DE Since 1916
Daily Egyptian
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015 VOLUME 99 ISSUE 22
Carbondale could face million-dollar loss Tyler Davis
@TDavis_DE | Daily Egyptian
Carbondale citizens may be aware of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s cuts to state funding for SIU, but they may not know the city itself could lose more than $1 million. City Manager Kevin Baity said if Rauner’s proposed budget passes, Carbondale could lose $1.2 to $1.3 million from the Local Government
Distributive Fund, which disbursed about $1.2 billion last year statewide. The fund gives counties, cities and villages state money—including revenue from the state income tax—and divides it up among municipalities on a per-capita basis. For Carbondale though, Baity said in the past few years, the fund has given the city’s general revenue about $99 per citizen but that number varies from yearto-year. Rauner’s proposed 50 percent
cut of LGDF monies to municipalities would drop that amount to $45.50 per citizen—a cut that Baity said the city cannot afford while dealing with a budget deficit already at nearly $300,000. “If they pulled 50 percent from us, then the deficit that we had dropped down to under $300,000 would go back up to 1.5, 1.6 [million dollars],” Baity said. Please see BUDGET · 3
Students rise above opression
p Hoto i llustration
a ja g arman
d aily e gyptian
Apple to diversify emoji
H oliday W agner • d aily e gyptian Aaliyah Wricks, a freshman studying early childhood education, dances on stage Monday in the Student Center Auditorium while Brayana Rodgers, a sophomore studying Exercise Science, recites the poem “Ego Tripping.” The poem was written by Nikki Giovanni. Wricks’ dance represented the poem’s celebration of the birth of the world. “I gazed on the forest and burned out the Sahara Desert with a packet of goat’s meat and a change of clothes. I crossed it in two hours. I am a gazelle so swift so you can’t catch me,” Giovanni wrote. The performance was part of Don’t Believe the Hype which was hosted by The Association of Black Psychologists, which promoted cultural awareness by highlighting many parts of African-American history and culture. The event advocated for empowerment of African-Americans to overcome limitations they may experience in American society.
Accounting challenge grows as recruiting tool Ahmad Hicks
@AHicksSports_DE | Daily Egyptian
The School of Accountancy’s first Accounting Challenge drew just 23 students, but this year 323 students are registered for the event. Inclement weather has delayed the challenge—which was originally scheduled for Feb. 20—until March 20. This event started in the fall 1998 and is now held in the spring to accommodate high school and community college students, said Marcus Odom, a professor in accounting. Scott Polczynski, a graduate student in accountancy from Du Bois, said he and the accounting challenge coordinators target Illinois, but also try to involve schools from Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. Polczynski, who runs and maintains the event, participated when he was in high
school and has helped the program since his freshman year at SIU. “It helped influence me to come to SIU because I could tell that the School of Accountancy truly cares about its students and potential students by going through all of the effort of coordinating the Accounting Challenge,” he said. The School of Accountancy uses this contest to show students the campus as well as what its accounting program has to offer. This is the accounting school’s biggest recruiting strategy, and gives students a chance to win scholarships. The scholarships are provided through the Accounting Circle, a group of alumni who help fund this program. Each year the Accounting Circle gives $4,000 in scholarship money. Odom said the event is broken down into
three categories—Accounting 1, Accounting 2 and Community College—in which the students will take a quiz of 65 questions. After the quiz students are broken up to do team activities, where they are led by Larry Busch a retired SIU professor. Busch said he has been involved in the challenge since it started, and now helps encourage the participants. “My jobs are challenging the students to think and stretch their imagination through various team-building activities,” Busch said. All scores from the team-building activities are calculated and added to the scores from their quizzes. The individual with the highest quiz score can earn a $500 scholarship. The second and third place winners can earn between $200 and $400. Please see ACCOUNTING · 2
by
•
Jonathan Swartz
@JP_Swartz | Daily Egyptian
The sunshine-yellow faces adorning text messages of iPhone owners are soon to be joined by diverse counterparts. According to an ABC News article on Tuesday, iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3 will contain multiple skin tones of emoji. “Apple supports and cares deeply about diversity, and is working with The Unicode Consortium to update the standard so that it better represents diversity for all of us,” an Apple spokesperson said in an ABC interview. Unicode Consortium sets the standard for emoji for many technology companies. According to ABC, a plan was released in November to have more diverse emojis in the group’s 2015 update. Apple’s latest beta update allows users to change the skin tone of any human icon by tapping and holding the character, according to a Monday article by The Verge, Laura Neibergall, a freshman from Des Moines, Iowa, studying cinema, expressed concern for this formatting style. “If a light colored skin is [the primary selection,] some people will wonder why it is secondary to select another color,” she said. However, Neibergall said the change is positive, and Apple should have done it sooner. Tara Lowry, a freshman from St. Louis studying radio television and digital media, said the integration of multiple races of emoji is a good idea, as it subtly introduces diversity into the mindset of those using social media and text messaging. “My niece can operate an iPad and she’s 4,” Lowry said. “If the options are available for these different races of emoji, that will open up their minds to racial diversity much earlier and encourage a more accepting society in the future.” Not everyone believes the change in emoji race is needed. “Necessary, no,” Tesia Galvan, a senior from Chicago studying journalism said. But... it’s good to be diverse. If Apple wants to have a good image as a culturally diverse company, then it’s good.”