Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 101 ISSUE 5
If proposed cuts are implemented, SIU's wildlife research lab will close, director says LUKE NOZICKA | @lukenozicka
SIU’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory could close after 67 years of supporting undergraduate and graduate projects if Illinois does not pass a budget by July. Under a set of proposals outlined by the university's nonacademic prioritization committee, the research laboratory could lose $507,388 from its budget. Matt Whiles, who has worked as the laboratory’s interim director for about three years, said their budget totals $509,672 in state appropriations, nearly all of which pays salaries. If those cuts were implemented, the laboratory that has existed at SIU since 1950 would shut down, Whiles said. This Please see WILDLIFE | 6
Jacob Wiegand | @jawiegandphoto John O'Connell, a doctoral student in zoology from Miami, traverses wetlands Sunday off Illinois Route 3 near Gale. The Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, through which O'Connell conducts his wetland research, could be at risk of losing $507,388 in funding if the university doesn't receive state appropriations by July 1. "I imagine if funding is cut that that's going to impact the number of students and maybe the number of faculty that we have," he said. "We lost quite a few students last year because their projects were funded and their assistantships were funded through federal money that was blocked because of the failure of the state to pass a budget that authorized the spending of that money." He said the different academic departments that use the lab overlap and mingle, and that the sharing of information in the lab is a way to collaborate and further their research.
Jacob Wiegand | @jawiegandphoto John O'Connell instructs Hannah Judge and Alex Bell on mapping wetland availability Sunday off Illinois Route 3 near Gale. O'Connell said there's a map of wetlands across the United States, but it doesn't give a very good idea of what wetlands are available in a given period. He said the research group selects points at random from the map and then goes to as many of the points as possible to conduct the surveys.