The Daily Egyptian

The Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916

WWW.DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM WWW.DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020

VOL. 103, ISSUE 29

Editorial: We might not make it to alumni status- SIU’s lack of COVID-19 communication and planning could kill us “We don’t want to write obituaries for our friends, co-workers and teachers when it can be avoided by better policies and more transparency from the administration.”

- Daily Egyptian Editorial Board

SIU’s failure to inform students of COVID-19 outbreaks on campus, and its lack of communication, planning and transparency during the pandemic, might mean that some students who are returning to campus this fall may not be alive to graduate.

The university exhibits this lack of preparedness by not having a solid testing plan in place, not releasing the locations of active COVID-19 cases, failing to communicate its plans to faculty members and actively encouraging students in Carbondale to come to campus.

There is also no clear person in charge of SIU’s COVID-19 plan, and the university’s responses have been confusing.

The spokesperson of the university tells us decisions are made at the chancellor level, the chancellor and provost said plans are made by the emergency operating committee

(EOC), DPS Chief Benjamin Newman, who is on the EOC and is SIU’s head emergency management official, told us to contact the School of Medicine for more information about basic pros and cons of temperature checks.

There is no accountability.

Originally, SIU was not going to inform the public of COVID-19 outbreaks on campus.

It cited privacy concerns as the reason and refused to even release general numbers.

Although SIU eventually reversed its decision, the university will only provide one weekly generic update.

These weekly updates provide only a pseudo-sense of security. The statistics published do not show every positive case on or off campus, as it is optional for students, faculty and staff who test positive for COVID to report that they work at or

attend the university. Currently, the updates do not disclose any locations or the number of students in quarantine.

Additionally, anyone not living in Jackson County will not be included in the SIU count if they test positive for the virus and inform the university.

If students, faculty and staff are not informed about potential outbreaks on campus, they may not know to get tested.

SIU’s administration says that the Jackson County Health Department will handle contact tracing, but how much can we actually trust this considering there is no requirement to report if the sick person is a student, faculty or staff member at SIU? There are too many “what ifs?” and “will theys?” involved with contact tracing.

Continued on pg. 3

Daily Egyptian Editorial Board speaks about SIU’s handling of COVID-19 Pg. 3

SIU COVID-19 Response Pg. 1-13

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Contact Us

Email: editor@dailyegyptian.com Editor-in-Chief: Kallie Cox (618)536-3397 kcox@dailyegyptian.com Managing Editor: Rana Schenke rschenke@dailyegyptian.com Desk Editor: Brooke Buerck bbuerck@dailyegyptian.com Desk Editor: Tāmar Mosby tmosby@dailyegyptian.com

Photo and Multimedia Editor: Leah Sutton leah.sutton@siu.edu Student Advertising Chief: Hannah Combs hcombcs@dailyegyptian.com Design Desk Editor: Chloe Schobert cschobert@dailyegyptian.com Business Office: Arunima Bhattacharya (618)536-3305 Faculty Managing Editor: Eric Fidler (618)536-3306

About Us

The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale 43 weeks per year, with an average weekly circulation of 12,000. Fall and spring semester editions run every Wednesday.

Free copies are distributed in the Carbondale and Carterville communities.

The Daily Egyptian can be found daily at www.dailyegyptian.com for the most up to date news.

Mission Statement

The Daily Egyptian, the student-run news organization of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is committed to being a trusted source of news, information, commentary and public discourse, while helping readers understand the issues affecting their lives.

Publishing Information The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and functions as a laboratory for the School of Journalism in exchange for the room and utilities in the Communications Building. The Daily Egyptian is a nonprofit organization that survives primarily off of its advertising revenue. Offices are in the Communications Building, Room 1259, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Ill., 62901.

Copyright Information ©2020 Daily Egyptian. All rights reserved. All content is property of the Daily Egyptian and may not be reproduced or transmitted without consent. The Daily Egyptian is a member of the Illinois College Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Advisers Inc. and the College Business and Advertising Managers Inc.

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Letters and guest columns must be submitted with author’s contact information, preferably via email. Phone numbers are required to verify authorship, but will not be published. Students must include year and major.

Faculty must include rank and department. Others include hometown.

Submissions should be sent to editor@dailyegyptian.com.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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We might not make it to alumni status - SIU’s lack of COVID-19 communicaton and planning could kill us Continued from 1

Students, faculty and staff at high risk for the virus should be as informed as possible about any cases on campus. If there are risks for a student to be exposed to the virus, all students should be informed.

In March 2020, The Department of Education developed new Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act guidelines allowing schools to release general information on cases.

Under these new guidelines, universities are allowed to say how many cases they have on campus, inform the roommate of someone who tests positive for COVID-19, or say there was an outbreak in a certain dorm.

SIU said it will disclose locations as mandated by the Clery Act and health department, but for the most part it will be relying on contact tracing and telling certain individuals but not everyone who lives in a residence hall.

SIU needs to do more The university has implemented a hodgepodge of different policies and communication has been slow, according to Sam Pavel, the vice president of the Faculty Association, the union for tenured and tenure-track faculty.

“We’ve already had a week of class and the guidelines were just coming out the week of class,” Pavel said.

SIU has also encouraged students to be on campus. The university has promoted extracurricular on-campus activities, such as bowling and visiting the University Museum, and also has encouraged students with online classes to do classwork in campus buildings.

Through Saluki Cares, SIU students can apply to receive technology assistance in the form of wireless hotspots if they do not have internet access. However, at this time, this

assistance is only being offered to students who are not living in Carbondale; other students are expected to come to campus to attend their online classes.

Even though they are actively encouraging students to come to campus, SIU does not have an adequate testing plan in place to ensure that these students stay safe and don’t spread the virus.

SIU’s COVID-19 fall 2020 plan states a comprehensive testing and tracing plan would be in place by the start of the semester. However, with the exception of athletics, there is no comprehensive plan in place and SIU simply suggests that students get tested.

At other universities, including University of Illinois, Illinois State and University of Kentucky, students are either offered free testing or required to get tested to attend classes or live on campus.

A student attending classes at U of I can walk into a classroom assured every student in the room has tested negative for COVID-19 twice that week. A student at SIU doesn’t even know if their classmates have been tested at all.

Chancellor Austin Lane said this lack of testing is the result of us being “in a much better situation” and a lack of resources.

However the university is not actively trying to copy what U of I is doing and is instead relying on the already overworked Jackson County Health Department for testing.

Even though administrators were aware SIU did not have adequate testing available, they failed to push for all classes that could be conducted virtually to be moved online.

It is naive to think COVID-19 is skipping our campus or that we have as low of a positivity rate as the university’s case

count suggests when other schools are already shutting down for the semester due to the influx of positive results.

COVID-19 has an incubation period. Without testing, we can’t catch it early and more of us could have it than we realize.

We need more than platitudes, meaningless messages that say “we are all in this together” and cute Saluki cartoons telling us to wear masks. We need communication and a solid plan based on science and common sense.

Withholding information concerning the coronavirus from students and faculty endangers them and contradicts the idea of keeping individuals on campus safe and protected.

Many faculty and staff members are older and at high risk.

SIU owes them the courtesy of reporting outbreaks.

As students, we understand much of the prevention of the pandemic falls on our shoulders. We know it is up to us to socially distance and to do our part. But without proper resources and communication, we will all struggle to do this successfully.

This is unacceptable. As a public university, SIU needs to do better and it needs to become more transparent. If it doesn’t, people are going to start dying.

We don’t want to write obituaries for our friends, coworkers and teachers when it can be avoided by better policies and more transparency from the administration.

We want to live to make it to graduation.

The Daily Egyptian Editorial Board can be reached at our editor email: Editor@dailyegyptian.com

Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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SIU is not requiring COVID testing for all students, cites lack of resources and virus outbreaks

Rana Schenke | Rschenke@dailyegyptian.com

Although many nearby universities, including University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University and University of Kentucky, are requiring students to get tested for Covid-19 or are offering free testing, SIU is not.

SIU Chancellor Austin Lane said the university cannot offer free testing or require tests because it does not have enough tests for everyone.

“In all fairness, we could not say everyone was going to be tested when they came back to campus because we quite frankly didn’t have the testing ability to be able to do that,” Lane said.

In an email sent to students on July 31, Lane encouraged students to get tested before coming to campus and to allow enough time to get results back before classes started.

“During the two weeks before classes, we also encourage you to minimize your contact with others by self-quarantining,” the email said.

Lane said the low number of reported cases at the university backs up the decision to not move all classes online.

“If you think about it, we had three cases,” Lane said. “So this notion that students were going to come back and bring back with them a positive test and not quarantine themselves is just not there.”

Sam Pavel, vice president of SIU’s faculty association and an associate professor of aviation management, said the university did not encourage professors to hold all lecture classes or classes without a lab or practical component online.

“The stance as far as I can tell that the university took was they’re leaving it up to individual departments and faculty members,” Pavel said. “So if a faculty member wanted to teach face-to-face and they could adequately have a room that could do social distancing, then it was allowed.”

Pavel said certain programs need to be held on campus, such as aviation and dental hygiene, or anything with a lab

component.

“If you have a bunch of other students around and interacting in classes together and somebody gets infected […] that shuts down all these programs that have to be here,” Pavel said. “So why take that risk?”

Anna Wilcoxen, president of Graduate Assistants United, the union for graduate assistants, said many of the resources being offered to graduate assistants to help them with doing classes online vary from department to department.

“I think that that’s in large part due to the fact that our plans were so last minute in my opinion,” Wilcoxen said. “I think that we wasted precious time over the summer where [the administration] could have been making more progress toward adequate training for online pedagogy.”

Wilcoxen said they were lucky in their department to already have a 101 course that had been previously taught online, and their undergraduate director had taken courses on making online learning the best experience possible.

“Not every department has that opportunity, not every department has that advantage,” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said in the majority of the feedback they have received from GAs, “the main concern was protecting their health and safety by just getting them to be able to be online through this process that was put in place just a little over a month ago.”

Wilcoxen said they were already concerned about transparency from the administration regarding COVID-19 cases on campus when they knew SIU wasn’t doing mandatory testing across campus.

“The fact that SIU is not doing something like that was already raising red flags for me, in terms of number transparency because, as Donald Trump himself has said, ‘if we don’t test, then we don’t have cases,’” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said although posting case numbers on SIU’s website is a step in the right direction, the U.S. lack

adequate testing and experts say cases are being significantly undercounted.

“I think that us not choosing to test our student population is a big problem. And that already in it of itself is going to lead these reported numbers,” Wilcoxen said.

Wilcoxen said they wish there was testing at SIU in a similar way to what U of I is doing, where students are tested multiple times and there are testing sites around campus.

“We’re still trying to piecemeal everything together,” Wilcoxen said. “I can’t even get a straight answer about where testing is going to happen on campus at SIU.” SIU’s coronavirus page said the university would have a plan in place for testing by the start of classes.

“We know that not all universities are requiring testing,” Lane said. “But, we know that most, like us are trying to partner with different health organizations to provide some testing and [...] we are working with SIH to try and provide some testing for our students that may have symptoms.”

At U of I Urbana-Champaign, students living on campus or in town are required to get tested twice a week, according to the U of I COVID webpage.

Testing is free and can be done at testing stations around the campus. Students completed a survey before arriving on campus to determine times that worked best for them to get tested.

Test results are visible to the student on an app, called the Safer Illinois app. A QR code on the app allows students to access campus buildings based on their negative test result.

U of I has received 448 positive test results as of Aug. 23.

Students at U of I were also required to complete online COVID safety training by Aug. 24. Students were provided with a PPE kit after arriving at campus which included two masks, wipes, hand sanitizer, a thermometer and a clean key, a small metal item that allows people to open doors, press buttons and use pin pads without touching them.

At the University of Kentucky, all students living on or attending classes on campus were required to get tested between Aug. 3 and 22, according to its COVID-19 webpage.

UK started retesting students participating in fraternities and sororities on Aug. 23 and plans to retest other campus populations that may have higher exposure to the virus.

As of Aug. 21, the campus has seen 249 positive cases.

Faculty and staff at UK are not required to be tested, but are able to get tested if symptomatic.

UK requires all faculty, staff and students who are on campus to do a daily self-assessment for possible symptoms, according to its website.

An email with a reminder to complete the assessment is sent out daily.

Students are also provided with student wellness kits including masks, digital thermometers, hand sanitizers, and sanitizing wipes.

Illinois State University is offering free COVID-19 testing to all students at its campus, but is not requiring testing. So far, the campus has seen 273 positive tests as of Aug. 25.

“Covid Testing” signage at a Covid-19 drive-thru test site run by the SIH Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, located at the former Regions Bank building, Rt 13 and Poplar Street (500 W. Main Street), Carbondale, IL, Wednesday, July 29 ,2020. Angel Chevrestt | @ sobrofotos

Managing Editor Rana Schenke can be reached at rschenke@dailyegyptian.com.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

For the latest COVID-19 and SIU news, read The Daily Egyptian online at dailyegyptian.com.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Catch up: SIU reverses decision, decides to inform public of virus case count at SIU after backlash SIU reversed its decision not to announce active cases of COVID-19 affiliated with the university and will now be releasing that information on its coronavirus webpage, as of Aug. 20.

The positive cases are broken into three categories: students

on campus, students off campus, and faculty and staff.

“These numbers may not be all-inclusive,” the website said.

“Employees and students live in multiple counties that have varying reporting processes, and reporting of affiliation with the university is voluntary.”

Right now, according to SIU, there are 3 active COVID

cases among SIU students living off campus.

The decision to make these numbers public happened the day after the Daily Egyptian published an article detailing how SIU housing instructed its RAs not to speak of these cases.

This article can be viewed below:

SIU Carbondale will not be informing the public of virus case counts, RAs told to keep quiet Kallie Cox | @KallieECox Danny Connolly | @DConnollyTV

Editor’s Note: The identities of some of the sources in this story are anonymous because the resident assistants involved feared retaliation and losing their jobs.

SIU refuses to release the numbers of COVID-19 cases on campus and student employees in housing have been told they could lose their jobs if they tell anyone about cases, according to resident assistants.

University spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said any positive cases associated with the university are reported by the Jackson County Health Department. The university will not report these cases independently, she said.

No federal or state law prevents the university from releasing the information, experts say, and other Illinois and national universities are releasing their case counts.

When the Jackson County Health Department sends out a release regarding the case count for the day, it does not specify location or whether the person attends SIU or lives in the dorms.

“The health department is the official, accurate source for reporting, and the university does not report cases independently in order to protect the privacy of students and employees. We expect all staff to respect these privacy rights,” Goldsmith said.

But in March 2020, the Department of Education developed new Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act guidelines allowing schools to release general information on cases as long as no personally identifiable information is disclosed.

So FERPA does not bar the release of the number of cases, according to the authoritative government interpretation.

Under these new guidelines, universities are allowed to say how many cases they have on campus, inform the roommate of someone who tests positive for COVID-19, or say there was an outbreak in a certain dorm.

Other universities are announcing outbreaks on their campuses, including the University of Illinois Springfield, Eastern Illinois University, Missouri State University and the University of Kentucky, which all keep a running total of positive cases on their websites.

The Daily Egyptian reached out to Goldsmith again and asked her to comment on why the university was not releasing the numbers even though other universities are and it does not violate HIPAA or FERPA .

Goldsmith said it would be too easy to personally identify the individual who tested positive if their residence hall was named.

The DE asked why the university would not release general numbers of how many positive cases of COVID-19 occurred on campus, Goldsmith said she already answered that.

“We have protocols in place to ensure that students, faculty and staff have the personalized information they need to stay safe,” Goldsmith said. “The health department is the only official, accurate source for COVID-19 cases in Jackson County; and we have an obligation to protect privacy.”

Student employees who work for university housing were instructed not to tell students about COVID-19 cases on campus unless they specifically ask, according to screenshots notes from an RA leaked to the Daily Egyptian and corroborated by two former housing employees and five current RAs. On Aug. 9, three RAs bumped into someone on their rounds who said they were delivering something to a COVID-19 patient on the first floor of Cedar Hall at Wall and Grand.The RAs immediately went to their supervisor to confirm this because they were upset that no one had informed them of the positive cases, according to the resident assistant in the screenshots.

An emergency staff meeting was called at 10 that evening and the staff members were told they might lose their jobs if they told anyone

that there was a COVID positive student in the building, according to the RA. “We were really upset because it was kept a secret from us and people were literally doing rounds on that floor,” the RA said. “Even though the patient had been moved into the building no signage had been put up or any sort of blocking off had been done in that area.”

The RAs were told to keep the case a secret, the RA said.

In the morning they had another staff meeting where they were told the building doesn’t recirculate air and that other residents/RAs living in the building were not at an increased risk of contracting the virus.

The RA said at this meeting, they were told that the case is “not a secret” but “don’t tell a bunch of people.”

“I was extremely concerned just because of how they seemed to be sliding it under the rug and threatening us if we told anyone,” the RA said.

Another anonymous RA, whom we will refer to as Jane, said Housing made sure to tell RAs they would be punished if they told any student on their floor if a resident tested positive with COVID-19, including their suitemate.

“They didn’t give us a straight answer about how to go about talking to our residents,” Jane said.

“They kind of just said ‘don’t talk about it, cuz if we hear that you’ve been talking about it, then you’re putting your job at risk. You’re gonna get housing and yourself in trouble.’”

Three RAs told the Daily Egyptian that students in quarantine are instructed to put chairs in front of their doors. Jane said they are not allowed to tell any other residents what the chairs mean.

RAs are also being instructed to sign up for shifts to deliver meals to isolated or quarantining students, Jane said.

“There are zero precautions in place that keep us safe,” Jane said.

Another RA who we will identify as Mary, said there is little organization in housing’s rules for

staff regarding COVID-19.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been given a complete training on all of the rules,” Mary said. “It’s just kind of something they throw a few rules at us, and then a few days later they throw a few new ones. There’s really no organization here.”

SIU’s Director of Housing, Jon Shaffer, said students’ medical information is protected by HIPAA. Sharing such personal information would be inappropriate.

If there is no personally identifiable information, schools are not violating FERPA or HIPAA by providing general information on cases, according to the Student Press Law Center.

“The university has worked with the Jackson County Health Department and other resources to develop plans to isolate and care for infected students while protecting well students,” Shaffer said. “Such protections include implementing policies like the mask policy and limiting group sizes while promoting social distancing, good hygiene, etc.”

The DE asked if the residents of Cedar Hall have been notified of the cases in their building since these meetings; Shaffer would not answer.

“We instruct all of our staff that they are not to share students’ personal information nor act as a spokesperson for University Housing,” Shaffer said. “If approached by the media to comment on Housing concerns, RAs are instructed to refer up to their supervisory team or to University Communications.”

Shaffer said RAs, like all students, are welcome to exercise their right to free speech as individuals, but they are not permitted to share privileged information or information they would only know due to being an RA. “RAs, as role models, are expected to promote a positive attitude about living on campus.

We would not expect to hear disparaging comments about Housing from RAs in any format other than speaking with their supervisory team in an appropriate

time and place,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer said he was not part of the Aug. 9 meeting.

“In a discussion concerning the university’s care of sick students, the Wall & Grand staff would have been reminded of their obligation to maintain the privacy of fellow students under the protections of HIPAA, FERPA and their expectations,” Shaffer said. “All of our staff know that a failure to follow any aspect of their training and expectations could have repercussions, including being separated from their position depending on the severity of the incident.”

Learning about FERPA and what it covers is a big portion of an RA’s training, but former RAs say SIU Housing misuses the federal policy to excuse lack of communication.

“Housing always has had issues with communicating with their RAs and [Academic Peer Advisers],” Phynix Huhn-Simmons, a former RA at Wall and Grand, said. “There was always something that we didn’t know about, and we had to find out about. And that is something so serious right now because of the death toll that can happen in such a short amount of time.”

Huhn-Simmons said she had several problems with being an RA where she wasn’t allowed to go to the media because of housing, despite her problems having nothing to do with students or personal information.

“There’s no reason for RAs and APAs to not talk about the problems they have as employees besides to silence them,” HuhnSimmons said.

Read the full story online at

dailyegyptian.com Editor-in-Chief Kallie Cox can be reached at kcox@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @KallieECox. Staff Reporter Danny Connolly can be reached at danieljconnolly17@ gmail.com or on Twitter at @ DConnollyTV.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

COVID-19 Quarantine at SIU Left: An anonymous resident of Cedar Hall of Wall and Grand apartment complex sent in a picture of the stairs leading to the 1st floor, where RAs say SIU is isolating students who test positive for COVID-19.

Right: A folding chair is placed in front of an apartment on 3rd floor Maple Hall.

RAs say SIU Housing puts a chair in front of rooms with students under quarantining or isolating orders to contactlessly deliver meals to students. Danny Connolly | @ DConnollyTV

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

What is actually reported? A look at SIU’s Virus Case Count

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

Kallie Cox | @KallieECox Danny Connolly | @DConnollyTV

On Aug. 20 SIU decided to make general COVID-19 case counts among faculty, staff, and students living both oncampus and off campus available.

This decision happened the day after SIU faced backlash for their decision to keep these numbers private.

These general numbers will be announced weekly and as of Aug. 20 the university reported 3 off campus students tested positive for the virus.

These numbers do not specify location and they are not comprehensive.

Additionally, if anyone in the SIU community does not live in Jackson County and commutes to work at SIU, as many of our faculty and staff members do, they will not be included in the SIU count if they test positive for the virus, according to the Williamson County Health Department.

Williamson County said it is up to the individual to let SIU know they tested positive, their numbers will not be sent to Jackson County and contact tracers will not be responsible for alerting the county of the case.

It is optional for students, faculty and staff to report that they have ties to SIU, according to spokeswoman for the university Rae Goldsmith.

“When people are contacted by contact tracers, they have decisions about what information they are going to release,” Goldsmith said. “They’re not obligated to- let’s say you have an employee who’s working fully remotely. Working full time, never setting foot on campus. That person may or may not tell the [Jackson] County people that they’re an University employee.”

The numbers also do not include the number or location of students who are in quarantine and awaiting test results.

Goldsmith said this is because it is more difficult to track quarantined cases.

“For example, if i think I might have COVID-19, and I go to my doctor, and he or she says ‘I need you to quarantine,’ that might never go through the health department, unless I take a positive test. Somebody just might choose to quarantine

me,” Goldsmith said. “So quarantines are very very difficult to track and count.”

In the spring, SIU was able to alert the community of cases and the location of outbreaks without revealing any student’s identifying information. They did this by using the Clery Act alert system.

So far, the university has not used this alert system this semester.

“In the Spring, we were all new and were trying to figure out what this was,” Goldsmith said. “But in that case, we had positive cases that were associated with the same facility, and under our interpretation of Clery at that time, we were obligated to notify the campus community of it. And we’ll still do that, going forward, we’ll be doing that in consultation with the health department and what it determines to be an outbreak.”

Sam Pavel, vice president of the faculty association, the union for tenure and tenure track faculty at SIU, said the university choosing to release the numbers is a step in the right direction, but it is the minimum.

“It’s minimum and a lot of that you can kind of glean from the Jackson County webpage but we’re all for transparency, if the idea is to keep people safe then we should know where cases are occurring without identifying individual students or faculty or staff but still, this is a health crisis it’s not like we’re trying to get somebody in trouble, we just want to know to keep people safe,” Pavel said.

Chancellor Austin Lane said the decision to publish case numbers occurred after discussing the possibility with the Jackson County Health Department and deciding what numbers would be accurate.

“It was never a policy that we wouldn’t release anything, it was a plan,” Lane said. “So plans can change and so luckily in this case we were able to change that plan and make it available which I think has been a really good thing. That we could do for our campus community.”

Lane said the million dollar question is how to ensure that those affiliated with the university voluntarily report their numbers.

“There is no control that we have or anybody else has to

force someone to say they are a student here or an employee here,” Lane said. “We are urging anyone that may test positive, I know they obviously have the ability not to do this, but we are urging them to, if they are here in Jackson county to be able to let them know so they can alert us and we can move on those protocols.”

Lane said based on his discussions with the health department, SIU has been fortunate and individuals have been forthcoming in stating their affiliation with the university.

When asked how the university would alert students of outbreaks by location, Lane said those who need to know would find out through contact tracing.

“It comes down to the contact tracing and those they may have been around or could have been exposed, so those individuals will get the information almost immediately,” Lane said.

Anna Wilcoxen, the president of Graduate Assistants United, SIU’s graduate student union said releasing these numbers is just one step in the right direction and the next step is for SIU to implement testing.

“I do wish there was testing in a similar way to what UIUC is doing, every student every two weeks is required to get tested. On a site on campus that is not going to interfere also with the health center,” Wilcoxen said. “They’ve had a plan in place for a while. We’re still trying to piecemeal everything together. I can’t even get a straight answer about where testing is going to happen on campus at SIU.” The Daily Egyptian called the Jackson County Health Department five times and left two messages but did not hear back as of publication deadline.

Editor in Chief Kallie Cox can be reached at kcox@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @KallieECox. Staff Reporter Danny Connolly can be reached at danieljconnolly17@gmail.com or on Twitter at @DConnollyTV.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Join the student newspaper of SIU Carbondale

Now Hiring Fall 2020:

Sports Reporters Designers Advertising Production Team Members Office Workers Writers Photo/Multimedia Staff

Open to all majors Must be enrolled in 6 credit hours at SIU Carbondale Contact: editor@dailyegyptian.com

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Public Reactions to SIU Carbo

Social Media Poll:

Do you think SIU’s COVID-19 policies are effective?

38% 29% 71%

62%

Yes No

Poll conducted August 24-25 through The Daily Egyptian’s social media.

Survey made by Surveymaker.

Danny Connolly | @DConnollyTV

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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ondale’s COVID-19 Statistics

SIU Reported Cases On-Campus Students: 0 Off-Campus Students: 3 Faculty & Staff: 0 Source: siu.edu/coronavirus/active-cases.php August 24, 2020

Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

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Last week’s

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Wednesday, August 26. 2020

New Title IX rules may have holes that could be harmful to survivors

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

Tamar Mosby | @mosbytamar

Earlier this year, on May 9., U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced a new set of Title IX regulations that will be enforced starting in the fall semester of 2020.

The original Title IX laws were passed in 1972 and were made to prevent sex discrimination on campuses across the nation. The new statutes introduced by DeVos expand on issues dealing with both victims of sexual misconduct and those accused of misconduct.

“Our new Title IX rule provides new and meaningful protections for survivors of sexual harassment/ assault and balances the scales of justice on campuses across America,” DeVos said in a May 6.

Tweet.

A May press release from the U.S. Department of Education said that this sweeping legislation was “made by DeVos to strengthen Title IX protections for survivors of sexual misconduct and to restore due process in campus proceedings to ensure all students can pursue an education free from sex discrimination.”

The legislation, according to the overview from the Department of Education, is meant to take into consideration past incidents where those identified as perpetrators had been proved to be falsely accused of sexual misconduct and implement a fair proceeding without putting victims at risk.

“Too many students have lost access to their education because their school inadequately responded when a student filed a complaint of sexual harassment or sexual assault,” DeVos said in early May. “This new regulation requires schools to act in meaningful ways to support survivors of sexual misconduct, without sacrificing important safeguards to ensure a fair and transparent process. We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues.”

According to an article from The New Yorker, many civil rights attorney’s and officials expressed their disapproval of the new statutes as they feel that these regulations will prove harmful to survivors and present new difficulties to students wishing to report sexual misconduct.

Lead medical and legal advocate for the Women’s Center in southern Illinois, Anna Hughes, is in agreement with these officials and said that the new legislation will make it difficult for schools to investigate sexual misconduct cases and give students who are victims proper accommodation.

The Women’s Center provides aid to victims of sexual assault, harassment and abuse, doing so free of charge and keeping victim information confidential.

“A lot of our cases that we get are from SIU,” Hughes said. “When someone has been sexually assaulted or experiences sexual harassment, or anything related to that and they go to the hospital, the hospital calls us to provide in-person counseling and advocacy. We can help with orders of protection, navigating the court system, and we provide individual and group counseling as well.”

Hughes said that she and the staff at the Women’s Center stay updated on the laws dealing with Title IX in order to help students that may need assistance navigating the process of filing a report dealing with sexual misconduct.

The staff at the Women’s Center want to help support victims through the process of filing a report and allow them feel comfortable in making an informed decision, Hughes said.

As far as what these legislation changes will look like on campus, SIU Title IX coordinator Kay Doan said that hearings will now be live in order to promote transparency in the hearing process.

“A couple of the larger changes are [that] there will now be a live hearing, that’s one of the major changes,” Doan said. “After a complaint is investigated, there

will be a live hearing where the complainant and the respondent [...] will be in separate rooms.

The process is supposed to be transparent to the participants where all the evidence is known and shared prior to the final decision.

This should provide an impartial, fair and thorough review of all the allegations.”

Doan said that the university’s policies were updated recently because of the new Title IX regulations and that they are updated as needed.

The new policies were extensive, adding up to be 51 pages long and the Title IX office at SIU had to make major changes to school procedures in order to be in compliance with the new regulations, Doan said.

DeVos’s new law also expands on proceedings that concern reports of misconduct taking place offcampus.

The regulations state that universities are only required to investigate reports of misconduct that occur on properties owned by, or under the control of, school sanctioned organizations when dealing with off-campus complaints.

According to a 2020 Title IX fact sheet from the National Women’s Law Center, this particular clause allows universities to ‘dismiss all complaints of sexual harassment that occurs during study abroad programs or that occurs outside of a school program.”

“This rule will be devastating for students who are sexually assaulted while studying abroad, at a fraternity that isn’t officially recognized by their university, or in off-campus housing, or who are harassed or stalked online outside of a school-sponsored program, and then forced to continue attending class with their rapist or abuser—or even a class taught by their rapist or abuser,” a statement in the May 2020 fact sheet said.

The fact sheet also addresses issues with respondent enrollment, formal complaint formatting and live victim cross-examination in

hearings.

Doan said the protocol used for these off-campus reports mirrors that of the guidelines followed for on-campus reports.

Also among the new regulations, is a clause that defines sexual harassment to include sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking, as unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex, according to the May press release from the Department of Education.

Hughes said that this new definition can create restrictions for victims lodging complaints against perpetrators.

“That is one of the parts [of the new legislation] that is harmful because before under Title IX, sexual harassment was a general definition of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.,” Hughes said.

“Under these new updates, there are much stricter requirements, either quid pro quo sexual harassment or the big one is basically, what defines sexual harassment. It [now] has to be severe, pervasive and objectively offensive, so that it denies a person equal access to the school program or activity.”

This means that schools have to ignore complaints of sexual harassment unless the victim can provide proof that the severity of the issue is affecting their ability to concentrate, do work or attend classes, Hughes said.

Doan said that it is hard to predict whether or not these new policies will be harmful to students because the SIU Title IX Office has not yet received any reports of misconduct since the update.

“The Department of Education issued the new rules and regulations to provide strong due process protection to those who are accused, while also balancing the rights of those who [are victims],” Doan said.

“It may be difficult for some victims to appear before the live panel, but [if the rules are harmful to victims], that will be difficult for us to know right now because we haven’t had any cases yet.”

Hughes said that the sole purpose

of Title IX legislation, which is meant to protect victims, is now leaving them susceptible to more serious levels of abuse.

“Survivors are having to experience repeated and escalated levels of abuse before it can be taken seriously and investigated,” Hughes said. “I think that’s incredibly harmful because the whole purpose of this law is to protect survivors and prevent abuse before it gets that severe.”

According to Title IX investigator Casey Parker, when students lodge complaints, the Title IX office reaches out to victims asking how they wish to proceed and whether or not they want to file a formal complaint. From there, they make arrangements with the university’s confidential advisor, based upon the victim’s request, and launch an investigation that eventually leads to a hearing.

The verdict in all Title IX hearings is decided by a panel selected by the SIU Title IX Office. A new panel is currently in the process of being selected.

“We are still identifying those that will be used in the panel,” Doan said. “We certainly have a diverse group of individuals that we are looking at, that’s very important to us, but they have not been [selected] yet.”

Doan said she is uncertain of when the final selection of members will take place, but when the selection is made, the new panel members will receive training.

Hughes said that the new regulations could be refined and that previous Title IX regulations presented a good foundation for misconduct proceedings but were vague in terms of intricate details leaving room for interpretation.

By refining the language used in the statutes and consulting with agencies who have first hand experience with victims, the new regulations can be improved, Hughes said.

As far as what can be done on campus, Hughes said she feels that victims can be given more clarity when it comes to the process of reporting sexual misconduct and pursuing justice.

“I think, since I was a student at SIU, something that I think could be helpful is emphasizing options for students. So talking about different avenues of communication, emphasizing who is a safe person to talk to if they’re experiencing abuse and being very clear and transparent about resources for people. [...] I know sometimes it can be confusing to people and they don’t really know where to start if they’re experiencing something like abuse, so having that be very clear and emphasized as a priority from the university would be helpful,” Hughes said.

Editor Tāmar Mosby can be reached at tmosby@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @mosbytamar.

Page 16

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Marching Salukis postpone season until spring semester

George Brozak, director of athletic bands, conducts the Marching Salukis from the stands during SIU’s first home game of the season against SEMO on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, at Saluki Stadium. Anna Spoerre | @annaspoerre Nick Hasenstab | @NickHasenstab

On Aug. 9, the Missouri Valley Conference and the NCAA announced that sports seasons would be moved to spring 2021, and with these announcements, the Marching Salukis have also postponed their season until the spring semester.

The final decision was made by the director of the Marching Salukis, George Brozak, since the marching band is meant to go with the football team.

Another factor that played into Brozak’s decision was the forced cancellation of band camp, which was meant to start on Aug. 9, one week before classes began on Aug. 17.

The camp was canceled due to the inability of the students to move into the residence halls before the university’s set date to move in, in order to protect students as well as faculty from COVID-19.

Aside from football games, the Marching Salukis also play at homecoming events including the homecoming parade; however, Brozak said that will not be happening this year.

“I have not seen anything at all about homecoming, be it pep rally or anything like that, but the Marching Salukis are shut down, the class has been set to spring, we won’t be getting them together for something of that nature,” said Brozak.

Having marching band during the second semester also carries with it an uncertainty about what kind of weather there will be.

“In the summer, in August, there’s at least the hope of good weather. I’m a little nervous about us coming back in January and bringing the kids in early and having them outside in the middle of winter,” Brozak said.

Brozak said if football starts in March, April or May, then that might be better for a marching season.

Another idea was to play at other sporting events such as volleyball games and soccer games, but those sports followed the football team and postponed their seasons as well.

“I’m not against doing those things when we’re together, but as of right now for this semester, all we’ve got left is pep band for basketball,” Brozak said.

The students that were most affected by the season change were this year’s seniors, who are now faced with uncertainty in regards to their final season with the Marching Salukis.

Despite this, many of the students believe that the change was necessary and that it was most likely the smartest decision, senior Marching Salukis clarinet player Emily Cooper said.

“It was definitely a very smart move, and I feel as, talking to other students in that are also in the band, I think we all all just kind of agreed that if we were to do [Marching Band]

during the fall, it just wouldn’t be as enjoyable as it could be if we pushed it back to the spring,” Cooper said.

Cooper said that Dr. Brozak agreed that marching band in the spring would be more enjoyable, and she believes that this was the best decision that could have been made.

Senior Jackson Coker, a member of the Marching Salukis drumline, said he agrees with Cooper, and that the season change was the safest decision.

“I know it’s probably just for the safety of everyone involved, and some people may not like it and it’s not very traditional I guess and kind of out of the ordinary, y’know kind of bizarre,”

said Coker.

Coker said he is proud of the football league for pushing their season back since their decision pushed the other sports to move their seasons to the spring as well.

“I’m glad they’re doing it, I’ll be honest, if it keeps us safer, and if that’s really what it takes then I’m fine with it,” Cooper said.

Staff reporter Nick Hasenstab can be reached at nhasenstab@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @NickHasenstab.

Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

Page 17

Wednesday, August 26. 2020

Meet the Staff: The leaders at Daily Egyptian, Alt.News 26:46

Matthew Alleyne| @matt_alleyne

Both the Daily Egyptian, SIU’s student-lead news organization, and Alt.News 26:46, SIU’s studentproduced magazine-style show, have college students at the forefront of all of their operations.

It isn’t uncommon for both organizations to see new leadership on a yearly basis, or even each semester, and this year is no different.

Alt.News 26:46 has been delivering comedy sketches and documentaries in a visual format since 1999, and this year, Hannah Friedman and Devin Welchman are co-executive producing its operations.

This semester marks the start of Welchman’s second year with Alt. News.

The fun environment and welcoming people helped to draw in Welchman to Alt.News, and her commitment has allowed her to very quickly rise up the ranks to the position she’s currently in.

For Friedman, it was the unstructured nature of Alt.News that sparked her interest to join.

Friedman, like Welchman, had also only joined fall of last semester.

This semester, they’re hoping to update Alt.News for a modern audience because the shows format remained relatively unchanged since

1999. From increasing their social media presence to removing the host between segments, Friedman and Welchin said they have their work cut out for them, but they’re ready.

The Daily Egyptian, has been delivering news to the university and Carbondale community since 1916, and currently delivers news online on a daily basis as well as once weekly on Wednesdays in print.

Within the DE, there are a variety of facets to the news team. From reporters to photographers and editors, everyone plays a vital role.

At the top of the DE chain of command is Editor-In-Chief, Kallie Cox. As the EIC, it’s Cox’s job to determine certain facets of the paper in addition to overseeing all aspects of it, from the writing of articles to the graphics that are designed. But this wasn’t her initial goal.

Cox said she had originally intended to join the Air Force after her senior year of high school with the hope of being an intelligence analyst.

Receiving scholarships from both Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC, she instead turned them both down in order to pursue journalism at her community college.

“I was driving to school one day and heard a story on the radio about the Daily Egyptian breaking some

big story on the school’s chancellor, and I decided this was where I wanted to go, and immediately got in contact with the DE,” Cox said.

Ever since that moment, Cox kept up with the DE and upon switching from her community college two years ago, she’s been with the DE ever since.

Rana Schenke is the DE’s managing editor, second in command to Cox. This December marks her third year with the DE, and Schenke said the flexibility that the DE offered drew her in.

“I was looking for a job oncampus,” Schenke said. “I was looking for something that I would enjoy and that would give me experience I could use later in life.”

As the managing editor, Schenke wants to make sure that a complete picture of life at SIU, both good and bad, is shown within the publication.

Schenke said haring knowledge so that students both on and off campus can know what’s going on and be informed is one of the most important things for her.

Chloe Schobert, the DE’s design chief, joined SIU during her first semester as a student.

Having done theatre through her time in high school, Schobert wanted to do something different, and initially joined her high school’s newspaper as a photographer.

The idea of trying something new led her to find something she enjoyed even more than she would’ve thought.

“I joined [the DE] because I was the former editorial and sports editor for my high school newspaper, the Belleville West Hy News,” Schobert said.

There, she was exposed to design layout, and realized that she loved doing it.

While initially nervous about working with ads and creating graphics, Schobert has been able to, over time, hone that craft and apply it to the DE to the best of her abilities, both in the layout of the printed newspaper and on the website.

Schobert said journalism is something she loves and enjoys working with.

This semester Schobert hopes to spearhead additional graphics and visual elements for the DE, including independent graphics, which Schobert says are graphics that can stand on their own without an attached story.

One of the main things all five had mentioned was that

whether you joined Alt.News or the DE, anyone interested in becoming staff doesn’t need to be a film or journalism major. Anyone willing to learn can find a place amongst these two groups just as they did and they hope people will do just that.

Alt.News 26:46 airs on WSIU, and they can be reached on Facebook at altnews, and on Instagram and Twitter at @altnews2646.

The Daily Egyptian is published in print every Wednesday and has articles uploaded daily to dailyegyptian.com

Staff reporter Matthew Alleyne can be reached at malleyne@ dailyegyptian.com or on Instagram at @matt_alleyne.

Both Alt. News 26:46 and The Daily Egyptian are housed in the communications building on SIU”s campus. Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

Page 18

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Local churches serve amid pandemic Sarah Wangler | @sara_Wangler

state laws and opening phases.”

The church tried to conduct an outdoor Churches, like many other establishments across the country, service, but it was too hot and humid have been directly affected by COVID-19. outside to host a church service.

However, many churches are still offering essential services This option was considered because as such as bill payments, groceries and emotional support groups a church they can’t sing in the building, directly to attendees.

Hackman said.

Father Bob Flannery of St. Francis Catholic Church in “Singing out loud takes a lot of breath Carbondale shared insight into how he and his church have and exposes germs from one person battled the pandemic. to another. To combat that, one of the “It’s been an interesting and challenging time with the COVID members of our congregation suggested experience,” Flannery said. “For about three months, we couldn’t that we learn the Lord’s Prayer in sign have a congregation, but we were able to live stream mass. We language instead of saying it out loud,” had two to three people helping with music and getting the live Hackman said. “So two members of stream together.” our church who know sign language are According to Flannery, the church had permission to open teaching the church how to do it.” back up on Father’s Day. Hackman said along with UMC of “Since then, we now have 25% of the capacity of the church in Marion’s addiction counseling services, person with social distancing regulations,” Flannery said. there is a box outside the church where The church does a lot of zoom meetings to keep people pre-made food is available. The box is connected, but that is hard when many people don’t have much filled regularly, so that anyone is welcome When speaking with Rev. John Annable, pastor at the University Baptist experience with technology, Flannery said. to take what they need.

“We didn’t have everyone’s email before,” Flannery said. “Now “We are partnered with Zion United Church, he noted that the amount of food donations to the Good we have it down to all but 60 people, most of them being elders.” Church of Christ [in Marion] producing Samaritan Food Pantry has been down due to COVID-19. He stated, “it has Flannery also said the church sends out about 250 to 300 a program called TWIGS,” Hackman affected quite a bit in terms of the amount of food that we have to give emails, then they have around 60 messages that are sent through said. “It’s a program for school-age away and the way that people have to get here and get the food that they the postal service. children [who are ages] 5-18. We give need.” Aug. 23, 2020. | Leah Sutton | @leahsuttonphotography In addition to making virtual accommodations for masses, away sack lunches Monday, Wednesday, Flannery said he also worked with conducting funeral services. and Friday. Each bag has enough food for two days. Between with the Newman Center had a positive test result of COVID. “I had a couple of funerals shortly after the shutdown,” Flannery the two churches, 100 bags are made a day. It costs $1.35 per So until we get everyone tested and they come back negative, we said. “It was just me, the funeral director, and two friends of the sack lunch.” won’t host any other events but mass,” Taylor said. family due to everyone in the family living out of state. The rest of Last year, the program saw 30 or 40 bags a day, but there’s quite According to Taylor, there is more of a need since the pandemic, the family connected via Zoom.” a bit more of a need since the pandemic hit, Hackman said. some come looking for aid with rent or bills. They haven’t seen a There have been three COVID cases at the church and a “The Marion Ministerial Alliance gives away hot lunches huge increase in that yet because there are so many programs to member of the church who was not attending services at the time Monday through Friday,” Hackman said. “Typically they would aid those in need. was one of the first COVID-19 related deaths in Jackson County. have 30-50 people a day coming in but now they see upwards of “The church sees a lot of fundraising with their alumni, and Pastor John Hackman of the United Methodist Church of 200, sometimes 300 people a day.” hosts a lot of fundraising events that won’t happen this year. There Marion said there are differences in the way his church operates.

The Newman Center, located on SIU campus, has also seen a is also a fall gala which is dinner for around 200 hundred people,“ Hackman also touched on how COVID has affected the lot of support from the community as well as the many drawbacks Taylor said. relationship between the church and the surrounding community. of COVID-19, Tim Taylor, director of the Newman Center, said.

“We require temperature checks, masks, and there are markings “We were going to have a pizza night and just get to know new Staff reporter Sara Wangler can be reached at swangler@ on the floor,” Hackman said. “We’re in full compliance with the attendees but we had to postpone that, someone who had contact dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @sara_Wangler.

Not all heroes wear capes: An inside look at Illinois schools during COVID crisis

of learning, but we’ve seen that our teachers are ready to go, they’re excited about it, they feel like it’s the safest way to begin This summer, Carbondale District #95 and Unity Point in this school year,” Booth said in a previous interview with the school district #140 will be teaching students remotely for the Daily Egyptian. “We have processes in place, we’re working start of fall semester. where every student has a Chromebook and connectivity.”

Daniel Booth, superintendent of Carbondale District 95, Maria Deaton, a fifth and sixth grade language arts said on Aug. 1 he encourages parents to be flexible as the teacher at Unity Point in Carbondale’s School District #140, situation changes and a blended model is possible in the future. said her school started a program three years ago called the Booth said transitioning is the biggest challenge for Individualized Student Success Plan and it has especially CSD#95, but teachers are ready and excited to get started. helped with this year’s remote learning.

“The biggest challenge will be transitioning to this mode Teachers meet with the students and their families to learn more about them and how they learn best, Deaton said.

Students have days where they watch prerecorded lectures and have an activity to go with it. Then, when students meet on Zoom, they work together as a class, Deaton said.

Each week students have a home room period that focuses on emotional and social learning, Deaton said.

Ronald Rogers, a physical education teacher at Unity Point, said the vast majority of students have adapted well to remote learning.

“Many have really liked the idea of recorded lessons because of the convenience of rewinding and replaying lessons in order to better understand difficult concepts,” Rogers said.

Baseline testing will be done at the beginning of the year to see where students are in their learning and what needs improvement, and then teachers will formulate lesson plans accommodating students’ needs, Deaton said. There is also a designated hour for homework help.

Special needs teachers are collaborating Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art with general education teachers, parents and Keaton Yates | @keatsians

students to ensure students with special needs have access to individualized education, Rogers said.

Students with special needs have designated times where they will meet with their teachers to work on assignments as well, which is modified for their needs, Deaton said.

Deaton also said teachers work in their own classrooms in the school and they are trained in safety protocols.

Masks, temperature checks and sanitizers have all been provided to teachers and they are required to social distance, Rogers said.

Unity Point will also accommodate students by offering breakfast and lunches based on their free, reduced, or paid status, and they have several drop off locations within the districts, Deaton said.

CE #95 will be providing meals at drop off locations on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents have been hard at work ensuring that students of Illinois are not only learning, but that they’re healthy, both emotionally and physically.

IARSS is a professional organization of the 38 regional Offices of Education across Illinois.

President of IARSS, Mark Klaisner, said the organization has three primary roles: compliance, school improvement and programming for at-risk students. He said social and emotional needs for students are majorly important and IARSS is laser focused on it.

“At this point, our primary role is to inform and assist,” Klaisner said.

Klaisner said students deserve to have bright futures.

“The future can look really bright if we see these crises as catalysts to growth, important goals and focus,” Klaisner said.

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

Page 19

Wednesday, August 26. 2020

Every Person Counts: Census 2020 ends on September 30 Oreoluwa Ojewuyi

For residents of Carbondale, completing the 2020 census can result in funding for the university, on campus resources, scholarships, K-8 education, infrastructure, and state political representation. A complete and accurate population count impacts almost every area of public and political life.

The decennial census is a constitutional mandate and population count of every person living in the United States, both citizen and non citizen. The 2020 Census ends on September 30th, 2020. In less than ten minutes, every person in the city can fill out a census survey.

The process of taking the census has changed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual engagements have been conducted, and for the first time in history, the Census Bureau is offering an online self-response option.

Becky Johnson is one of four partnership specialists, who oversees the 30 lower counties in the Southern Illinois region. “We have a great partnership with our

city, area agencies on aging, [and] another partner is the NAACP in Carbondale,” Johnson said.

The NAACP was awarded Census outreach grants to meet with “hard to count populations,” she said.

Unfortunately, many populations in the area tend to slip through the cracks.

“That can be someone who doesn’t have a residential address for example, to a senior, people in lower income communities, people that might have a disability, immigrants, people that might fear giving away their information, veterans, and actually college students,” Johnson said.

Johnson said in response to fears of invasion of privacy, “we have to swear on the constitution that we will never violate the privacy of any person. Once your information is saved in that census data it can never be shared with any other agency.”

Census results help determine what kind of funding that college towns like Carbondale will receive over the next 10 years. Resources like Saluki express, and the SIU Student Health Center receive federal funding partially based on an accurate population count.

“It factors in for food stamps, how many students in your community could be a part of your meals on wheels funding stream, how many people in your community qualify for medicaid, hospital funding, college scholarships.”

- Becky Johnson Partnership specialist

If the census received a complete count for the region, we would receive hundreds of millions of dollars over the next four years, Johnson said.

“Every person that is counted is a part of the funding stream,” Johnson said. “It factors in for food stamps, how many students in your community could be a part of your meals on wheels funding stream, how many people in your community qualify for medicaid, hospital funding, college scholarships.”

Beyond the benefits of federal and state funding, a complete census count also affects national politics including the Electoral College, and the number of congressional seats each state receives according to census.gov.

John Jackson, visiting professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, is a member of the Carbondale Complete Count Committee, which is trying to encourage everyone in the southern Illinois region to register.

“The number of votes Illinois has in the Electoral College are [directly] determined by how many people we have, [as well as] the number of congressional districts we have,” Jackson said.

Illinois is in danger of losing two congressional seats if the census return rate remains at 46%, Jackson said, weakening the state politically on national and state levels.

According to census.gov, the end date for census 2020 data collection and non-response follow-up for households who have yet to respond

to the census is Sept. 30, 2020.

The census captures the count of where a student lived on April 1, 2020. SIU students who left Carbondale before April 1 will need to complete the census for the Carbondale area if they have not done so already.

Students living on or off campus in Carbondale can complete the 2020 Census using their Carbondale address. New students should complete the census with the address they were residing at on April 1.

You can visit census.gov to complete your count now.

Staff reporter Ore Ojewuyi can be reached by email at oojewuyi@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @oojewuyi.

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

Page 20

Carbondale News

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

‘Ben Franklin is watching’: Protesters hold demonstration for the United States Postal Service Keaton Yates | @keatsians

Protesters gathered outside of Carbondale’s post office on 1301 E. Main St. to participate in a nationwide rally to protest Louis DeJoy, United States’ postmaster general, and his plans to reduce the United States Postal Service.

On Aug. 22, the House of Representatives will be voting on whether or not to pass the bill on providing $25 billion to USPS and prohibiting any further changes.

Mary Rajcok and Nel Battrell organized this protest through MoveOn and Indivisible, two progressive groups based in the United States.

Battrell said DeJoy has displaced dozens of postal executives, called for hiring freezes, cut back hours of postal workers and has created delays in mail service, even stopping delivery in some places.

Every American relies on the mail in some way or another by receiving medications, checks and general holiday cards and letters, Battrell said.

Battrell said Indivisible and MoveOn support free and fair elections by post mail and they

encourage congress to intervene and protect the election.

“We can and will overcome these attacks,” Battrell said. “We must not let them scare us away from voting.”

Rajcok said the American people are under attack by President Donald Trump and DeJoy. Rajok has been a part of Indivisible since former President Barack Obama left office in 2016 and has organized many protests, including one in Springfield, Illinois, where they lobbied.

Indivisible Shawnee, a progressive group organized in Illinois, is focusing on getting people to vote and the fair tax.

“I don’t understand why we have to rally around our postal service,” Rajcok said. “If they can dismantle and take away our postal service what’s going to be next?”

People need to have access to their medications, checks, and their vote via the mail, Rajcok said.

“They’re talking about bringing the police out to the polls and having them stand there,” she said. “What they’re doing is intimidating people.”

Rajok said the American people’s democracy is at stake and they need to speak out against

Protesters wave and cheer as a postal worker drives by during Save the Post Office protest put on by the group Indivisible Shawnee on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020 at the United States Postal Service office in Carbondale, IL. Jared Treece | @bisalo violations to keep them from continuing.

Zander Craig, a seven-year-old resident of Carbondale, said the mail is very important to him.

“We’re protesting to fix the mail so our mail doesn’t get messed

up,” Zander said. “I hope the future will keep getting better and better every year on.”

Jean Todd, of Marion, said the postal service should not have cutbacks because not only does it suppress the right to vote, but

Jean Todd, 72, right, and her husband Jim, 74, behind her, join a group of about 18 other protesters outside the main post office in Carbondale, IL, in solidarity with a nationwide call for a #SaveThePostOfficeSaturday rally on Saturday, August 22 ,2020.

MoveOn, the NAACP, WorkingFamiliesParty, Indivisible and other national organizations announced the nationwide effort to show up at post offices across the country at 11Am on Saturday, August 22, “to save the post office from Trump and declare that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must resign.”

Angel Chevrestt | @sobrofotos

many people depend on the post office.

Todd said in some cases the mail service acts as a lifeline in small communities because rural mail carriers know their patrons and will notice if the mail hasn’t been picked up for a while.

Rose Weisburd, another Carbondale protester, said delaying the mail goes against the constitution.

Weisburd held a sign during the protest that read “Ben Franklin is watching: We the People need the Post Office.”

“What burns me up the most is they’re slowing down medicines to veterans,” Weisburd said.

Pat Damron, a protester from Marion, said there is no reason not to have the mail service.

“I think everyone should be able to vote by mail. We have to vote,” Damron said. “We have to get that psychopath out of the White House.”

Damron said she hopes Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the House of Representatives can impeach DeJoy. “To me this isn’t a Republican, Democrat, Progressive, Independent anything, this is our service and the one thing that belongs to us,” Rajcok said. “I want everyone out here knowing we need our United States Postal Service.”

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

Page 21

Wednesday, August 26. 2020

Election Day - November 3rd, 2020 | 69 days

Election 2020 The DE’s guide to voting in Illinois August 26, 2020 | Graphic 2: Who are the candidates for president?

REPUBLICAN:

DEMOCRAT:

Donald Trump

Joe BIDEN

VP-Mike Pence

VP-Kamala Harris

-Incumbent -Impeached

-Former Vice President to Barack Obama

3rd Party: Anyone else Southern Illinois: Who are you voting for?

Results from Polls conducted by the Daily Egyptian via social media

Twitter 140 Votes

Facebook 118 Votes

19% 70%

11%

instagram 9 Votes

22%

31% 54%

67%

11%

14%

Donald Trump (R)

Joe Biden (D)

3rd Party

Want your vote counted? Follow us on instagram, Twitter, or Facebook on @dailyegyptian!

See future editions of The Daily Egyptian and visit dailyegyptian.com for continued coverage.

Survey made by Surveymaker.

Chloe Schobert | @chlo_scho_art

Page 22

Sports

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

NCAA allows student athletes to demonstrate social justice patches and more on jerseys

Dustin Clark | @dustinclark.oof

Janae Mosby | @mosbyj

The NCAA announced on Jul. 30 student-athletes in all sports will be allowed to wear patches on their uniforms to support social justice issues.

The panel met on a videoconference where they decided that patches can be worn on the front and back of athletes’ uniforms.

According to the announcement, the patch cannot be bigger than 2 ¼ square inches and it has to be placed on the front or sleeve of the uniform.

Previously, on Jul. 16, SIU director of athletics Liz Jarnigan said in an interview with the Daily Egyptian that the department will not prevent athletes from demonstrating.

In addition, Jarnigan said she thinks allowing athletes to wear patches on their uniforms is a good idea.

“In this era of trying to do our best to allow student athletes to have a voice for a positive purpose, I think it is a unique and good idea,” Jarnigan said.

Saluki football senior guard ZeVeyon Furcron agrees that wearing social justice patches is a good thing.

“I think it’s cool and I think it will help bring attention to the matter, so I definitely think it’s a plus,” Furcron said.

SIU soccer’s junior defensive midfielder Hailey Blanchard said she also believes this is an opportunity for athletes to show that they acknowledge things outside of sports.

“Giving people the option to do what they love while

“What our Conference is standing up and doing provides all of our schools the opportunity to demonstrate unity and one voice as we stand up for what’s right.”

- Liz Jarnigan SIU director of athletics

also doing something they believe in is really important,” Blanchard said.

Fucron said It is important for schools to allow their athletes to support social justice issues because social justice is as important as other issues supported by the university.

According to Jarnigan, the athletics department has not had any discussion about allowing their athletes wearing social justice patches on their uniforms due to the fact that they are dealing with COVID-19 and the safe return of their players.

“Discussions and plans need to be made sport by sport about what teams are wanting to do or what message they want to convey,” Jarnigan said.

Furcron said that he hopes that SIU athletes will participate

in this, but if they chose not to, he would still support social justice issues.

With the Black Lives Matter movement, many professional teams have shown their support by putting “BLM” on their jerseys.

When asked if many teams will put “BLM” on their jerseys, Jarnigan said she thinks these new rules were put into place to support statements like “Black lives matter”.

In addition to the NCAA’s new rule, the Missouri Valley Conference is also taking steps towards participating in social justice issues.

On Aug. 10, the MVC announced their new “Mobilizing Voices for Change” initiative, which will promote diversity and inclusion and advance equality for everyone.

“What our Conference is standing up and doing provides all of our schools the opportunity to demonstrate unity and one voice as we stand up for what’s right,” Jarnigan said.

This initiative will empower student-athletes to educate and impact their communities and athletes, administrators and coaches will be a part of a podcast and a forum that will allow them to express their views.

A “Kids Speak” series will feature the voices of the younger generation, which will be the children of league administrators and coaches, who will emphasize that the best opportunity for change rests with the youth.

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

Page 23

Wednesday, August 26. 2020

Sports during the pandemic: Inside look at fall teams’ plans moving on Madison Taylor | @taylorm08 Janae Mosby | @mosbyj

The MVC announced on Aug. 14 that all fall sports competitions will be pushed back to spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Southern’s football, volleyball, soccer and cross country teams have all postponed their fall competition until spring semester.

SIU head football coach Nick Hill gave a press conference on Aug. 18 to update fans and media on what football will be doing now since they will not be competing this semester.

“I think right now, with Saluki football, we’re obviously disappointed that we’re not playing,” Hill said.

Senior wide receiver Landon Lenoir looks at this break as an opportunity to improve.

“It’s disappointing that we can’t

have a season in the fall but I just use this as a time to get better, work on my craft and work on being a better teammate,” Lenoir said.

Hill is focusing on staying positive and keeping the players healthy during this break.

The football players had taken over 400 COVID-19 tests and only one has come back positive, Hill said.

In preparation for the spring season, the football players will be doing some individual workouts since they cannot come together as a full team yet, Lenoir said.

To keep the team ready for spring competition, Hill said they are going to keep training and keep getting better.

“We can lift weights, we can train, we can get stronger and we can get better. [...] This could be a positive thing, you get extra time to be at your best,” Hill said.

Usually, when not in season, the team gets eight hours a week for strength and conditioning and two of those hours can be meetings and in season, they get 20 hours a week, Hill said.

They are still working through how this is going to look because of the coronavirus, but they will be doing everything they can safely do to keep the team in shape for spring.

The SIU cross country team has been preparing for practice and getting ready for the spring season.

Each athlete is taking the necessary steps in order to compete in the spring season.

Saluki cross country head coach Kevin Cataldo spoke about the team’s preparation process.

“All our athletes had to go through quarantine, COVID education and a COVID test. Once we get the results

back from that we’ll move into getting physicals,” Cataldo said. “Then we will officially start practice. So we’re hoping for next week, we’ll officially start practice and kinda move forward that way.”

The team has not had a chance to practice together yet, but the players are ready to get the season going.

Senior cross country athlete Chris Edwards said that he is looking forward to things hopefully getting back to normal and getting to compete again.

“I know we all came here to compete and that’s been stripped away. It’s pretty hard on a lot of us, me included,” Edwards said.

No one knows exactly how the season is really going to look and it may be transitioned into track and field season.

With the season being moved into

the spring, questions have been raised of “will the competition be harder this year?”

Junior cross country athlete Grace Mcdurmon said that she feels like there’s a possibility people will put more on the line, just knowing that everything isn’t given and seasons aren’t always going to come. “[With] it being my last year and being able to improve myself and prove to the coaches they didn’t make a mistake when they gave me a shot here so I really hope I can get that opportunity,” Edwards said.

Staff Reporter Madison Taylor can be reached mtaylor@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at taylorm08.

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

Looking ahead: Saluki men’s basketball continues to prepare for upcoming season Ryan Scott | @RyanscottDE

Since their return to practice on July 28, Saluki men’s basketball has continued to work towards a successful winter season.

According to SIU men’s basketball head coach Bryan Mullins, the team is allowed to practice for eight hours each week under NCAA guidelines for pre-season practices.

The team is also following guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19 while doing so, including staff members wearing masks during practice and players not having locker room access to limit the use of shared spaces, Mullins said.

In addition, Mullins said players are wearing masks during weight lifting and non-basketball drills, but are allowed to remove masks during

basketball drills and scrimmages.

Sophomore guard Lance Jones said he believes the team needs to focus only on what they have control over and continue to get better.

Jones said the team is being more cautious when practicing and making sure not to be close to each other any more than they need to and are spacing out during warmups.

The team is also being more cautious around campus as well and trying to avoid unnecessary exposure, Jones said.

Sophomore forward Marcus Domask said the team can’t worry about what’s happening outside the gym very much and they need to worry about continuing to improve their team.

Domask and Jones said they are not worrying about if the season

gets delayed, and if it does, they will go along with the new schedule the NCAA allows. Both said they aren’t worrying about what might happen and are trying to practice as hard as they can and improve.

The team needs to have a “positive mindset” even though they don’t know what could happen or if the NCAA decided to cancel the season, Jones said.

Despite a certain degree of uncertainty with the current nature of COVID-19, Mullins said he expects to play this year.

“I definitely believe there’s going to be college basketball this year,” Mullins said.

Mullins also said there would be more time to get all the incoming players time to bond with their new teammates and get them game ready.

Both Domask and Jones said they believe practice has gone very well so far with the new players and that the team has grown closer.

They are communicating over group chat as well when they can’t be together to continue growing the bond between the team, Domask said.

Mullins said he expects a lot from all of his players and especially his returning players, and wants his returning players to guide the future of the program.

He also said he expects returning athletes to show incoming members of the team what they need to know as a member of the team, to help them learn where things are and what they need to know about the team and Carbondale.

Based on current guidelines in phase four of the Restore Illinois plan,

which limits capacities of in-person events to 20% attendance, the future of crowds in attendance at Banterra Center is uncertain at this time.

Mullins said he believes that could affect the home games, as they have a good atmosphere, and it could be harder to motivate for a game than it is when there are thousands of Saluki fans cheering for them when they come on the court.

The teams who will have the most success on the court will be the teams with the best energy and leadership, Mullins said, and the Salukis will continue trying to make the team better everyday so they’re prepared for the season.

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

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Page 24

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