Today: High: 44, Low: 31 Thursday: High: 43, Low: 26 Friday: High: 39, Low: 24
Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY
PHOTOCOLUMN, PAGE 5: Gus Bode says visit a VA hospital.
DECEMBER 2, 2009
VOLUME 95, NO. 66
12 PAGES
!"#"$%&'()**)'%('+,%()-(.+#%/('%/0"1%' Mayor: No private offers on tap Nick Johnson DAILY EGYPTIAN NICKJ39@SIU.EDU
EVAN DAVIS | D AILY E GYPTIAN Louis Butcher, a Carbondale resident and city employee, listens as residents voice their concerns to Mayor Brad Cole and other City Council members Tuesday. Residents spoke out against Cole’s proposals to privatize Carbondale’s sewer and water management and to increase the sales tax.
Community members lined up at Tuesday’s City Council meeting to voice their disapproval of Mayor Brad Cole’s suggestion that Carbondale sell and privatize its water services. The suggestion was one of many brought to the council by Cole at the end of the Nov. 17 meeting, where it discussed possible revenue options for the city’s projected budget deficit of more than $5 million in fiscal years 2011 and 2012. At the meeting on Nov. 17, Cole estimated that the sale of city-run water services would grant the city $42 million, which could be used to pay off the inflated police and fire pension funds and repay city debts. Resident Chuck Peprock told the council he researched the effects of water privatization in both Atlanta and Urbana. When Atlanta sold its water to United Water, a privately owned company, residents suffered services outages and unclean water that took days to fix, Peprock said. Peprock quoted an Atlanta City Council member who said, “We have done all sorts of things poorly that have aggravated the citizens … but I never run into anything that has aggravated my constituents more than the inability to provide clean tap water.” City leaders in Atlanta tried in the late 1990s to turn over the city’s water services to a private company, but were forced to back out in 2003, just four years into a 20year deal, according to an article on water privatization published two weeks ago in the Chicago Tribune. Atlanta regained public control in response to cost overruns, service problems and breakdowns, the article stated. The same Tribune article also said homeowners in Illinois’ DuPage and Will counties will pay 30 percent more for their water next year if a private operator wins state approval for a rate hike. Resident Berardino Baratta said he would like to see a public trust that would protect the Carbondale’s water services from being privatized in the future. Baratta said the privatization of water services is simply a short-term solution.
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ne of the things that cities have been doing is looking into alternative energy with their new constructions and retro-fitting their existing constructions … the budget issue today won’t go away tomorrow, even if we address it. — Berardino Baratta Carbondale citizen
“One of the things that cities have been doing is looking into alternative energy with their new constructions and retro-fitting their existing constructions … the budget issue today won’t go away tomorrow, even if we address it,” Baratta said. Baratta said he would support an increase in both a property tax and sales tax. Cole said there has been neither solicitation for a bid for the city’s water services nor any specific interest by a private company and asset sale is simply one of many budget options the council must weigh. Councilman Chris Wissmann addressed citizens directly, saying it’s not enough for them to oppose privatization. “We need some real specifics,” he said. “You need to decide on a tax package you can live with and tell (the council) what it is.” The council will decide whether or not to raise sales taxes and levy a property tax at its next meeting on Dec. 15. Councilwoman Mary Pohlmann proposed several tax-based solutions for the projected deficit, one of which was a partially abated property tax coupled with a quarter of a percent sales tax increase. Pohlmann said the best solution would be an increase in only the sales tax because implementing two taxes is hard to justify. Councilman Joel Fritzler said privatization of water services hasn’t been remotely successful in other communities and that he favors a sales tax increase to put less financial obligation on the smaller portion of residents and more on the visitors and commuters who use the city’s services. Please see COUNCIL | 2
!""#$#%&'()*+,("*-()#.),-(#/0,-/%0#*/%&(,/-*&&1,/0( Recent overseas trips seek to increase numbers for fall 2010 Madeleine Leroux DAILY EGYPTIAN MLEROUX@SIU.EDU
Chancellor Sam Goldman is confident the university will see an increase in international enrollment in fall 2010 thanks to recent trips overseas. Goldman and several other university officials visited China, Taiwan and India last month in hopes of setting up new arrangements with universities in each country. “We saw nine different universities in about 12 or 13 days, and all of them were very receptive,” Goldman said.
Goldman said he expects about 150 to 200 students from China, Taiwan and India to enroll in fall. University officials here will select who is accepted, Goldman said, and those students will receive an alternate tuition rate, paying the same price as in-state students. Goldman said the university has 18 students from the University of International Business and Economy in Beijing enrolled this fall, and he said he hopes to have 10 more students from the university in Beijing enrolled in spring 2010. “I am very, very optimistic about international student enrollment,” Goldman said. “At one time, we were among the top-10 in the
country (for international enrollment). We’re not there anymore and so we need to go back to where we were.” Goldman said Zhengzhou University, located in the Henan province of China, has promised to provide $80,000 to $100,000 annually to establish a Confucius Institute on campus. The Chinese university would also provide two faculty members to teach Chinese language and culture, Goldman said. He said the Institute would most likely be housed in the foreign language department of the College of Liberal Arts and will be put together by David Wilson, associate dean and director of the Graduate School.
“Zhengzhou University is very interested and wants to be a partner in this,” Wilson said in a press release. “We will put our team in contact with the people at Zhenzhou to put together the application. We hope to have that done by the end of February.” According to the Associated Press, there are nearly 60 Confucius Institutes or Centers throughout the United States, mostly at state universities, and 396 globally in 87 countries. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese government plans to establish 500 worldwide by 2010. Goldman said the university is also going to establish an SIUC center at I-Shou University in Taiwan to assist in international recruitment. There are currently
two SIUC centers at the university in Beijing and at Zhengzhou University. Goldman said that particular university also has a high school attached, providing an opportunity to directly recruit international students for undergraduate programs. “The high school offers students in ninth through 12th grade a track for studying abroad,” Wilson said. Goldman said he believes the increase in international enrollment will happen gradually and eventually lead to huge numbers of international students. The university needs to focus on recruitment in that area to boost international enrollment, he said, but continue to recruit in all other areas. “All in all, China was a very successful experience,” Goldman said.