Sullivan said the China Initiative has had a quelling effect on campus. “We have other Chinese American faculty at this school and they are terrified to apply for grants and that is happening all over the country,” he said. Xiao was academic advisor for many students at SIU, and he has to go through another faculty member to have any contact with them. “These students are from China and Saudi Arabia, having to go through a third party to hear from their professor – what are they telling their friends about the land of the free?” Sullivan said.
We write this explanatory column to express our support for Dr. Mingqing Xiao, a longtime member of the Southern Illinois community and a distinguished Professor of Mathematics at SIU. We know Dr. Xiao to be a caring and accomplished professor devoted to his students, and an honest, loyal and giving member of our local community. While Dr. Xiao has been completely exonerated of all allegations of grant fraud made against him by the federal government in relation to a National Science Foundation grant that SIU received, we believe he has been wrongly convicted of minor technical tax issues, with evidence that there was no willful intent to violate the tax code.
Professor Xiao and Service to the Community Dr. Mingqing Xiao has been a resident of the United States since 1991 and a proud US citizen since 2006. Since 2000, Dr. Xiao has served on the faculty of the SIU Department of Mathematics, having been granted promotion to full professor in 2007. His research area is mainly in applied mathematics, such as differential equations and computational science. Dr. Xiao has authored or co-authored over 100 peerreviewed journal articles, book chapters and refereed conference publications. He has received five National Science Foundation grants on SIU’s behalf and in 2016, the SIUC College of Science named Dr. Xiao its Outstanding Scholar.Since 2013, Dr. Xiao organized and taught weekly math enhancement classes for local K-12 students every week for 8 years until his 2021 indictment ended the program. Students attending “Ming Math” won numerous awards at regional, state and national math competitions and went on to attend such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and Columbia. In 2020, Ming received the Good Neighbor Award from WSIU Public Broadcasting for this volunteer work.
THE Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916. DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 VOL. 106, ISSUE 4 1, 2, & BEDROOMS3AVAILABLEGrabaroommatefor$300-$350perperson! 805 E. Park Street (618)549-0335 | (618)549-0895 “He just wants to teach:” Supporters urge SIU to return Mingqing Xiao to campus Annie HAmmock | @AnnieHAmmock SIUC math professor Mingqing Xiao was acquitted of some charges and convicted of others relating to the “China Initiative.” Photo provided by Edward Benyas Please see XIAO | 10 Letter to the editor: Bring back Professor Xiao ed BenyAs | edwArdBenyAs@mAc com
p. Black2 RSOs coming together for Black students p. “Bodies12 Bodies Bodies” is all killer and no filler p. Sam’s5 Café serving the community late at night p. 15 SIU vs. SEMO: 50 miles, 90 games and one coveted wheel As applied mathematics professor Mingqing Xiao awaits sentencing on a minor tax charge, 59 people from Southern Illinois University (SIU) and the community at large have signed a letter to the editor urging the university to take him off administrative leave and allow him back on campus.“We’re just trying to show the community supports him and we want him back,” said the letter’s author, Ed Benyas, a music professor at SIU and friend of Xiao’s. Xiao was caught up in a government crackdown on China’s theft of intellectual property from academic institutions. A federal judge in Benton, Illinois, dismissed two counts of wire fraud and a jury ruled Xiao was not guilty of making false statements regarding a grant application with the National Science Foundation. However, that same jury found him guilty of failing to disclose a bank account in China. On his tax forms, Xiao did not acknowledge an account set up for him by Shenzhen University to help cover expenses during his planned visits to teach there and recruit students for a joint PhD program with SIU – visits that were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “He didn’t check a box,” Benyas said. Xiao will learn his fate at a Sept. 19 sentencing hearing in Benton. Benyas said he hopes supporters from the faculty, student body and community will“Heattend.justwants to go back to work, he just wants to teach,” BenyasBenyassaid.said it’s unfortunate Xiao was caught up in overzealous prosecution, in which federal prosecutors across the U.S. were given quotas for bringing professors to trial under a Trump-era policy known as The China Initiative.Sullivan said, “No allegations have been made of intellectual property theft. His body of work is applied mathematics.”Benyassaid he hopes the letter to the editor will spur activism on campus. “I’d like to see the students at SIU have some concern about this xenophobic program and they should be concerned about their fellow students and faculty,” he said.
“The school needs to see more leaders and groups together and the more we do it, the more of an impact we have on this campus and for SIU in general,” Turner said. [...] “It’s a whole different vibe just seeing all black organizations in one area because years ago it was spread out but when we’re together it is like we are unstoppable.”
Allen, the faculty
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Black RSOs come together for Black students
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She said when Black students are able to find people within their community running RSOs, it helps them feel a sense of community here at VernecelynSIU.
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Page 2 | News Wednesday, September 7, 2022
advisor and founder for the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP), said she started the RSO as a way for Black students in the Aerospace field to have a Williamcommunity.Sowell, the current president of OBAP and Bisola Saliu, a member of OBAP, said having the Black RSO fair is important because not many of the Black RSO’s get a lot of recognition and it makes it harder for other Black students to find a community for them. Allen said it is vital for Black organizations to be out and about at SIU so that Black students know they have a community on campus that wants to see them succeed. RSO’s were not the only ones that were active at the fair, Greek organizations were also ready to meet Black students and talk to them as Britneywell.Morgan, a sorority member in Sigma Gamma Rho said when Black organizations do come together, it helps expand the community and helps Black students see what the college experience is like.
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Janiyah Gaston | @DEJaniyah Fatal Fusion dances at the Black RSO fair Sept. 1, 2022 at the Student Service Pavilion in Carbondale, Ill. Janiyah Gaston | @DEJaniyah
“It shows other Black students there are people like you. You could be like me, my freshman year. I was probably the only Black kid in a White class,” Akewusola said. “I didn’t think that there were a lot of Black people, but the whole time [there was] Black community down here, it’s a lot of people. You just got to know the right people.”
Black Registered Student Organizations (RSO), fraternities and sororities came together on Sept. 1 at the Student Center Pavillion to show what opportunities are available for Black students on campus.Suliat Akewusola, a fourth year student and president of the Black Women’s Task Force said the purpose of her RSO is to bring Black women together here at Southern Illinois University (SIU). “This is a[n] RSO that everybody can join. We don’t have any requirements. We just have girls coming together because this is a predominantly White school, so we do want the girls to have somebody who looks like them so that they can feel comfortable around campus,” Akewusola said. She said Black Women’s Task Force is more than just an RSO, it is a sisterhood for Black women and brings them together by hosting various events, like girl talks, community service projects and more.Akewusola said, because the Black organizations on campus do not get as much attention as they should, it makes it hard for students to find people in their community.
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Kevin Turner, a graduate of SIU and previous president of Alpha Phi Alpha, and Brandon Morgan, current president of the fraternity, said they decided to join the fraternity because of the brotherhood they saw.
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According to Turner, the history of the fraternity and the brothers being active on campus and helping out the community drew him to joining. For Morgan, seeing his brother being a part of the Alphas and seeing the commitment solidified his decision to join. “I’ve always wanted to be an Alpha since I was a little kid. My big brother, he was Alpha at SIU as well. So he’s pretty much my role model. So, coming down here, I had the opportunity to meet bros for myself to see if I like that fraternity as much as I saw from my brother,” Morgan said. Both Turner and Morgan said they reflect the Alphas values well by being gentlemen and helping out wherever they can. “Give your best at everything you do. We try to be as close to perfection as possible. You gotta walk around being a gentleman, nobleman at all times. It’s a high name being an Alpha,” Turner said. Morgan said Black organizations are being pushed more to the forefront with the new administration.“So,administration has been better with keeping us involved with everything. But I feel like we just scratched the surface on how much we really can be involved on campus for everyone out there even bigger than our community on campus,” Morgan said. He said, while the administration is giving more groups representation, there is still a long way to go until these organizations are advertised more at SIU. Turner said when Black students come together for events such as these, it creates a new energy that brings people together and makes connections even stronger.
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The City Manager of the City of Carbondale, Gary Williams, said the space has always been very accessible for the community and always got good feedback from events held there.
The Economic Development Coordinator of the City of Carbondale, Cody Lueker, said the program is in response to the impact of COVID-19.“Sincerestaurants and bars and everything had to limit their capacity and at one point it closed down,” Lueker said. “So these grants were sort of ways to respond to the economic harm caused by COVID-19.”Thespace the event plaza will be built has already been utilized for music events in the past, like the ongoing concert event Off the Rails, Lueker“We’vesaid.been having local bands and also some bigger regional acts come in and play at that location,” Lueker said. “But just the fact that we have to keep bringing in a temporary stage is sort of cost prohibitive and it kind of limits our ability to bring in bigger acts.”
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“The city manager had the idea two-three years ago, I guess, and we’ve been talking about it for some time,” Mitchell said. “Once the grant came out, it was an opportunity to really kind of kick that concept into gear.”
“It’s been brought up by the council a number of times,” Williams said. “It was an idea that our city council asked us to explore and we were fortunate enough to find an opportunity and then secureWilliamsfunding.”said, after having multiple musical acts perform in the space, he was able to get input from them.“This is going to solve so many problems because every time we have a show, it’s ‘we have to secure a stage and we have to get staff and we have to get porta potties and on and on and on,’” Williams said. “There’s a lot of moving parts, so this will… ease a lot of those logistical headaches that we go through on show after show.”
Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @ jamilahlewis.
New Carbondale Event Plaza designed to revive the local music scene Jamilah lEwis | @JamilahlEwis
Anika Svancarek
The City of Carbondale has been chosen for a grant of $2,055,040 to build an Entertainment and Event Plaza at the Washington Street venue. According to the Explore Carbondale website, the grant is from the Rebuild Illinois (RBI) Downtowns and Main Street Capital program with Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). The Economic Development Director for the City of Carbondale, Steven Mitchell, said the grant was capped at $3 million, but the entire Plaza cost more than $4 million.
Lueker said, with the entertainment events that happen in this space already attracting people to the Downton Carbondale area, a permanent venue will expand capacity and attract even more people.
“We didn’t have enough money for all of it,” Mitchell said. “So we chose to do what we thought would be the most impactful, which was the actual permit stage portion of that design.”
“We’ve had this concept of a stage and we did some conceptual plans probably five years ago,” Williams said. “We knew it was going to be just something that we would have to prioritize at some point to pay for or find some sort of funding mechanism like a grant.” Williams said in 2015, more music events was something the council and mayor campaigned for.
The design of the grant was put together with the help of a local architect and the Carbondale Musicians Advisory Council, Mitchell said. He said the city has had ownership of the space the Event Plaza will be built since the early 2000s but has not done much with it until a few years ago.“In 2017, when the Great American Eclipse came across through Carbondale, Carbondale was identified by NASA as the point of longest duration,” Mitchell said. “So we had a huge influx of people from all over the world come to Carbondale and we set up a series of concerts at that location to entertain the visitors.”
Mitchell said having the stream of people come to Carbondale in 2017 was able to bring more business to the area. “Since 2017, we estimate we’ve tracked with probably 24,000 or more people to downtown that wouldn’t have otherwise been here,” Mitchell said. “We estimate that those 24,000 people have brought in or generated about a million dollars in economic activity into the community.” Along with trying to attract more people to the Downtown Carbondale area, the goal is to also help bring life into the local music scene once again, Mitchell said. “For decades, Carbondale has really had a really strong, vibrant local music scene,” Mitchell said. “All kinds of musicians have sprung up out of Carbondale and our hope is to reinvigorate that as well.”The idea for the plaza happened a few years ago before organizers found out about the grant, Mitchell said.
Williams said organizers are in the pre-contract phase since nothing has been formalized in an agreement with the state. “There’s some other fairly really competitive grants that we’ve been able to secure, so we’re still extremely excited,” Williams said. “We’re all still very proud of the achievement, but at the same time…almost pinching ourselves that we actually have the money to do this.”
News | Page 3Wednesday, September 7, 2022
“I met Sylvia my first semester of graduate school,” Thielen said. “She was then teaching a Women in the Arts history class and you may think, ‘well, what’s the big deal,’ but that was in 1977. That didn’t exist anyplace.”
Palmer said she was influenced by Greenfield, who was a big help to her as a teacher.“When I look at the work it’s so beautiful to me,” Palmer paused and looked around at Greenfield’s work. “The number of ways she’s using the media and her process and her distillation of many, many things. To pull that all together in each of these individual pieces of this… just beautiful distillation and synthesis of so much and it’s quite humbling, she was very, very prolific.”
According to the artist’s statement, a part of the exhibit, Greenfield was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1929. She got her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1965 and her Master of Fine Arts, Drawing, Painting and Printmaking Studio in 1967 from the University of Colorado. Before coming to Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) in 1968, she worked as a medical illustrator for the Roswell Memorial Hospital in Buffalo and a technical illustrator for I.P. Krick and Associates in Denver, Colorado. During her 29 years of teaching at SIU, Greenfield got her Master of Science in Community Development from SIU in 1977. She retired in 1997. Greenfield passed away from cancer in 2019.“She loved to teach, she was very handson,” Thielen said. “I know the past graduates [and] past students… all loved her and speak very highly of her and they said she had a very big impact on their life. A lot of them went on to become educators themselves.” Greenfield was an abstract artist. The way abstract artists find their passion for that type of art is doing that first piece and it “speaks to you like nothing else”, Thielen said. “She loved the fact that abstract [art] allows the viewer to have a part in deciphering the work,” Thielen said. “She loved that it gave the viewer the chance of interpretation of theGreenfieldwork.” enjoyed doing watercolors and the different things one could do with thin, veiled washes. With watercolors in the exhibit, it was a project that began to give her a lot of frustration, Thielen said. “One time she was in her studio, she just got to the breaking point and she took all of her watercolors and just literally tore them all up and threw them on her work desk and they were just kind of all scattered all over,” Thielen said. “She just stood there and was looking at them and looking at it and had that realization or saw what the next step was.”Thielen said the act of tearing up her artwork was a daring one, but one that pushed Greenfield into the new direction she wanted to go with it, and the extreme act helped her push that work forward. After Greenfiled passed away, Thielen was given ownership of all her artwork. While he had been helping clean her home before then, he found the prints in the exhibit and was surprised that she’d done them. “I went to her and I said, ‘Do you remember doing prints’ and she kind of got a shocked look and said, ‘Oh my god… I forgot I’d done these prints,’” Thielen said. “So I brought them up and we went through them and she had never signed them so I had her sign them and we talked about them.” When people would ask about the watercolors Thielen would make sure to highlight how hard Greenfield worked to get them into the final condition they’re in now, he “Itsaid.wasn’t just you know, ‘yeah, I did watercolor, cut it up and you know, here it is,’” Thielen said. “No, it was… a very intuitive thing.” With the many small pieces of watercolor in each painting, Thielen said he looks at it as a novel showing chapters in her life. “We’re getting to look at her life chapter by chapter and each one of them is a different story about her life,” Thielen said. “Some of them are very grand novels and some of them are short stories.” As Thielen looked emotionally at his friends’ work around him, he said it felt like she was still here through her artwork. “You know,” Thielen said, pausing to collect his thoughts, “I’ve always felt her work is quiet but yet it’s not. It’s like when you move in and really look at it there’s a lot of depth…and it says a lot about her I think.”During her time in Carbondale, Greenfield was a big women’s activist and an avid supporter of what was then known as The Women’s Center, now called The Survivor Empowerment Center. The Daily Egyptian interviewed her in 2017 for a women’s march. She was surprised that, to this day, we still are fighting for equality in this country. “You can either be a positive or negative in a community, she was a positive, so that in itself that says a lot,” Thielen took another emotional pause. “Just in life in general, you can be positive or negative, and she was a positive.”Thielen said the University Museum will be getting Greenfield’s private art collection and some of the pieces in the exhibit will be sold.“I would just say [to] people, ‘take your time when you look at it,’” Thielen said. “Each piece is different. Each piece is unique.”Before her passing Thielen and Greenfiled discussed that the money made through the exhibit will be donated. Half will go to the Center and the other half to St. Francis Cares, an animal shelter.
Posters hang on display in a room dedicated to Cynthia R. Greenfield poster collection Aug. 31st, 2022 at SIU Exhibit Museum in Carbondale, Ill. Michael Burton | @Akamai.Films
He’s the main curator for the EARTH, WIND, FIRE exhibit with works from the late faculty member Sylvia R. Greenfield. Greenfield taught basic design/ foundation, art education, drawing/life drawing, painting, printmaking, and women in the arts.
Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design Erin Palmer started teaching at SIU in the Fall of 1993 and was a colleague and mentee of Greenfield’s a few years before she“Iretired.would say she was a very important person to me because we had many important conversations about teaching [and] about art,” Palmer said. “As well as just her going that extra mile to introduce me to other colleagues on campus that were not in the art department and resources and just helping me to feel supported.” When looking at Greenfield’s work, Palmer said she sees a strong connection with various visual characteristics, visual expression in her work and what was important to her when she“Whentaught. she was teaching drawing, sometimes people might think, oh, learning to draw is about learning to render threedimensional form, clearly in space,” Palmer said. “But she would want her students to understand how to render the form and space, but also how to do that with looseness, with gesture, not just to be able to draw with a pencil, but how do you draw with brush and wash and ink.” With the small format of the watercolors in the exhibit, they tend to look like landscapes. It construct very visual relationships, Palmer said.“She was incredibly knowledgeable and accomplished with regard to her use of visual language, in her own work,” Palmer said. “She was a wonderful teacher, you know, in how she would push her students.”
Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @jamilahlewis.
Thielen said, after taking the class he fell in love with Greenfield, as a friend and teacher, prompting him to take another one of her classes, which cemented their friendship. He said he’s still in Carbondale because, while at graduate school he met his now husband who was the director of Shryock Auditorium at the time. Thielen is now a full-time studio artist.
Jamilah lewis | Jlewis@dailyegyptian com
Page 4 | News Wednesday, September 7, 2022
William Thielen sits in the North Hall exhibition in the University Museum surrounded by his close friends and a former teacher’s artwork. He’s surrounded by various watercolor paintings with reds, greens and blues.
“I asked her, I said, ‘did you prefer undergraduate or graduate students’ and she said she preferred working with undergraduates,” Thielen said. “They wanted to learn. They had that energy and that drive and they wanted to learn and she loved that energy and she loved working with them.”
Cynthia R. Greenfield’s artwork hangs on display at the Earth, Wind, and Fire exhibit Aug. 31st, 2022 at SIU Exhibit Museum in Carbondale, Ill. Michael Burton | @Akamai.Films
Remembering a pillar of SIU’s art community
With the exhibition staying in the museum until the end of the semester it gives people the chance to come back and spend time with the work. Palmer plans to bring some of her art classes to the exhibit to experience Greenfield’s work and the visual power of it. “When I am looking at Sylvia’s work. I feel like I’m talking to her,” Palmer said with tearful eyes. “And that’s a wonderful thing because I miss her and this exhibition just makes me so happy.”
News | Page 5Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Sam’s Café serving the community late at night mannie ehendersonhenderson@dailyegyptian com
Sam’s Café is currently working under its busiest“Backseason.toschool time is the busiest time for us. The strip is so busy and we get a lot of support from the other businesses, offices, and bars,” Manderhach said. An unnamed Sam’s Café cook said, “When Stix gets a line, we get a line.” Stix is a local pool hall-inspired bar within walking distance of the Café.Some people could say Sam’s Café’s appeal is its late night availability and food delivery option. Customers can call the café directly or use food delivery apps such as Grubhub to pay extra for food delivery. But, how is the food according to the customers?Courtney, a senior at Southern Illinois University, said, “I think it’s nice that they have a wide variety of stuff you can get in one place. I like their steak sandwiches.” Also, Lady Anderson, a town local, said, “I love the restaurant! I’ve been living here in Carbondale for almost five years, and this was the first place I tried. I love the garlic fries and wings.” Kendra Kendricks, on a Google review of the café, wrote, “The owner is unbelievably awesome! My husband & I visited a few weeks ago for the first time and Sam (the owner) was the only one working. He had call-ins but was still able to greet & welcome us and multi-tasked very well.” Finally, Suman Saurbach wrote, “You’re jamming your arteries with unhealthy but out of this world tasting food. Very nice people and serviceThetoo.”café has been around for more than 30 years, in large part due to its late night hours. Whether students are studying late before a weekday exam or on the strip after leaving the bar, Sam’s Café is open late for them. Staff reporter Mannie Henderson can be reached at ehenderson@dailyegyptian.com
There are many restaurants in Carbondale, and each offers different cuisines that attract town locals. However, few restaurants are open late at night.Sam’s Café is open as late as 4 a.m. depending on the day of the week. It is located at 521 S Illinois Ave. and dates back to 1990. Currently, there is only one location. However, there once was a café located in the mall before they relocated to Illinois Avenue John Manderhach, manager of Sam’s Café, along with the owner, lead a team of five workers. The restaurant specializes in fast food, primarily cheeseburgers and gyros. “It’s open six days a week, and we’re open for two different shifts. The first shift is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and we reopen at 8 p.m. and stay open late at night,” Manderhach said. The café is not open late at night on Mondays due to understaffing. However, it stays open until 3 a.m. every other day except Friday and Saturday when it is open until 4 a.m. So, let’s go back to the food! There are many food options on the menu. For first-time customers, it could be a challenging task to select something good to eat. When discussing some of the most popular food items on the menu, Manderhach said, “The heart attack is one. It’s a double cheeseburger with bacon and gyro meat. You also can’t go wrong with the traditional gyro and cheese fries.” A new item on the menu, according to the café, is the fried catfish meal. The catfish is prepared in a seasoned batter. Manderhach believes that it could soon become a popular item.
Sam’s Café, a restaurant located on S. Illinois Ave., has a menu that offers middle eastern style foods as well as sandwiches on Monday, August 16, 2021 in Carbondale, Illinois. Jared Treece | @bisalo
The Young Democratic Socialists of America hosted a picnic to celebrate the recent unionization of the Carbondale Starbucks location on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Reaman | treaman@dailyegyptian.com
Page 6 | News Wednesday, September 7, 2022
“Pay attention to who is going on strike,” Herron said. “Show up. Show up to the picket lines.
Editor in Chief Sophie Whitten can be reached at swhitten@dailyegyptian.com or online @Sophiewhitten_
Starbucks in Carbondale, Illinois became the first location in Southern Illinois to unionize. It happened on Aug. 11, 2022. This Monday, Sept. 5, the SIU Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), hosted a Labor Day Solidarity Picnic for Starbucks workers at the Carbondale Town Square Pavilion from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Elijah Stepe, who is the chair of the YDSA, said the group was there to celebrate the holiday and the work the Starbucks employees have put into their“Ourjobs.goal is to generally help out the workers,” StepeYDSAsaid.Secretary Luke Herron said, while the YDSA wanted to celebrate the Starbucks union victory, they also wanted to gather the community to speak about workers rights. “SIU YDSA has been knocking doors for amendment one, which is the workers rights amendment, that will be on the ballot in the fall, which would make it harder for the bosses to bust unions,” Herron said. According to Herron, the YDSA has also been distributing union organizing materials to the community in order to help other workers fight for“Thingsunionization.arereally bad right now economically,” Herron said. “People in power are not doing that much to help us, so we’ve got to take the power into our own hands in solidarity with our neighbors, our fellow co-workers and organize for workers’ rights.”
SIU YSDA hosts Labor Day picnic for Starbucks workers
The goal of the YDSA is to help the employees with whatever they may need help and support with.“A lot of it has just been printing stuff out, printing out materials … and just showing up to the solidarity sip-ins up there at the Starbucks,” HerronAccordingsaid. to Herron, the union movement is one of the most important things for people to be thinking about right now.
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Starbucks union workers Cecilia Solis and Megan Brown talk with Elijah Stepe, an organizer and chairman of SIU YDSA of the solidarity picnic on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Reaman | treaman@dailyegyptian.comPlease see YDSA | 8
Sophie Whitten
Staff reporter Mannie Henderson can be reached at dailyegyptian.comehenderson@ Mannie henderSon ehenderSon@dailyeyptian coM Law provides free legal services for older people who qualify
News | Page 7Wednesday, September 7, 2022 Leo Buscaglia once famously wrote, “Too often, we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Southern Illinois University Law School has seemingly adopted this practice through its elder law clinic.The Daily Egyptian had the opportunity to sit with professor of Law Rebecca O’Neil, head of the clinic as SIU law celebrates its 50th anniversary. Legal clinics have been around all that time. Some years later, the elder law clinic was formed. Since its inception, the clinic has serviced many clients within Southern Illinois with little to no O’Neilrequirements.said,“The clients must be 60 or older and live in one of the Southern 13 counties. So it’s not income contingent at all. It’s ageProspectivecontingent.”clients needing legal services would call an 800 intake number and discuss their needs with an elder law clinic staff member. O’Neil has worked for the law school for 31 years. When she first began working in the elder law clinic, there were a total of four attorneys that managed the clinic. Today, O’Neil is on her own. As you can imagine, there are tons of clients who take advantage of free legal services. “It really depends on what county I’m going to. I’ll probably interview eight to 10 people in a busy county in one day,” O’Neil said. “In smaller counties, it’s just two or three in more rural counties.”Theelder law clinic also has a requirement of its own. Each year it must complete a total of150 cases. However, the clinic meets that requirement in about two months. “Client intake started last week and we had, like, 61 new cases in a matter of three days,” O’Neil said.
A sign sits in front of the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building Sept. 1, 2022 at SIU in Carbondale, Ill. Saba Saboor Rooh Mofrad | @ssaboor_ Couches and bookcase sit in the study area Sept. 1, 2022 at the Law Library at SIU in Carbondale, Ill. | Saba Saboor Rooh Mofrad| @ssaboor_
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SIU
O’Neil said, “We do hundreds and hundreds of them every semester. Once you have done a few, it’s fairly easy to complete once you understand the client’s specific needs.”O’Neil is passionate about elder law and has even forced spousal impoverishment rules to change through her efforts. She recalled a time when she represented a person who had been institutionalized in a mental health facility, and the spouse at home couldn’t afford to pay for the care. In the past, the rules would force the community spouse to use all of their assets and income to pay for the institutionalized spouse’s stay. But in this instance, O’Neil didn’t back“Theydown.were going to impoverish the spouse,” she said. “So I challenged it and they changed the rules. They changed the whole policy, which now makes a difference in hundreds of people’s lives in the state.” O’Neil said she hopes the law school will continue hosting the elder law clinic. “We’ve been a very integral part of society for so many years, and the community is very dependent on us,” she said.
It is a weighty workload, and O’Neil relies heavily on the help of law students to assist her. Today, there are eight students working under her direction. Some are paid, and others earn experiential learning credit to satisfy their degree requirements before graduation.Shelly Page, Director of Experiential Learning, said, “One of the things SIU Law prides itself on and has been quite successful at achieving is graduating practice-ready law students. Our experiential learning program seeks to capitalize on that and continue this grand tradition.” Karson Pruemer, a third-year law student, discussed some benefits of working in the elder law clinic. “Getting one-on-one contact with the community and feeling at home here in Carbondale,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to help people in need that wouldn’t be able to afford legal services otherwise.”
“It’s an opportunity to help people in need that wouldn’t be able to afford legal services otherwise” Karson Pruemer third-year law student
Some of the most requested services clients need are wills and powers of attorney documents.
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SIU YSDA hosts Labor Day picnic
Page 8 Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Cecilia Solis and her bearded dragon, Dez, which has become their official mascot of their unionizing movement, attends the various Sip-Ins and other events that they have held to raise awareness for their unionizing movement that was celebrated on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Reaman | treaman@dailyegyptian.com
The Young Democratic Socialists of America hosted a picnic to celebrate the recent unionization of the Carbondale Starbucks location on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Community members and SIU students alike came together to show their support for the newly hosted by the YDSA RSO from SIU on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor
Page 9Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Members of the community join YDSA and Starbucks workers to celebrate the recent unionization of the Carbondale Starbucks Sept. 5, 2022 in Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Reaman treaman@dailyegyptian.com
picnic for Starbucks workers treaman@dailyegyptian.com
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Trevor Reaman | treaman@dailyegyptian.com
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Community members joined with local Starbucks workers to celebrate the recent unionization of the Carbondale Starbucks location on Sept. 5, 2022 at Town Square Park in Carbondale, Ill. Trevor Reaman | treaman@dailyegyptian.com Unionized Starbucks workers at a picnic
• Anming Hu, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee Knoxville • Harry Randolph Hughes, Associate Professor, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, SIU • Rong Jiang, CEO, Energai, Inc.
The federal government’s prosecution of SIU Professor Mingqing Xiao under the flawed “China Initiative” is unjust and reprehensible.
• Walter Metz, Professor, School of Media Arts, SIU • Susan Pearlman, Emeritus Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, SIU • Steven Pei, Founding Chair, United Chinese Americans • Jeffrey Punske, SIUC Faculty Association President • Jan Radtke, Retired Family Nurse Practitioner, Carbondale • Shahram Rahimi, Department Head and Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Mississippi State University
Letter to the editor: Bring back Professor Xiao
China Initiative To understand the government’s troubling persecution of Dr. Xiao, it is important to understand the background. The Justice Department’s “China Initiative” was spearheaded by the Trump Administration, beginning in November 2018. It was purported to counter Chinese national security threats and reinforce the former President’s overall national security strategy. However, it quickly became apparent that this initiative was designed to accumulate prosecutions against, primarily, Chinese-born persons in the United States, typically academics. Specifically, the Department initiated a string of prosecutions against academics and researchers of Chinese descent for allegedly making false statements or failing to disclose connections to Chinese institutions — rather than espionage— under the guise of protecting the U.S. from China’s efforts to steal knowledge and intellectual property. Eerily reminiscent of the incarceration of JapaneseAmericans in the 40’s and the McCarthy era witch hunts of the 50’s that destroyed so many American lives and careers, the “China Initiative” fuels antiAsian sentiments, hostility, and xenophobia.
FBI Pre-Miranda Interview of Professor Xiao Since SIU was not able to fund Dr. Xiao’s trips to China after the initial 2015 visit, Shenzhen University agreed to reimburse his travel expenses by requiring him to open a bank account in Shenzhen, into which they would provide travel expense reimbursement. Due to the Covid-19 epidemic and the trade war with China, however, Dr. Xiao was limited to traveling to Shenzhen just twice after his initial 2015 visit. In December 2020, the FBI arrived unannounced at the home of Professor Xiao, falsely implied that he had traveled to Wuhan (amidst worldwide fears of a pandemic that had its origins there), and proceeded to interview him for two hours and twenty minutes, without reading him his Miranda rights or indicating that 10 armed agents were waiting outside to execute a searchWelcomingwarrant. the agents into his home, while all three of his daughters were engaged in online studies for high school, college and medical school, Dr. Xiao willingly explained to them his work with Shenzhen University, which included advising colleagues on their tenure and promotion dossiers, development of a joint Ph.D program in Mathematics with SIU, and an exchange of faculty and students between the two institutions. Notably, Dr. Xiao’s research is in the area of Fundamental Mathematics, the results of which have and will be available to the public. His research does not involve sensitive intellectual property.
Stanford Letter, Faculty Support and Superceding Indictment
As a result, an honest, caring, upstanding and devoted member of our community has had his life turned upside down and lost his life savings. We encourage members of the community to protest this injustice, and we encourage SIU to return Professor Xiao to his full-time teaching and research status.
Page 10 | News Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Signed, • Edward Benyas, Professor, School of Music, SIU Michael Barta, Professor, School of Music, SIU • Kara Benyas, Professional Pianist, Teacher and SIU Alum • Dorothy Beyler, Community member • Lingguo Bu, Professor, School of Education, SIU • William Cernota, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and SIU Adjunct Music Faculty • Liping Deng, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, SIU • Andrew Earnest, Emeritus Professor and Former Chair, Department of Mathematics, SIU • Janet Earnest, Community member • Rong Fan, Senior Manager, Bristol Mayers Squibb
In the course of his voluntary and surreptitiously recorded interview with the FBI, Professor Xiao explained no less than 15 times that he considered the money in a Chinese bank account—that Shenzhen required him to open in order to reimburse him for expenses to travel there during the summers, teach, and establish a collaborative relationship between SIU and Shenzhen University, since SIU could not provide the funds to do that—was not his money. He made these statements despite the FBI agents tempting and prodding him to say that he could have used the money in that account to buy himself, for example, a bunch of Rolex watches or to pay his children’s college tuition, which he categorically and consistently denied.
Professor Xiao, Shenzhen University and SIU While at SIUC, Dr. Xiao has consistently worked to recruit students to the university, which is especially important in light of SIU’s significant enrollment decline over the past decade. In 2015, Professor Xiao initiated a relationship with Shenzhen University, located in Xiao’s native. Guangdong province in southern China. In addition to traveling there to present lectures twice during his summer vacations, he established a joint Ph.D program between Shenzhen and SIU. Dr. Xiao’s collaborative efforts followed a pattern encouraged by SIU administrators such as John Koropchak, Rita Cheng, Sam Goldman and John Dunn, all of whom traveled to China in attempts to attract students to attend SIU. As a result of the relationship that Dr. Xiao established, the Director of SIU’s Center for International Education traveled to Shenzhen University, and ultimately developed a Memorandum of Understanding to engage in joint research and educational activities signed by then SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemagno and the Shenzhen University President. Dr. Xiao’s efforts bore fruit in the Fall of 2018, when a group of undergraduate students from Shenzhen University paid full tuition to attend SIUC as Mathematics majors.
• Dennis Leitner, Emeritus Associate Professor, College of Education • Ruopo Li, Associate Professor, Geography, SIU • Jun Liu, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, SIU Edwardsville
• Dashun Xu, Professor, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, SIU • Ming Yang, Assistant Professor, Mathematics Department, University of Evansville Xiao continued from 1 T his le TT er To T he edi Tor was shor T ened for prin T publicaT ion . T o see T he full version , scan T he Q r code :
• Tim Fink, Emeritus Professor, School of Music, SIU • Anne Fletcher, Emeritus Professor of Theatre, SIU • Neal Foland, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, SIU • Keqin Gu, Chair, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, SIUE • Patricia Guyon, Widow of Former SIU Chancellor • Dong Han, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Advertising, SIU • David Holtzmann, Endodontist, Denver, Colorado • Krista Holtzmann, Attorney, Douglas County, Colorado
Professor Xiao, who used TurboTax to prepare his own taxes, never realized that he was required to check a box, somewhat buried within the TurboTax instructions, indicating that he had a foreign bank account or that he needed to file an FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report). Notably, in an article published before he became IRS Commissioner, Charles Rettig noted that “almost 7.2 million Americans residing outside the United States did not even file a return, although arguably some six-plus million of them may have had some type of a U.S. filing and/or FBAR reporting obligation under current U.S. law.” Professor Xiao’s recorded interview with the FBI clearly indicates that he had no Willful Intent to violate the tax code.
In April 2021, the government indicted Professor Xiao on three counts alleging grant fraud in an NSF application he made on behalf of SIU. These were serious charges, reported widely in the local press. Notably, Professor Xiao has since been Completely Exonerated of all the charges made in this initial indictment, a fact that has Not been widely reported in the local media.
• Qilun Luo, Ph.D in Mathematics from SIU • Anneke Metz, Associate Professor, SIU School of Medicine
April 2021 Indictment
In September 2021, over 175 Stanford University professors wrote an open letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland noting fundamental flaws in the government’s “China Initiative.” Subsequently, over 2000 other faculty, scholars and administrators from universities in all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico, endorsed Stanford’s call to end the China Initiative. The SIU Faculty Senate later sent its own letter to Attorney General Garland, adopting the Stanford letter’s rationale, as well as a Resolution in support of Professor Xiao, calling on the university to end its investigation and restore him to full-time teaching duties. In October 2021, the SIU Faculty Association released a statement in support of Professor Xiao. Referring to the federal indictment, then Faculty Association President, Anne Fletcher, noted, “We find this behavior reprehensible and frightening in a country where the rule of law is supposed to mean something. We believe the federal charges against Professor Xiao should also be dismissed and further the university should discontinue the disciplinary investigation against Professor Xiao and restore him to his teaching and research duties.” Also in October 2021, on the eve of a trial that Professor Xiao was eager to begin in order to clear his name, the government filed a Superceding Indictment, adding four tax charges, all stemming from a failure to check the box indicating he had a foreign bank account and that he failed to file an FBAR. These counts do not allege, nor did the government ever suggest, that Professor Xiao evaded paying any taxes to the government.
The initial indictment made many false allegations—that Professor Xiao failed to disclose his relationship with Shenzhen University, and that he failed to disclose receiving a Chinese grant. In fact, Dr. Xiao properly disclosed his work in China to SIU and to the United States government— work which he engaged in to benefit SIU, that was followed up by a visit to Shenzhen University by SIU’s Director of the Center for International Education. Regarding the second allegation, Professor Xiao Never received a Chinese grant. As a result of this federal indictment, SIU placed Professor Xiao on paid administrative leave. Professor Xiao ultimately spent his life savings to hire a competent and experienced legal team to represent him in order to fight this unjust prosecution.
April 2022 Trial, Exoneration and Verdict Professor Xiao’s federal criminal case went to a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in late April, with Judge Staci Yandle presiding. One to two dozen of Dr. Xiao’s colleagues and community members made the 45-minute drive to Benton each day of the trial to show their support, all sporting bright blue buttons emblazened, “I Stand With Ming.” Meanwhile, the government expended massive resources to present their flawed case. At the conclusion of the government’s case and pursuant to a motion by Professor Xiao’s attorneys, Judge Yandle dismissed Counts 1 and 2, the most serious charges against Professor Xiao, with prejudice, indicating that the government failed to meet its burden of proof on these wire fraud counts that alleged Professor Xiao 1. Failed to disclose ties to a Chinese university on a federal grant application, and 2. Failed to disclose receipt of a Chinese grant on that application. Following the defense’s case, the jury acquitted Professor Xiao of Count 3, which alleged making a false statement on a federal grant application. Thus Professor Xiao was completely exonerated of all charges made in the government’s original indictment, all charges alleging grant fraud, and all charges that related to his work at SIU. Unfortunately the jury, which deliberated for less than 3 hours, found Professor Xiao guilty of failing to check a box on 3 years of tax returns and failing to file a timely FBAR. We think that these guilty verdicts were in error, and that the government failed to prove that Professor Xiao willfully intended to provide incorrect information on his tax returns. The jury never knew that Professor Xiao amended his returns before being indicted and clearly failed to recognize a wealth of evidence indicating that Professor Xiao did not willfully intend to defraud the government, a required element, by not checking a box that he was not even aware existed.
Jyotsna Kapur, Director, University Honors Program • Yurino Kawashima, Registered Nurse, BJC Christian Hospital
• Howard Saver, Retired Assisted Living Administrator • Bill Shanks, Retired Engineer, Marion • Gail Shanks, Retired Teacher, Marion • Michael Shimshak, Superintendent, IowaGrant School District, Wisconsin Michael Sullivan, Director of Graduate Studies, School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, SIU • Kitty Trescott, US-China Peoples Friendship Association, Carbondale Chapter President Xiuquan Wang, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Tougaloo College • Margaret Winters, Former Provost, Wayne State University; Former Interim Provost, SIU S.B. Woo, Founding President, 80-20 Initiative; Former Lieutenant Governor of Delaware • Mary Wright, Retired Professor, Department of Mathematics, SIU Jeremy Wu, Co-Founder, APA Justice
• Gary Kinsel, Professor and former Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, SIU • Chuck Korando, Contractor, Carbondale • Leslie Korando, Safety/Environmental Compliance Associate, SIU Yueh-Ting Lee, SIU Faculty Senate President
Vicki Blair
News | Page 11Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Phaoraoh II is one of nine salukis owned by Vicki Blair who act as ambassadors at events involving Southern Illinois University.
A Saluki dog looks towards the crowd on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, during the Southern Illinois Salukis’ matchup against the Evansville Purple Aces at SIU Arena. Brian Munoz | @BrianMMunoz
Seti, owned by VIcki Blair, is the official mascot of the Southern Illinois University Salukis. VIcki Blair
Ancient history meets modern tradition: Saluki ambassadors reign on campus
The ambassador dogs feel just as home on campus as their ancestors did in the deserts of Egypt, Blair said. They recently attended homecoming and love interacting with people at events, Blair said. “I will tell you that they think that they own the place,” she said.
Watch a saluki running and you will see a sleek, strong and sure canine bounding in strides up to 12 feet long. Salukis were bred for chasing and cornering prey. “They hunted ostrich. They hunted lions. They hunt gazelle,” said Vicki Blair, who owns eight salukis that act as ambassadors for Southern Illinois University. When they’re interacting with students, staff and faculty, the dogs are calm and well-behaved, with little evidence of the intensity they bring to the hunt. “That’s training,” Blair said. She said people who see her salukis on campus wonder if they’d make good pets. Her answer is yes, as long as the person has plenty of the time and patience needed for training.Ifthe dogs are not leashed and their interest is piqued by a squirrel or a ball or practically anything small that moves, their natural instincts kick in. “Once they set their sights on something, they keep running,” BlairAndsaid.they can run very fast, hitting speeds as high as 43 miles per hour. Their bodies are built for speed with a larger than usual heart, light bones and a slender ribcage. Their maneuverability is impressive, with a long tail that acts as a rudder giving them the ability to turn on a dime. Salukis were a favorite companion of ancient hunters, with records going back 5,000 years. Images of salukis are found on many Egyptian tombs and mummified remains of the dogs were buried with some Egyptian pharaohs.Blairhas named her salukis with that past in mind. Jasmine and Jafar recently visited with the Daily Egyptian’s multimedia editor for the video below. The others are: Pharaoh II, Ari, Isis, Cleo, Tari and Seti (the SIU mascot). Blair says salukis are intelligent and loyal and love laps to snuggle in, despite their size, which can be as much as 60 pounds.
Members of the SIU football team interact with a Saluki dog that made an appearance during FanFest on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021 at Saluki Stadium at SIU. Jared Treece | @bisalo
Staff reporter Janiyah Gaston can be reached at jgaston@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @DEJaniyah
Annie HAmmock AHAmmock@dAilyeqyptiAn com
Gen Z is something that has been hard to define for a lot of people, partially because most of them haven’t even been around long enough to do so. It’s been especially hard for filmmakers to represent the generation, as there are very few within it that are helming projects directly, facing it down, as well as it being elusive to millennials and beyond. Most attempts to relate or define Gen Z are often embarrassingly out of touch or downright corny in film and AlthoughTV. director Halina Reijn was born in 1975, it seems as though she has no trouble at all tackling the subject and almost seems to have a better grasp of it than most Gen Z kids themselves. “Bodies Bodies Bodies” is Reijn’s comedy/ horror/thriller released by A24 that takes a stab at the slasher/whodunnit subgenre, while also attempting to be a commentary and satire on Gen Z. It stars young and upcoming performers including Rachel Sennott, Maria Bakalova, and Pete Davidson. This is the second feature directed by Reijn following her 2019 film “Instinct”. The film caught a fair amount of criticism before, and even after, its release about the nature of satirizing a generation that envelops a large amount of people who aren’t even out of high school yet. The trailer elicited a lot of people calling out things previously mentioned when dealing with the subject, with some calling it too “on the nose” or “cringey”. Butthe proof is in the pudding, as “Bodies Bodies Bodies” proves itself to be a best-case scenario for something that could have been completely tone-deaf. It provides a commentary that is simultaneously hilarious and eye opening, highlighting the way in which the generation deals with trauma, friendships and conflict. The film follows our main characters, Bee and Sophie, a couple that are six weeks into their new relationship. We begin with them showing up to a party with Sophie’s childhood friends at a secluded mansion for a “hurricane party.”
Staff reporter Zaden Dennis can be reached at zdennis@dailyegyptian.com and you can find his other reviews at letterboxd.com/Zadenator. Bodies Bodies” is all killer and no filler dennis Devon Moon dmoon@dailyegyptian.com
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” has a fair share of homage to its roots, but is equally subversive, making an experience that I would recommend to any film goer this late summer season. While it may ruffle some feathers with its thesis alone, it makes the absolute best out of a risky play that could have ended disastrously.
Immediately upon arriving, unspoken previous tensions arise as Sophie shows up and introduces her new girlfriend.
Page 12 | Entertainment and Culture Wednesday, September 7, 2022
“Bodies Bodies Bodies” somehow threads the needle with two techniques critics often despise, shaky cam and harsh, bright lighting. But in its unique circumstances, they work in perfect harmony. Thescore from Disasterpeace is also a highlight, utilizing jerky electronic beats and synthesizers to add to the film’s aesthetics, as well as heightening the tension. I hope to see them tackle more horror-adjacent scores in the future, as they were also responsible for 2014’s “It Follows” score which was one of the decade’s best.
The film primarily focuses on our characters trying to figure out who is committing these murders and why. Very quickly the paranoia mounts and fingers get pointed in every direction, as everyone is seemingly suspect.
The film functions as an extremely satisfying and tense thriller, while simultaneously developing and contextualizing complicated interpersonal relationships between the characters in a distinctly “gen z” fashion. Characters use buzzwords galore, feeling “triggered”, being “gaslit”, and “trauma dumping” throughout the film’s tight 94-minute runtime. While at face value, it seems generic and surface level, it’s able to highlight the absurdity in the way internet discourse has bled into casual conversation, while also being hilariously biting.
The performances are what primarily carry this movie into greatness. Another aspect that could have made the script/dialogue feel out of touch is if the actors weren’t completely committed to the material. But there aren’t anything but great performances throughout. Even characters that get less screen time than others leave a lasting impression that makes you miss them once they go. Standouts being the expertly unhinged Rachel Sennott along with Maria Bakalova, who’s infinitely likable but always keeps you guessing.
In all, the full cast of the film is only eight actors, one of which is only in a single scene, so seven main characters. As the night progresses, things start to go wrong, and the bodies start piling up.
A24 has been largely spearheading what feels to be an indie horror/slasher renaissance with this year alone being host to deliciously original films like “X” and “Pearl”, as well as “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” creating an exciting period for any horror fan.
Column: “Bodies
The cinematography showcases what is one of the first horror-adjacent films in years that can fully utilize darkness in a way that feels new and fresh. Early on, the power goes out in the house, so everyone is using their cell phone flashlights for the rest of the film. This creates unique lighting scenarios, where the primary light source is harsh LEDs rather than a traditional lighting setup. This works excellently on a thematic level as well as having a unique look. The camerawork is tight and intense, working with handheld cameras that are often placed right next to characters’ faces. Combining this with the film being in complete darkness, except the cellphone lights, makes action heavy scenes just the right amount of anxiety inducing.
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Zaden
Staff reporter Aaron Elliott can be reached at dailyegyptian.comaelliott@ unsettling color gray— an ugly color with an uglier past
Entertainment and Culture | Page 13Wednesday, September 7, 2022 At some point in my childhood, the front living room at my father’s residence went from a gold damask wallpaper with an olive green wainscoting lining the walls, to a parisian gray matte paint and white trim. This transpired at some point in my early teens, and I obviously had no say in this travesty. I cannot blame my father for this monstrosity, as he is only a man, and I do remember HGTV being on in the background of many of my core memories. In 2014, during the height of a Pinterest inspired home renovation boom, a little television show took off and made celebrities of the duo that has been inspiring architectural and interior designers since: Chip and Joanna Gaines. On occasion, I have said some pretty choice words about the couple, but it never is about them as people, just their aesthetics for the home. The abundance of white-washed wood, Mason jars, and shiplap is something that I can look past, but the overuse of the color gray and her slightly ignorant choice of decor is almost unforgivable. A normal person would not wince in over-exaggeration at the sight of a smokey gray painted wall, but I am not a normal person. There is something about it that just makes me jump in my jimmies, and I think it is because of the grip that it has taken over society, but specifically the American South. Within the last decade, the natural tans and browns are no longer a plain neutral to paint your house, and gray has replaced them. The days of warm tones have passed, and the icy cool winter tones have been lingering around a while. It used to be that when you were selling a home and wanted all neutral walls to help it sell better, you painted the walls a taupe-like color. Now, the realtors will always recommend painting the entire house different hues of gray to help get it off the market. My mother moved into a house last year with my stepfather, and it is so cute. Built some time in the mid 1960s, it has plenty of character, except for the fact that the previous owners had zero taste for home design. Every single wall in that house has been doused down with a thick coating of white or gray paint. To the old inhibitors, they were keeping the house modern and up with the times, to me, they made the whole place feel like a prison. Ijust cannot settle myself while being surrounded by the color of graphite or smog. The most unsettling thing about it to me is the rest of the aesthetic that comes along with these blandly colored walls, and the connection that I have made to an embarrassing past. Everybody is entitled to their own aesthetic, and honestly Joanna Gaines is not a trashy person, and I sincerely believe that most of her own home goods that she sells on the shelves of Target are made of quality materials, for the most part. Everything she puts out has the feeling of an old item that has been made of modern materials. It is hard to find new products that pair well with old aesthetics, and she has created a fabulous line of decor that does, but there is always something a bit unsettling and even more uncomfortable about what she finds inspiration in. Based in Waco, Texas, Gaines has found great inspiration in the beauty of the South, but you cannot address the beauties of the region without addressing the very bad things that took place there for so many years. Known as “Modern Farmhouse” decor, you can’t help but connect this style to its greatest muse and probably the biggest stylized time in American history of the South, and that would be the Antebellum era. The word antebellum means a time before a particular war, specifically to the U.S., the American Civil War. It is used now to describe buildings and fashions designed during the period. This style would be most easily identified as plantation homes or the look of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Large grand pillared homes with fields of crops were once again a want for many Americans because of the Gaines family duo and their work on antique homes, and it is very obvious where a lot of her design ideas came from. That would be the Old South. A world that is not so far removed from ours now, displayed through the minds and mouths of those raised in it. Although the aesthetics may look nice, it is hard to separate them from a time of hate for so many minority groups. I always end up tugging at the neckline of my shirt and clear my throat in discomfort when I enter a home and notice a big bowl or basket filled with cotton stems. One cannot stare at cotton and think of its beauty and importance to everyday life without addressing the sorrows that came along with it.
aaron elliott aelliott@dailyegyptian com Sophie Whitten | @sophiewhitten_
In Joanna Gaines’ early work, cotton was a big part of her “fillers” (the things you use to fill unnecessary empty spaces), and people in the American South lost their minds for this look, and immediately copied it almost verbatim in their homes.
Being the history buff that I am, I can’t help but see all of the connections to the past in all aspects of my life. What is the point of having a flair for design if you are not educating yourself on where different styles and trends of today are derived from. It is very important to me, and I can’t help but connect things to each other even if it’s a bit uncouth. Itismore conspiracy theory than anything, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think that the southern ties to the color gray would be connected to the past in some way, but I do. The color of the uniforms worn by the confederate army were gray, chosen because it is hard to spot someone wearing gray at a distance. So, is it a coincidence that the color gray made such a splash when introduced to the masses alongside with the bustling rise of farmhouse chic? Gray is considered the absence of color, finding a midway between dark and light. It is an achromatic color, meaning that it is truly without color. Isn’t that what the south always wanted, a world without color? It is easy to white wash over the darkness of the past, and shiplap over the cracks in society, but there will always be subtle reminders in what we do and say of the wrongdoings of the past. We just need to leave them behind us.
Column: The
Senior runner Rachel Anderson said the team has been pleasantly surprised. “It’s been really positive. It seems like everyone is on the same page about winning and doing well in the conference,” sheAftersaid. the day-to-day struggle of not having an event coach present and not knowing what to expect from a new head coach, the Salukis are relying on their determination and perseverance. “Training has been going really well,” junior runner Dawson Smith said, “It was a tough transition not knowing what to expect, but it’s been great.” Looking ahead, Biekert has a record of helping teams produce a winning season. The Salukis took on their first meet of the season Friday, September 2 at the Redhawks Cross Country Invite. “We want to bring home the win for both teams. It should be a really good rustbuster and a fast 4k course,” Anderson said before-hand.Saturdaythe Salukis men’s cross country team finished 1st at the Redhawks Invite. Rachel Anderson placed 1st and Josie Brown finished 2nd. The season may seem short, having only six meets spread out from the beginning of September to the middle of November, but Anderson said the reasoning behind that is the increase of pressure placed upon the body. In high school, shorter races meant more“Comingmeets. out of high school you expect more meets, but once you understand the preparation and time you have to put in, plus the wear it puts on your body, you understand why there are fewer meets and it’s so spaced out,” Anderson said. In the introductory press conference, Joseph made it clear she has very high expectations for Biekert and the program moving forward. She believes Biekert has a responsibility to uphold SIU cross country’s legacy. “With a storied tradition of national excellence in the sport, I’m confident that with Coach Biekert’s experience and enthusiasm for success, the Salukis are primed to continue with that tradition,” Joseph said. Looking forward to improving off of last season, Smith said, “He felt like we’ve been ranked too low, so he really wants us to go out there and win conference.” It doesn’t stop there, Smith said. “After that, we hope to do well in regionals, and hopefully send a couple of guys all the way to nationals,” he said.
Joei younker | Jyounker@Dailyegyptian Com
Junior cross country runner Megan Krolak runs Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, before practice at the Lew Hartzog Track and Field Complex. Chrysanthou
Cole Daily | @CDaily
Athena
| @Chrysant1Athena
Assistant Sports Editor Cole Daily can be reached at cdaily@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @cdaily_de. Staff Reporter Joei Younker can be reached at jyounker@dailyegyptian.com. De
This past off-season, the Salukis hired Brian Biekert to be its new head cross country coach. He said he is fully prepared to take on the challenge here with the Dawgs.“Iam excited for the opportunity from [Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Rosalind] Joseph and the staff to help contribute and build upon the storied history of the program,” Biekert said. He has coached at Syracuse, Iowa State, and Brown before landing at Tulsa, where he worked as an assistant coach. The Golden Hurricanes won their 8th American Athletic Conference Championship last season behind Biekert’s assistance. Coming into a season with a new coach, the Salukis were not sure what to expect.
SIU Cross Country team looks forward to season behind new head coach
Page 14 | Sports Wednesday, September 7, 2022
BranDyn WilCoxen @BranDynWilCoxen
Sports | Page 15Wednesday, September 7, 2022 Saluki football will take the field on Sept. 10 for the home opener against the Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) Redhawks at Saluki Stadium. When it does, it will add another chapter to the long, storied rivalry that includes a ship’s wheel, a baseball stadium, and some of the greatest performances in SalukiSaturdayhistory.will mark the 90th game of the “War For The Wheel.” Since 1909, 48 Saluki Hall of Famers have lined up against the Redhawks, and four Hall of Fame coaches have roamed the sidelines opposite SEMO. It’s perhaps safe to say those numbers will continue to grow in the coming years and decades, as the current Salukis look to make an impact this season and beyond. Head coach Nick Hill seems to be setting himself up to join the Hall once his career is finished. Hill entered the season tied with Hall of Famer Glen “Abe” Martin for fifth all-time in wins, on top of his accomplishments as quarterback for the Salukis during their mid-2000s playoff runs. With the seventh-year coach having recently signed an extension keeping him around until at least 2026, that ceremony will have to wait. Hill’s connection to the Redhawks goes beyond just their annual meeting. Current SEMO head coach Tom Matukewicz spent seven years as an assistant coach at Southern Illinois, overlapping with Hill’s playing days as a Saluki. Now the two rivals in the War for the Wheel. “I love that game,” Hill said. “I have more respect for Coach Tuke [Matukewicz] than anybody in the country. He’s a great man, he coached me, so it’s fun to be able to play for such a big game.” In 2018, the schools introduced “The Wheel,” the rivalry’s titular trophy to be kept and displayed by the year’s winning team. The Wheel has been in Carbondale since the Salukis claimed it for the first time in 2020. The trophy has given the historic rivalry a new appeal for a modern audience. “I can see the environment being pretty spectacular,” running back Javon Williams Jr. said. “Just from us being a winning team for the last couple years, seeing more of a capacity at the football field. I can see it being a big crowd, and just be out there and go win The Wheel.” The first recorded games in the rivalry came in 1909 and 1910, when SIU students played games as a football club regulated by the university. In 1913, Southern Illinois athletics was formed under William McAndrew, who served as the school’s Director of Athletics as well as the head football and basketball coach.Between 1921 and 1940, the teams played twice annually. Teams would make the trip across the Mississippi River by boat, which serves as the inspiration for the modern trophy, a ship’s wheel. An oft-repeated anecdote tells of a trip during which the Southern Illinois team’s boat sank, requiring players to swim to shore. The game was purportedly played as scheduled. Annual matchups continued until 1955. By then, SEMO had built a 33-18-8 series lead, dominating the rivalry to that point. Twenty-three of the last 28 games to that point had gone SEMO’s way. After a near three-decade hiatus, the rivalry returned from 1983-85, again from 1991-92 and 19942005, then every year since 2009. The Salukis have turned the tide in the series, nearly evening the overall record between the two teams, which currently stands at 42-39-8 in favor of SEMO. With a few exceptions in the late 1990s and 2009, the modern rivalry has found a consistent place at the beginning of the Saluki football calendar. In 2022, it will be the second game the Salukis play, and the first of the year at Saluki Stadium. Due in part to the warm weather early in the year, and the excitement of the rivalry, SIU-SEMO is typically one of the highest-attended home games of the year. “We took a year off with the COVID and everything like that. It kinda seemed like the fans dropped off,” linebacker Ma’kel Calhoun said. “But as you look around, you can see the fans never left at all. I’m just excited to see everybody come out here and show love, show their support.”Thisyear’s game will have a tall task to top the 2021 edition, which saw quarterback Nic Baker set the school record for passing yards in a game, with 460. Included in that was a 99-yard touchdown pass to Avante Cox that will forever be a school record for the longest play. “Ever since I’ve been here, it’s been by far the most live and exciting game to play,” Cox said. “I definitely love playing SEMO, they’re a great team.”Baker’s 460-yard game joined Mark Iannotti’s six touchdown performance in 2014 as school record-breaking games against the Redhawks. The rivalry is no stranger to memorable matchups, and certainly not in recent years. In September 2013, the teams played the first ever college football game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
“Ever since I’ve been here, it’s been by far the most live and exciting game to play, -Avante Cox SIU Wide Receiver
SIU vs. SEMO: 50 miles, 90 games and one coveted wheel
James Ceasar (2) holds the wheel with his teammates after defeating Southeast Missouri State University 47-21 Sept. 2, 2021 at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Chris Bishop | @quippedmediallc
The Salukis won the historic contest 36-19 in front of a crowd of more thanSeven14,000.years later, in October 2020, the teams met at Saluki Stadium before a crowd of just 400. Southern Illinois hit a game-winning field goal to win 20-17 in what would be the team’s only game in the fall of that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, SEMO was ranked No. 25 in FCS, and the win served as the catalyst for the Salukis’ ascension into contention in the FCS.In August 1991, Southern Illinois orchestrated what was then the largest comeback in team history, overcoming a 27-7 second-quarter deficit to defeat SEMO. In 2000, the Redhawks returned the favor with a 31-point comeback, which is still today the largest lead given up by OctoberSIU. 1985’s edition of the game saw Sebron Spivey return two punts for touchdowns, the only time in school history that has happened. Also during that game, John Field and Tim Spencer each had a pick-six, a feat only accomplished five times in Saluki history. All of these stellar performances suggest one of two things: either the Salukis and Redhawks bring the best out of each other every time they face off, or the two teams have played enough games against each other to create a seemingly endless amount of accomplishments buried within their history. With Carbondale and Cape Girardeau only a 50-mile drive apart, it’s only natural the two mid-majors became rivals. Geography may have been the catalyst for the “War For The Wheel,” but in the modern era, the feud is driven more by its history than anything. It’s a history that the Salukis and Redhawks continue to write every year, come pandemic or highAswater.long as there are Salukis and Redhawks, there will always be a war. It’s a chance for the teams and their fan bases to become part of something bigger than themselves, and something that will be remembered in the years and decades to come. The Salukis enter Saturday’s matchup coming off of one of the worst losses in the Nick Hill era against Incarnate Word. SEMO faced a similar beatdown against Iowa State in week 1. Saturday will not only be a chance for both teams to get one over on their rivals, but also to right the ship and avoid an 0-2 start to their season. WIth that, the stakes are set. At the scheduled 6 p.m. kickoff, SIU and SEMO will begin another entry into the long, storied history between the two schools. For pride, for momentum and for a ship’s wheel, these teams will do battle once again, and join the thousands of others before them to add their names to an ever-expanding legacy of The War For The Wheel. Staff reporter Brandyn Wilcoxen can be reached at bwilcoxen@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter at @BrandynWilcoxen.
Sophie Whitten Sophie swhitten@dailyegyptian.comWhitten Study Break | Page 16Wednesday, September 7, 2022
