more than $109 billion to expand broadband access throughout the country in an effort to close what’s become known as “the digital divide,” the gap between those who can access the internet at home and those who cannot.

Of that total, $80 billion would

“Access to broadband today will have the same dramatic impact on rural communities as the rural electrification efforts in the last century.”

- James E. Clyburn House Majority Whip

be set aside for deploying new broadband networks or expanding existing ones to reach those who currently can’t get a signal. The committee said the investment would be enough to drive 100 percent connectivity throughout the country.

The Federal Communications Commission would be responsible for awarding three-fourths of the $80 billion through a national bidding process, according to the bill summary, to “ensure the efficient distribution of the funds to areas that don’t have high-speed broadband internet service today.”

The remainder of the funds would be given to the states to fill in connectivity gaps.

An additional $15 billion would go toward implementing Next Generation 911 services, including systems that accept text messages, images or videos in emergencies when a phone call is not possible.

Another $5 billion would be used to subsidize low-interest financing

for broadband deployment projects and $8 billion in subsidies to help low-income families and students afford their monthly internet bill.

The proposed legislation, backed by Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., is one of the leading contenders to make up the broadband aspect of the coming infrastructure package. But it’s not the only one. (It wasn’t even the only one last week.) House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., last Thursday reintroduced legislation to authorize $94 billion in broadband spending. The legislation, also backed by Pallone, overlaps to an extent with the bill introduced by Energy and Commerce Democrats but has provisions specifically aimed at deploying service in unserved and underserved communities.

“Access to broadband today will have the same dramatic

impact on rural communities as the rural electrification efforts in the last century,” Clyburn said in a statement. “When I formed the Rural Broadband Task Force, our mission was to address the digital divide.

The disparate effects of that divide have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic and exposed the urgency of ensuring universal access to high-speed internet.”

Clyburn’s proposal won immediate support from Democratic commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission, including acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, as well as a wide variety of industry groups and advocacy organizations.

“For the last year the conversation around closing the digital divide has centered on short-term, urgent solutions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the nonprofit Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition,

said in a statement. “While these efforts are critical, we also need long-term solutions to address the enormous inequities in our broadband landscape so we are better prepared for the next crisis.”

So far it isn’t clear exactly how Democrats plan to move their infrastructure bill through Congress. Party leaders have left open the possibility of bypassing the Senate filibuster by passing the infrastructure package through the budget reconciliation process, similar to last week’s relief package, but they say they first want to appeal for Republican support.

Broadband, especially in rural areas, is a longtime priority for Republican lawmakers, but they have their own ideas for how it should be deployed.

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, earlier this month announced legislation that would use proceeds from an FCC spectrum auction to establish a rural broadband fund worth up to $65 billion.

“This legislation would preserve valuable resources to expand broadband access in unserved areas, secure the nation’s communications supply chain, and promote the development of nextgeneration technologies,” Wicker said in a statement.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Samaritan of the Week

Page 13

Non-profit empowers those in need

Elizabeth Hamilton | ehamilton@dailyegyptian.com

The Center for Empowerment and Justice is a grassroots community-driven organization that seeks to empower individuals in a variety of ways, thus working to find diamonds in the rough.

The Center, which opened in 2016, connects individuals to legal services, helps people transitioning from prison to civilian life and supports local artists.

“It’s an evolving issue of how people from different walks of life face challenges, both physical and emotional, and come together as a family to support themselves and the Center, and to take control of their lives,” founder Jim Chapman said.

Chapman is currently battling cancer and receives treatment at Southern Illinois Healthcare, so much of the work of keeping the business running every-day falls to volunteers, many of whom have experienced first-hand the challenges the center seeks to help.

Some of these volunteers include grants coordinator Sarah Chamberlain, Elyssa Kimble who works in the print shop, social worker Allen Hicks, Stanley Haywood who works security, maintenance worker James Casey

Volunteers and staff at the Center for Empowerment and Justice pose for a portrait outside the center on Thursday, March 11, 2021 in Carbondale, Ill. The center was established in 2016 and has since been serving people to reform and overcome difficulties associated with being released from prison. The center offers artwork, a computer lab, and a workspace. The center has also become a shelter for homeless people in the Carbondale area. Monica Sharma | @mscli_cks

and “jack of all trades” Larry Avery.

The Center offers financial grants and assistance to those in need, as well as a computer lab where clients look for jobs or improve their IT skills.

“There have been a lot of people

here that have used the space as a computer lab and workspace, that’s what I used it for originally,” Kimble said.

The Center also has sewing machines and offers sewing classes and a center to work on bike repairs

and other maintenance projects.

This all helps people develop skills that will benefit them in their job search, as well as benefiting them in their daily lives.

The Center offers legal advice to those who might need it, but who

would be unable to afford the aid otherwise.

“Jim Chapman is a trial lawyer and he’s very interested in helping people reform and overcome the difficulties associated with being in prison or released from prison,” Kimble said.

There are several ways that SIU students and other community members might be able to help the Center continue with its mission of helping others.

Some of the supplies that are needed at the Center include clothing, hygiene products, and just about any type of printing paper.

You can also volunteer in person, but the Center requests that you call ahead of time to let them know.

They can be reached Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the number (618)-4572777.

“The word is empowerment, and quite honestly, all of us here have been empowered by this,” Avery said. “Our lives are just that much better now because we got involved with the center and we are trying to do the same thing for other people.”

Staff reporter Elizabeth Hamilton can be reached at ehamilton@ dailyegyptian.com

In a time of isolation, student musicians spread hope and human connection Elena Schauwecker | eschauwecker@dailyegyptian.com

In an atmosphere of isolation and struggle, SIU student musicians have found ways to continue their music careers while spreading hope and community.

One major way these students have made an impact is by teaching one-on-one music lessons, which offer students a more personalized curriculum that would not be present in a group lesson. Private lessons allow music education majors to get real-world experience, make income to support their education and share their love of the art with children and other beginners.

Joshua Buss, a junior music education major at SIU, is offering guitar lessons to students with any level of experience. He said he believes music should be very goaloriented and he likes to adapt his curriculum to the unique skill sets of each student.

“The first lesson that I do is I wanna talk about their goals, what they want to achieve. I want to see what they know, what they don’t know and then adjust from there to give them the best experience possible,” Buss said.

Riley Herron, another music education major, fulfills his music passion by teaching trombone. He has been teaching lessons through the SIU Conservatory for a year and

a half and said it has been difficult to teach and learn during the pandemic.

“When teaching, it is very difficult to educate students on the finer aspects of music without giving them the hands-on experience that would have happened prepandemic, but after some time I was able to find ways to cope with these difficulties and see progress with my teaching,” Herron said.

In addition to teaching, music students are also sharing their talents by playing together in groups and hosting performances.

Alexander Gerdes, who is studying music business and Angelica Barragan, a student of communication disorders and sciences, are both part of the RSO Musicians United.

Although Barragan is not a music major, she still believes in the importance of the arts in school and said it relates to her studies in science a lot more than people realize.

“I think there’s a negative connotation in society that suggests people who study art are merely throwing their life away,” Barragan said. “But in actuality, it is through art that students and people are able to live and experience life. It is so important for schools to incorporate all forms of art.”

Barragan also sees music as a form of universal language

Student musician, Joshua Buss of Carbondale shows the intricacies of the tuning system on his Spanish guitar, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Carbondale, Ill. “Most classical guitars pop off of the back like this. If you look right here, rather than going into a peg-hole and stringing around, you go in and tie a knot and when you turn the gears it tightens,” Buss said. James B Allen | @skyclopsphotojamboree

allowing people to connect during a time period devoid of connection.

“Music has always been a form of communication that everyone is able to understand. There is something so bizarre about some artist or one band putting out a song about their own feelings and countless people being able to generalize those emotions to themselves,” Barragan said.

Gerdes agrees that music is an

essential part of education and communication, and he also views live music as a necessary part of a happy community.

“I feel like live music especially is something that brings a lot of people together for a few hours to enjoy themselves, and to have that taken away feels so restricting, like we can’t do anything fun or go out anywhere,” Gerdes said. “Which makes me feel like the impact of taking away that aspect of music is

more devastating than we think.”

Joshua Buss teaches electric, acoustic and classical guitar and can be contacted regarding lessons at 636-575-0081.

Musicians United will be performing outside the Student Services building April 8 and at Hangar 9 April 17.

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

Sports

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Jenny Jansen: Hitter on the field, ambassador behind the scenes

Adam Warfel | @warfel_adam

Jenny Jansen, a senior utility player on the Saluki softball team, has dreams that lay beyond the diamond after she finishes her time in Carbondale.

“I think I’m definitely going to go into teaching and coaching,” Jansen said. “I’ve wanted to since like fifth or sixth grade.”

Jansen majored in elementary education and graduated in December of 2020 with that degree and is currently pursuing sports studies for her Master’s degree.

Jansen’s passion for teaching has carried over into some of the community service she has done while here in Carbondale.

“She’s involved in community service many different ways with COVID this year, the kids can’t really go out,” head coach Kerri Blaylock said. “She’s been out before, I’ve been with her reading to students.”

Jansen was born in Quincy, Ill., but due to her dad’s work, she moved around a lot when she was young before her family ended up in Warrenton, Mo. “My parents are from Quincy, I was born there and I think when I was around a year old we actually moved to Arkansas for like two or three years,” Jansen said. “It was just for my dad’s work he kind of moved around a little bit. When I was three or four we moved to Warrenton.”

Jansen has two older sisters, Jessica and Jordan, and Jordan drifted more towards the drama scene growing up while her sister Jessica has remained involved in sports.

“My oldest sister was actually into theater and acting, so she didn’t really do sports,” Jansen said. “My other older sister Jess, she has Down’s Syndrome and she’s really into Special Olympics.”

Jansen said that Jess comes to all the

games, but at first glance, if you see her at a game, you might catch her reading a Harry Potter novel.

“She loves softball, she comes to all the games, and she loves doing pep talks,” Jansen said. “I think she would love to be out there if she could. Some of the games she sits there and reads her Harry Potter books.”

With COVID-19 cancelling their season last year, Jansen said her sister Jess needs some practice with her pep talks, but the players still enjoy them nonetheless.

“The kids love Jess, Jess is an inspiration for all of us,” Blaylock said.

“She feels like she has a part and a role with what we do in our success.”

Success is something Saluki softball has seen a lot of so far this season as they are off to their best start ever with 15 straight wins to open the season.

Jansen has played a big part of that so far this season, hitting for a .309 average with 17 hits and 20 runs batted in.

“Jenny is a fixture in our lineup, she sits right in the middle of our lineup,” Blaylock said. “One of the best athletes by far on the team and just an incredible softball player.”

Being in the middle of the order Jansen gets the opportunity to see the ball often with 43 at-bats already this season in 14 games, she has accounted for three home runs.

“I really like when you get that home run, just the way it feels off your bat,” Jansen said. “It’s really hard to describe, it just feels so good. It just feels like everything you’ve worked for, for your whole life it just comes full circle.”

Jansen can trace her sports memories back to her tee-ball days, when the boys she was playing with would get to the ball before her.

“I remember playing tee ball, and I remember playing tee with a bunch of boys. I never got the ball so I quit,” Jansen said. “I didn’t think I was going

SIU infielder/outfielder Jenny Jansen poses for a photo on Thursday, March 4, 2021 at SIU. Jansen has proven to be a constant bat for the SIU softball team. Jansen was a key piece to the win this year over #22 Mississippi State on Feb. 21, where she produced three hits, including a homerun, with 3 RBIs. Jared Treece | @bisalo

to end up a softball player.”

Despite Jansen thinking she would never be a softball player, two years after she quit tee-ball, her mother signed her up for softball.

“When I was really young, I was a really girly child,” Jansen said. “My mom put me back in softball after I quit tee-ball like two years later. I kind of just realized that I was pretty good at it.”

Looking back now, if it had not been for her mother pushing her to play softball, Jansen said she might not have even been in college.

“I think I would have just been a regular kid. I don’t even know if I would have went to college if I didn’t play competitive sports,” Jansen said.

Jansen put colleges on notice early in her high school career in Warrenton, where she helped lead her team to state championships in her junior and

senior year, hitting for a .538 average across all four years of high school.

“I think I first got a letter in the mail my freshman year of high school maybe, and then I came on my first visit [to SIU] October of my sophomore year,” Jansen said.

As far as what led Blaylock to Jansen, she liked just how many positions Jansen could play as well as the way she hit.

“She can play any position, she has played at Southern third base, short stop, center field, first base,” Blaylock said. “She was a pitcher in high school, so she’s super athletic, she hits for power and for average.”

Trying her hand at pitching is one thing Jansen said she wishes she could get to do here at SIU, and her freshman year she did warm up to pitch at one point.

“I pitched when I was younger,

but I definitely was a better hitter. I think I definitely would be a pitcher,” Jansen said. “I did warm up one time my freshman year because one of our pitchers went to go to a funeral but I never got put in the game.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA has allowed seniors that are playing this year to come back next year if they choose and Jansen said she will.

After next season Blaylock said that she hopes SIU fans will remember Jansen beyond what she has done on the field as a Saluki.

“What we want all of our players here to do is to be ambassadors for SIU and represent Southern Illinois, I think she does that in a great way,” Blaylock said.

gaps in the different athletic programs.

“We’ve identified what the gap is for all of our programs from men’s and women’s basketball to football to swimming and diving and we are working on identifying donors who have specific interest in those programs to help us close those funding gaps,” Jarnigan said.

Jarnigan said they are asking people to donate to a specific sport, so most of the funding they receive is earmarked for the program of the donor’s choice.

“We are working diligently on it. We are meeting with donors and reaching out to alumni, we’re really approaching it on a program by program way. That means that we’re focusing on closing gaps that we currently have financially in all of our programs,” Jarnigan said.

Jarnigan said the athletics department is attacking their budget issue with a three-pronged process.

“Number one, cutting where we can [and] trying to identify budget deficiency. Number two, focusing on managing our revenue strategies and increasing those whenever possible.

And number three, doing the fundraising,” Jarnigan said.

This campaign is only one component of the fundraising, they are considering other events to help get the budget to a better place financially, Jarnigan said.

“We have implemented some very significant budget cuts this year and [are] in the face of another series of budget cuts for next year,” Jarnigan said. “That’s why the next piece to this issue is to help us fill in those gaps that have resulted by doing fundraising.”

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

SIU athletics department announces $25 million fundraising campaign

Janae Mosby | @mosbyj

On Feb. 26, the Saluki Forever campaign was launched to help provide funding for the athletics department, which has faced hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We did a formal announcement a couple of weeks ago, which included a video and we have a series of social media to help promote the campaign. I think you will see a series of marketing and promotional things going on throughout the campaign,” CEO of the SIU Foundation Matt Kupec said.

In the midst of the pandemic, the SIU Athletics department has experienced some decreases in their budget.

“Obviously when the pandemic hit, a lot of our budget issues were placed on steroids, so we began working last spring on coming up with a concept

“This is the biggest goal we have had for athletics by far, it’s more than double that we’ve tried to raise before.”

- Matt Kupec SIU Foundation CEO

and this specific campaign is embedded in the overall SIU Forever campaign,” athletics director Liz Jarnigan said.

The Salukis Forever campaign is specific to athletics programs and it is within the Forever SIU campaign which is for the entire University, Jarnigan said.

“The Forever SIU campaign is a big $200 million campaign that began Jan. 1, 2017 and we’ve raised $120 million to date. It ends on June 30, 2024,” Kupec said.

The goal for the Salukis Forever campaign is to raise $25 million in four years, the campaign is set to end in 2024.

“This is the biggest goal we have had for athletics by far, it’s more than double that we’ve tried to raise before,” Kupec said.

Kupec said the goal is to raise money to provide for the sustainability and the success of the athletics program.

“The pandemic has created some tough times within the athletics department and this is a way for alumni, friends and others who believe in the role of intercollegiate athletics to raise money to support those programs,” Kupec said.

The funding that is raised during this campaign will go toward the financial

Staff reporter Janae Mosby can be reached at jmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbyj.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Study Break

Last week’s:

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

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