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Home Rentals Eliminated bus stops hinder transportation denied special permit to build WHITNEY WAY Daily Egyptian
TARA KULASH Daily Egyptian The Carbondale City Council denied a special-use permit for Home Rentals to build a four-unit apartment complex on West Monroe Street. Council member Jane Adams said the amount of public opposition influenced her to vote against the permit. “The way I see it, special-use permits are established to allow people in the neighborhood to say they don’t want them,� she said. Adams said with a special-use permit, citizens can voice their opinion and ask council members to vote against it. The property requested by Home Rentals owner Lindsey Fisher is owned by the First Christian Church and adjoins the Carbondale Public Library. The library wanted to buy the property to use for either green space or more parking space, so it strongly opposed the permit. Owners of homes in the area also opposed the idea because they felt Home Rentals has not had adequate maintenance of its homes in the past. Adams said one home across the street from the library had a lot of renovations, and the resident owners didn’t want the apartment complex across the street. She said one of the Home Rentals’ properties on the street has a blue tarp over it and the home looks disheveled. “Their standards on the other three buildings on the street are not of the quality of maintenance and upkeep that we target,� she said. “They don’t have the kind of track record that would give me confidence (in them).� The Arbor District Board unanimously denied the permit. Kathy Benedict, vice president of the board, said the group felt it would be best for the library to purchase the property. “We just felt (the neighborhood) still has a character of single-family homes, and the complex just did not fit into the neighborhood,� Benedict said. Planning Commission chair Rhett Barke said while the board originally denied Home Rentals’ request to rezone the property, it granted the local business a special-use permit because it would allow the city to put certain standards on the structure. Please see PERMIT | 3
BROOKE GRACE | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Home Rentals, a property management company in Carbondale, was denied a special-use permit to build an apartment complex on the 300 block of West Monroe Street. Carbondale Public Library opposed the request citing that the business has not repaired storm damage to other properties. Carbondale City Council voted 4-3 August 16 to deny Home Rentals’ request.
Students could be forced to find alternative transportation after 21 Saluki Express bus stops were officially eliminated Monday. “Student residents are scrambling to figure out how they’re going to get to classes,� Tammy Halliday said. Halliday, property manager of University Heights Rentals who owns a mobile home rental property on Warren Road, said 92 of her 95 tenants are SIU students. The board of trustees approved the elimination of the 21 stops with the lowest reported ridership, less than 200 student riders, at the end of the school year, said Lori Stettler, director of the Student Center. The stops were taken off bus routes 1, 10 and 52. Stettler said administration adjusted the routes based on where students live and ride the most. The university records student ridership when students swipe student ID cards for bus fare. Halliday said one of the stops eliminated was located next to her property on Warren Road. She said she and five other property managers located
STEVE MATZKER | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Sara Nafari, left, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, and Cherita Chavers, a sophomore studying fashion design and merchandising, look over a Saluki Express route map Monday in front of the Student Center. Three
routes have been condensed into the Logan route, which eliminated 21 stops. Nafari, who was familiar with the old routes, said she is now confused. “I was here for the summer and now I’m like ‘what the hell happened.’�
on Warren Road, which is 3.1 miles from campus, rent to an estimated 380 students. Katie Rick, a senior from Waterloo studying electrical engineering, lives on Warren Road and said she used the bus
stop every day in rain or snow despite the fact that the stop is inconveniently located in a ditch. Please see BUS | 3
New state bill provides incentive for increased graduation, retention rates SARAH SCHNEIDER Daily Egyptian An increase in retention and graduation rates could mean additional funding for the university. Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill Aug. 12 to give universities funding based on enrollment, retention and graduation rates. Chancellor Rita Cheng and Allan Karnes, a professor in accounting, are both on the performance funding steering committee that determines the metrics of the bill that will be effective the first day of this year. The bill is part of Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s plan to increase the state’s college completion rate to 60 percent by 2025. According to the 2008 census, nearly 41 percent of Illinois’ workingage adults (25-64 years old) hold at least a two-year college degree. According to the Lumina Foundation, a 5.4 percent yearly increase is needed if the state wants to reach this goal “I think it is a stretch goal but it is important that we align our work to the Illinois public agenda and that along the way to getting a college degree, other goals are kept in mind,� Cheng said. She said benchmarks that universities across the state are trying to implement to encourage students to continue their education are to stay in school, cut down the time it takes to
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e want programs to help kids on the bottom end succeed. That could mean more tutoring or more intrusive advising.
get a degree, and to get a certificate or an associate’s degree along the way to a bachelor’s degree. According to the Office of Institutional Research the most updated data for the first to second year retention rate for freshmen in 2009 was 68.7 percent. Karnes said this number refers to students who do not return to SIUC but may be enrolled in another college. However, he said students who transfer to SIUC and graduate are not counted in the graduation rate. “We graduate a lot of people,� he said. “In general, we have more people transfer in than transfer out.� Some of the ways SIUC plans to ensure the university receives the additional funding is through the University College, strengthening beginning math and English skills and reducing the gap of those who come in with basic skills and those who don’t. “If we do our work here, we develop the kind of plans and programs that keep our kids here, that help us to go out
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— Rhett Barke Planning Commission chair
and get students with a good profile to get here and help them survive and get them all the way through graduation,� SIU President Glenn Poshard said. “Then we should be getting additional money over and above what we currently get from our enrollment.� According to the Lumnia Foundation, 64 percent of Illinois jobs will require postsecondary education by 2018 and Illinois will need to fill about 2 million vacancies by then. Of those vacancies, 1.3 million will require postsecondary education. Poshard has been working with a P-20 council — preschool through graduate school — to ensure retention rates in the future. The council is a statewide commission that works to ensure students who begin in kindergarten have a program all the way through graduate school and do not think of school as separate stems but more of one system. Please see PERFORMANCE | 3