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Black History Month begins
Since 1916
Daily Egyptian MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 VOLUME 99 ISSUE 9
$13M of renovations in the works Jonathan Swartz
@JP_Swartz | Daily Egyptian
It is said that time heals wounds but it does something very different to brick, mortar and steel. Structural repairs, performed by Plant and Service Operations, required attention before more noticeable projects around campus. Phil Gatton, the operations director, said students and teachers eight years ago had to deal with buckets and trash cans strategically placed throughout classrooms and halls to catch drips from leaky roofs. “Early on, money was primarily dedicated toward infrastructure, so we did roofs and mechanical systems,” Gatton said. “Now we’re spending a lot more money on things that people see.” More noticeable improvements include the installation of new clocks in hallways and classrooms, and renovations of auditoriums and restrooms. Gatton said these improvements, particularly the restrooms and clocks, are a result of student complaints. “We had started taking clocks out of hallways and classrooms because everybody has a smartphone,” Gatton said. “We’ve discovered that a lot of the students aren’t allowed to use their phones in classes, so there was no way of telling time.” Restroom repairs and replacements included new exhaust fans and automatic toilets and urinals, all part of making restrooms more sanitary. Recent renovations also include $6,000 to $7,000 invested in tunnels under campus. The tunnels contain steam pipes, which power most of the buildings. Since Carbondale’s buildings and campus received an internal makeover in 2014, larger and more costly projects will receive attention. Gatton said work slows down with the presence of students, but ongoing projects, some with scheduled completion dates this summer, are still making headway. Please see MAINTENANCE · 2
Equipment included Phillips and standard screwdrivers Steel core tire levers Headset/pedal wrench 8/10mm cone wrench 9/11mm cone wrent Torx T-25 Hex key set
M arat t sablinov • D aily E gyptian Seven bicycle fix-it stations have been installed around campus. The project was funded by the Sustainability Council through the Green Fund.
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D aily E gyptian
SIU: Ground zero for change Jonathan Swartz
@JP_Swartz | Daily Egyptian
When former SIU President Glenn Poshard enrolled at the university more than 40 years ago, he said the student body instigated social change. It still can, Poshard and others said. “Universities are the best places for change,” said Justin Hansford, a law professor at St. Louis University, who recently spoke at SIU. “At universities, you have students who are young and open-minded, less set in their ways.” Hansford, who regularly lectures at universities, had a speech titled “Teaching the System to Change the System,” in which he spoke about experiencing the civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
“After you graduate from college you have your family and your work life and your office,” Hansford said. “You’ll never be in a more diverse environment, for most people, than the university. This is your chance to interact with these different walks of life and hear their perspective.” Between 1970 and 1984, Poshard earned three degrees from SIU and was involved in and witnessed many student protests while attending the university. “When I was in college back in the 1960s, we were going through a lot of social change,” Poshard said. “Students were very involved in the social justice issues of the day.” Naama Lewis, a graduate student in
mathematics and psychology from Gary, Ind., said students still face contentious issues. “Young people have issues and they have situations that they have a strong feeling about, but then that strong feeling comes off as them being angry,” Lewis said. She said one of the obstacles students face is racial inequality and a lack of respect for people from different backgrounds. Lewis said misunderstandings about other people are often the cause of prejudice. “Racism exists,” she said. “You can’t not talk about it.” Lewis said inequalities are not limited to racial prejudice. Please see HANSFORD · 3
Fee increase improves night transit service Ahmad Hicks
@ahicksSports_DE | Daily Egyptian
The phone rings at night on the third floor of the Student Center. On one end of the phone is a student wanting a ride home, and on the other, a dispatcher for SIU’s Night Safety Transit—a service provided by student fees. The student fee increased from $45.40 in 2013, to $46.48 in 2014. That $1.08 rise brought another sevenpassenger van to SIU’s Night Safety Transit to provide students with free rides. SIU’s Night Safety Transit service, which begin in 1980, did not allow men to ride it five years ago. It formally was run by the Department of Public Safety, but has since been taken over by the university. The vans pick up students and take them where they need to go in Carbondale from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Sunday to Wednesday and 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday to Saturday. The service will not provide rides to businesses along a bus route that is running. Carbondale’s campus has some 18,000 students. To serve them, the Night Safety Transit has two vans, one of which stops running after 12 a.m. on weekends. “We would love to expand and help more students, but if we did that, the
p EtEr r ogalla • D aily E gyptian Jamesia Banks, a junior studying television and digital media, gets a call to pick up a student from Kroger Thursday. Saluki Night Transit is a service offered to all current students and operates Sunday throuh Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. and Thursday through Saturday 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.
tuition rate would go up, and we don’t want to make students pay more than they already do,” said Jeff McGoy, assistant dean of students. During the 2013-2014 school year, the Night Safety Transit serviced 10,696 students, according to its webpage. On Thursday, the service surpassed the 9,000 mark for students receiving rides for the 2014-2015 academic year.
That number does not include students who called for a ride, but did not get picked up for various reasons. On an average weeknight, the transit service receives from 60 to 70 phone calls, compared to the 100 to 115 calls on weekend nights. During events such as Polar Bear, the dispatchers’ phones never stop ringing, McGoy said. Please see TRANSIT · 3