Police reports show a number of assaults have been reported on campus and in Carbondale over the past 10 days. Carbondale Police Police arrested a Tennessee man after they received a report of shots fired near the 800 block of East Grand Avenue around 3 a.m. Saturday, when officers found a victim with a gunshot wound. The victim was transported to a St. Louis hospital for non-life threatening
injuries, and officers identified Michael L. Brown, of Dyersburg, Tenn., as a suspect. Brown was arrested on charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and taken to the Jackson County Jail. The police crime map shows another incident labeled as an “assault with deadly weapon” occurred on East Grand Avenue a few days later. An aggravated battery was also reported Tuesday in the 700 block of East Grand, according to the map. DPS Director Todd Sigler said
in an email Thursday night that he could not comment at the time but would discuss the matter with the Daily Egyptian today. Details on the victims’ conditions were not available. SIU Department of Public Safety Police received a report of a battery that involved a student around 2 a.m. Sunday on South Washington Street at Mill Street. Reports state a 22-year-old student told police he and a friend were walking to the friend’s apartment when he passed a group of female subjects. The
females were accompanied by some male subjects, reports state, and they became offended by comments the victim made. The report states the victim “was then stuck by one of the subjects.” The victim did not require medical treatment. Police received a report of criminal sexual assault Oct. 17. An 18-year-old SIUC student reported she was the victim of a sexual assault at University Hall Oct. 16.
Students said at a Black Affairs Council meeting Thursday that they feel unwelcome at the university. They said they didn’t fit into the university image that Chancellor Rita Cheng is attempting to create. The discussion was spurred by complaints about what they considered as a negative portrayal of blacks in the Daily Egyptian. “We are talking about the portrayal of African-American students in general in the media,
and we are talking about the image of SIU and how, in my personal opinion, we do not fit that image,” said Kwalee Kemp, a senior from Lynwood studying workforce education and development. Kemp is the coordinator of the Black Affairs Council, an umbrella organization that serves the black community, and invited Daily Egyptian members to the meeting for an open discussion on an article Thursday titled, “Fraternity on suspension for low member GPAs.” The article discusses the university’s suspension of the Kappa
Alpha Psi fraternity until spring 2015. Andy Morgan, director of Greek Life, said the fraternity was not meeting university Greek standards because of low grade point averages, and the group would not be able to recruit new members. New fraternity members must maintain at least a 2.7 grade point average, but the average new member GPA dropped to 1.97, according to the article. It also quoted Morgan to say the fraternity completed 4.9 community service hours, which is incorrect. The article should have
quoted Morgan to say each member completed 4.9 hours. Multiple people asked what the relevance was of running the article, as it only affected a small group of people. Tara Kulash, the Daily Egyptian’s editor-in-chief, said Greek organizations are expected to uphold higher standards than the rest of students. She said the article was balanced in citing the university’s reason for suspending the organization and the fraternity’s opinion of why they were suspended.
A highly ranked Illinois government official is working to find ways to make college more affordable for Illinois students. Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon visited the university Oct. 15 to speak with students and faculty members as part of her College Affordability Summit tour across the state. Simon, who is Gov. Pat Quinn’s head of education reform, has visited seven of Illinois’ 12 public universities so far, and she will visit the remaining five within the next few weeks. Simon is collecting ideas partly because of the governor’s plan to have 60 percent of its working-age population hold college credentials by 2025. She said only 41 percent of workers in the state have college credentials to date. “We know one of the biggest barriers to (having more workers certified) is affordability,” Simon said in an Oct. 25. interview. “Obviously, the state plays a big role in that. We don’t anticipate having more money for higher education, so I’m focused on doing the best with the limited resources we have.” Simon said her summits are also a way to build public support for public higher education. “It is a really important investment for our state in terms of economic development,” she said. “We need to be competitive in the world, and higher education is the way to get us there.” Simon, a former law professor at the university, said she enjoyed her visit to Carbondale because she was able to look at the campus with a different light now that she is the lieutenant governor. Simon visited with students and helped prepare sandwiches with federal work study employees in Trueblood Dining Hall. She said she met with a variety of students on campus to get an idea of how much it takes students to make college affordable. “People often think college students today aren’t very hard working,” Simon said. “Let me tell you this: Students in Carbondale are very hard working. That work ethic is still there.” Kathryn Phillips, the chief of Simon’s staff, said meeting with students is the best way for Simon to understand college students’ problems today. Phillips said the state is trying to ensure students are graduating on time and with less debt. “One of the items on students’ minds is the cost of college,” she said. “Costs have been going up and we think if we work together with state leaders, college leaders and federal leaders, we can make college more affordable.”
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TIFFANY BLANCHETTE | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Emily Hanson, left, urban forestry volunteer coordinator at SIU, and Jason Shirar, a senior from Peoria studying urban forestry management, examine roots Wednesday during a tree-planting workshop while student attendees observe. Shirar said the workshop, which was held in light of Campus Sustainability Day, was intended to put the university on the path to be a Tree Campus USA, which is an Arbor Day Foundation program that recognizes campuses that effectively manage trees and engage students. He said bringing SIU up to that level is important, since Carbondale is already a Tree City USA. “To meet the criteria to apply, we need to have one more community event,” Shirar said. “Overall, the point is to raise awareness about the trees on campus and encourage the university to put more thought into what goes on.”
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