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Daily Egyptian THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2014 VOLUME 98 ISSUE 90
Students deal with crowded dorm rooms
Candidates debate for trustee election Gabriella Scibetta Daily Egyptian
Three student trustee candidates discussed key campus issues Wednesday during a debate in the Student Center. When the candidates were questioned about the greatest issue that the campus is facing, each had different opinions of how to go about changing that issue. “I think that’s really subjective to the students that you talk to,” Wheetley said.
“Things that are important to large groups of students are obviously tuition.” Wheetley said it is important for the trustee to communicate with many students, because there are many different issues that students have, and they should take all issues into consideration. “We all have different priorities, we all have different goals here at SIU, and having that communication is really important in knowing what is important to individual students,” Wheetley said.
Miller said he and everyone in the room knows it’s the price of going to school. The state of Illinois funding for higher education has decreased by nearly $70 million since 2002. “That decrease is huge, it’s your pocketbooks and it’s why your fees are going up, that’s why the tuition is going up year after year,” Miller said. “The fees need to be reviewed. The fees of the 1980’s do not meet the needs for the students of the 21 century.” For the rest of the story please see www.dailyegyptian.com
Senior Prom for senior citizens
Muriel Berry Daily Egyptian
There are 200 more students living on campus this year than last year, which has increased the number of people who live in over-crowded rooms. Crystal Bouhl, assistant director of University Housing, said nearly one in every 10 students reside in over-assigned rooms. She said 3,925 students live in the residence halls and facilities. “We have approximately 125 students occupying a third bed in a triple room or a quad room in over-assigned housing,” Bouhl said. “When you factor in the other two students in the triple rooms, we have an approximate total of 360 students in over-assigned housing.” People in over-assigned rooms are offered new ince there are only placements based on how many students withdraw two closet spaces from the university or move and two desks, if you out of housing, according don’t communicate to housing’s website. with your roommates Although housing predicts about sharing someone rooms will be available at has to do without. the beginning of the fall semester, the process of — Jazzman Walker students receiving new Student placement can be indefinite. Jazzman Walker, an undecided freshman from St. Louis, said compromising was a large part of living in an over-assigned dorm, because each person does not have his or her own amenities. “You have to share with your roommates and that is weird at first because you don’t really know each other,” Walker said. “But since there are only two closet spaces and two desks, if you don’t communicate with your roommates about sharing someone has to do without.” Lashay Mays, an undecided freshman from St. Louis, said it is challenging to make an over-assigned room comfortable to live in. “Over-assigned triples have the same amount of space as rooms with two people living in them, and the way they’re set up initially isn’t in the most efficient manner,” Mays said. “So you and your roommates have to move things around just so you all have enough space.” In order to accommodate these living arrangements, each student living in an over-assigned room is given a weekly $25 refund from the university, which is paid to their bursar account. This reimbursement could cost the university about $198,000 if all the students remained in over-assigned rooms for the fall term. “The housing staff works together to come up with new ideas for students because overbooked rooms are extremely common in the industry,” Bouhl said. As a solution, a plan was created to demolish the three tallest residence halls: Neely, Schneider and Mae Smith and replace them with newer facilities that have more rooms, according to the website. “The planning and development is ongoing and we anticipate presenting materials for scope and budget to the Board of Trustees in the near future,” Jon L. Shaffer, director of University Housing, stated in an email. According to the website, removing the towers to build new facilities is expected to take nearly 10 years.
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Muriel Berry can be reached at mberry@dailyegyptian.com, on Twitter @muriel_berry_DE or at 536-3311 ext. 254
J amie e ader d aily e gyptian June Riley, of Dix, dances with her husband Bill Riley Wednesday during the Senior Prom at the Du Quoin State Fair. Southern Illinois Healthcare, the secretary of state and the Du Quoin State Fair sponsored the event. With more than 50 attendees, the senior prom celebrated its seventh year.
Marissa Novel Daily Egyptian
Elderly couples smile and laugh as a full orchestra performs Carole King’s 1971 hit, “You’ve Got A Friend”. One man quickly sends his partner down for a dip, and scoops her into his arms. This is just one scene from the seventh annual Senior Prom, a dance for senior citizens, at the Du Quoin State Fair Wednesday night. Brian Bush, a community outreach coordinator for the secretary of state, said Secretary of State Jesse White created the dance in order to give back to seniors. “The Senior Prom just gives an
opportunity for seniors to be here at the fair to participate in something that’s special, just for them,” Bush said. Bush said the dance, sponsored by Southern Illinois Healthcare, the secretary of state and the fair, also offers seniors information on traffic safety. Illinois drivers from ages 69 to 80 have to renew their driver’s licenses every four years. Drivers from 81 to 86 must renew them every two years, and after 87 years they must renew them annually, according to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles website. Bush said the event helps seniors learn more about the rules of the road, without experiencing the anxiety many
of them feel while entering the DMV. One couple, Charlie McCann, of Carbondale, and Marcia Allen, of Murphysboro, originally met at SIU in 1965. They sat next to each other on the second day of their freshman year in physics class in Brown Auditorium. “She’s the only person that I sat next to that I ever remembered,” McCann said. Allen said they would run into each other at church and on campus occasionally, but it was not until two years ago they reunited in the same auditorium where they first met. “Who says you can’t be 18 again?” McCann said. Please see PROM · 2
Vacant office misleads campus Brent Meske Daily Egyptian
Anyone hoping to report a grievance to the university in the past two years would have been directed to an office that no longer exists, and a phone number that is out of service. The Office of the Ombudsman was closed in August of 2012, but as of Aug. 18, 2014 the university Ombudsman’s Office was still listed on the university’s website under the offices reporting to the chancellor. The listing linked to a broken web page and a disconnected phone number. Since speaking with university officials regarding the ombudsman’s page, references to the Ombudsman’s Office were removed from the website. The office was a resource that worked with anyone in the university
community who needed a non-partisan, unbiased review of a conflict. Any problem brought to the office was dealt with confidentially. The office had been in existence since 1969. “On the first of June 2012, I was informed the Chancellor [Rita Cheng] wanted to know how soon we could have the office closed up and shut down,” Donald Bixler, former interim director of the office, said. University spokesman Rae Goldsmith said positions in the office were eliminated in response to the university’s budget problems. Judy Rose, the Ombudsman’s Office secretary from 1988 to 2012, said the budget for the office was about $221,000 for fiscal year 2010 and about $145,000 for fiscal year 2012. Former Director Lynn Connley, who
retired in 2010 after working there for 35 years, said cutting the office for budgetary reasons doesn’t add up. “That excuse doesn’t really hold up when you figure that the budget amount saved was so little,” Connley said. “It was such a drop in the bucket for the university’s budget that it didn’t make sense.” When the office closed, there were two full-time employees, a director, an office manager, two student workers and two law clerks. Goldsmith said the staff at the time had either retired or were moving on when the office was removed. “I was 50 when the office closed and not ready to retire and hadn’t considered moving to a different department,” Rose said. Please see OMBUDSMAN · 03