Daily Egyptian

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DAILY EGYPTIAN

@dailyegyptian @dailyegyptianphoto Daily Egyptian

Monty appointed interim mayor SETH RICHARDSON Daily Egyptian A replacement for resigning Carbondale Mayor Joel Fritzler has been named. In a special session of the Carbondale City Council Tuesday, Councilman Don Monty was approved in a 6-0 vote as the interim mayor. Mayor Fritzler did not vote. Fritzler announced his resignation Jan. 14, and officially leaves office Feb. 3. Monty will take office Feb. 4, at which point he will resign his council seat and the process of selecting a replacement councilmember will begin. He said he hopes to fill the vacant seat by March 4. Following the vote, he distributed a tentative framework of a schedule to replace the open seat. He said he hoped to put the schedule in place by the next meeting of the council. Monty said he would like for potential nominees to submit a résumé and letter of interest so the council could review all of the possible candidates. He said there were certain characteristics he wanted to look for in a potential member such as previous involvement in the community. “It’s just like what voters look at when they’re trying to elect someone,” he said. “I think it’s important that the person has skills that they have demonstrated in their work life or private life that would indicate they are willing to work with people and try to solve problems.” Monty said he wants a full council in place to discuss what he feels is the most important issue at hand: the city budget.

LEWIS MARIEN · DAILY EGYPTIAN

Please see MAYOR · 3

Councilman Don Monty talks with local media Tuesday following a special city council meeting at the Carbondale Civic Center. Monty was named acting mayor and will serve former mayor Joel Fritzler’s term, ending in April 2015.

Housing broadens LGBTQ living LUKE NOZICKA Daily Egyptian University housing is working to make dorms more comfortable for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students by approving a new gender-inclusive housing policy. The policy will begin in the fall and allow for a new living, learning community, Campus Pride, specifically for LGBTQ students. The policy makes the university become one of a handful of schools that have gender-neutral dorms. According to College Equality Index, 38 other universities have gender-neutral housing, including University of Michigan, Miami University and Oregon State University. Wendy Weinhold, coordinator of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*, Queer Resource Center, said the new gender inclusive policy allows students of the LGBTQ community to live among each other in an open environment. “(This) means students, who are LGBTQ identified or who are allies and are open to

living with students of the same sex who are transgender, have the opportunity to do so,” she said. Weinhold said to be accepted for this housing, students must submit a paragraph to her explaining why they want to be a part of this community. Application process for these dorms has already begun. “It’s not for boyfriends and girlfriends to live together,” she said. “Instead, it’s for people who are gender variant, who are gender non-conforming and who are maybe cisgender but trans friendly or transgender and want a transgender or cisgender roommate.” Merriam-Webster defines transgender as ‘people who have a sexual identity that is not clearly male or female.’ Weinhold said cisgender describes a person who identifies with his or her gender and sex assigned at birth. Senior associate director of housing Tina Horvath, said housing offers 19 different living learning communities on campus

Women’s center opens See Pg 3

Please see HOUSING · 4

USG, GPSC discuss fees department have been cut, accumulating a little more than $513,000 in savings he said. “The travel, airfare, gas, hotel and bus costs The Undergraduate Student Government for all of our 18 sports and 400 student athletes and Graduate and Professional Student increased about 20 percent in fiscal year 2013,” Council met in the new student services he said. “We project a pretty similar increase building Tuesday night to hold an open forum in 2014.” in which new student fees were presented. David Crain, assistant provost and chief Members of several university departments information officer, spoke in favor of the brought forward their ideas on information technology how increases in fees will benefit fee. He said the main goal he facility students. Among the mandatory was to become a leader in fees all students are required educational technology and maintenance to pay along with tuition, the the university is far from that fee was created following have asked for increases: in comparison to other highbecause the state Athletics, Information Technology, end universities. Facilities Maintenance, Mass Crain said a great deal of didn’t have enough Transit, Student Activity, the accomplishments the money to maintain university has been able Student Center, Student Health the facilities. Center, Student Insurance, and to make in the last two — Phil Gatton years, such as an increase Student Publication. director of plant and in internet bandwidth, has Each department gave a service operations presentation to members of the come from the information USG and GPSC. technology fee. He asked Adrian Miller, president of for a $3.60 increase to the USG, said fees are a reality of going to college. fee to continue the university’s technological “We have to invest in ourselves,” he said. upgrades. Athletic Director Mario Moccia began the Phil Gatton, director of plant and service presentations by asking for a $4 per student operations, asked for a $6 increase to the increase to the athletic fee. facilities maintenance fee for general upkeep. Moccia said most of the cost savings has come from personnel cuts. Over the last four years, 13 positions within the athletic Please see USG · 3

KYLE SUTTON Daily Egyptian

Theater dept. preview See Pg 6

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Senior tennis player excels See Pg 12


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