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Four unions to strike Nov. 3 if still without contracts SARAH SCHNEIDER Daily Egyptian Graduate Assistants will strike Nov. 3 if a contract settlement is not reached by then. The Graduate Assistants United, which represents teaching graduate students as well as research and administrative assistants, is the last of the four Illinois
Education Association unions in contract negotiations to set a strike date. The unions have been bargaining since June 2010. The Departmental Representative Council for the Faculty Association voted Thursday 29-1 to strike, and both the Executive Council of the Association of Civil Service Employees and the House of Delegates for the Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Association voted unanimously Friday. The union members said the two main issues they continue to bargain are to receive better health care and either receive a stipend increase or a fee freeze. From Sept. 27 to Oct. 5, the unions voted to give their governing bodies the authorization to strike. Please see GAU | 2
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Provost to choose dean for student first-year program
Karen Jones, left, acting associate dean for the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Mark Amos, associate professor and director of Saluki First Year, are the two candidates nominated for the dean of University College. TARA KULASH Daily Egyptian
ISAAC SMITH | DAILY EGYPTIAN
‘LOST CROSS’ LASTS 25 YEARS Mike Vaughan opens a
The newly created position on campus, associate provost and dean of University College, has two candidates in the running. The person in the position will oversee the planning, assessment, budget and general management of all programs within University College. The candidates are Mark Amos, associate professor in English and director of Saluki First Year, and Karen Jones, acting associate dean for the College of Agricultural Sciences. Jones chose not to comment on being a finalist for the position. The idea for the University College began in 1999 when SIUC conducted a self-study for its re-accreditation process, Amos said. He said the program helps new students adjust to college life, both academically and socially. Amos said campus committees attempted to start the program in 2004 and again in 2007, but it was not until 2008 the Saluki First Year — a program to help first-year students adjust to student life — was established. The university partnered with Foundations of Excellence, a private non-profit program, to start the first-year experience. Provost John Nicklow said he will choose the candidate based on feedback from the campus community and his opinion of the candidates’ abilities. Nicklow said the chosen candidate will be named in the upcoming weeks. Amos said he wants the position because he has performed the job for the past three and a half years, and he has been a part of the Saluki First Year project from the beginning. “I’ve been in with both feet pretty much since it started,� Amos said. “I still teach, but the rest of my time is spent trying to figure out how to do this better.� He said a major university issue is the decrease in retention rates, so he hopes the program will help keep students at SIUC. Amos said 47 percent of SIUC students are first-generation, and first-generation students are far less likely to succeed in college. “They don’t have the built-in system,� Amos said. “If your parents went to college, your score goes up because they can explain the system to you. But if you’re a first-generation student, you’re less likely to ask for outside help because you’re afraid your question might be ‘stupid.’� Amos said low socioeconomic status and traditionally underrepresented groups of students also have low retention rates, so the program aims to help them as well. He also said students need to be more well-rounded. If a student gets good grades but has no success with campus life, they might drop out, Amos said. However, a student who is popular on campus but does poorly in class doesn’t help the university either, he said. Please see DEANS | 2
set with the band Diet Christ Saturday in the basement of ‘Lost Cross,’ a Carbondale house that hosts regular punk rock music shows. The band played in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Vaughan signing the lease to rent the house in 1986 in hopes of creating a place to welcome punk rock bands. James Ricks, a former
‘Lost Cross’ tenant and guitar player for Diet Christ, said he bought the house’s first sound system with $400 he earned while in the National Guard. Ricks said landlord Roger Staugh won the house in a poker game and has owned the property since the early 1980s. Today marks 25 years since the first out-of-town act, Brain Dead of Louisville, Ky., played in the house.
Campus Habitat tenants can stay put for now Landlord pays late utility bills days before shutdown ELI MILEUR Daily Egyptian Tenants of 820 W. Freeman St. won’t have to find new lodging after owner Global Housing paid about $7,000 in late utility bills last week. “It’s kind of surprising, but it’s a relief as well,� Mayor Joel Fritzler said. The water bill owed to the city was paid Wednesday, said Kevin Baity, director of development services. Unpaid electric bills from Ameren were also taken care of. The notice to terminate service was taken off the building, Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris said. The city and Ameren posted the building Oct. 17 for service termination because of unpaid water and electricity bills, respectively. The city posted a notice the same day for tenants to vacate the building in the event of the water or electricity being shut off. If the utility bills were not paid by
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hatever the ownership structure, Fritzler said he thinks the landlord is slowly getting the message that the city will not tolerate substandard living conditions. Monday, the city’s plan was to conduct a building inspection at noon to clear out any remaining tenants, Baity said. He said the loss of such utilities would make the building uninhabitable, and the fire safety systems would not be able to function. This latest development is another close call for tenants of the building, which had previously been posted as uninhabitable by the city in August. The landlord, Campus Habitat, was subsequently granted an extension to make repairs to bring the building to compliance with safety rules. The problems with the building, and Campus Habitat’s other properties in Carbondale, have caused more than 50 tenants to seek legal assistance with SIUC Students’ Legal Services to get out of their lease, said Legal Services Director Steven Rogers. Rogers said a tenants’ lease is void and they can seek to leave it anytime the city posts a building uninhabitable, as it has twice now with 820 W. Freeman St.
He said so far none of the cases he’s seen have gone to court and this time, at least, no one had to leave the building. “It’s been avoided once again, but for how long?� Rogers said. The landlord does not have the right to move tenants to another building in the event that their building is shut down, Rogers said. While tenants can accept that offer, they are not legally obligated to, he said. The Building Board of Appeals heard testimony in September from tenants of Campus Habitat’s buildings who said they’d been moved from their original room to dissimilar ones in other buildings. The latest developments also come in the wake of some confusion as to who is actually responsible for the building. Campus Habitat broke off all connection with the building in September and left it to owner Global Housing, said Rob Martin, Campus Habitat executive vice president of operations. Please see CAMPUS | 2