SIUC can’t compete with the rest

The university already has it rough financially with its budget deficit and declining enrollment, but performance-based funding may end up being SIUC’s biggest headache to date.

Beginning July 1, the annual budget for higher education in Illinois must incorporate performance-based funding relating to degree completion and student success, as well as a number of other measures. Performance-based funding essentially makes public universities and community colleges more accountable for what happens once…

What happens when reasons run out?

Every person reading this is likely invested in this institution one way or another, and regardless of what category they fall under — alumni, students or faculty — they have the right to know how things are stacking up.

This semester marks the lowest enrollment count SIUC has seen in nearly 40 years, but some university administrators believe this should not be discussed.

When a Daily Egyptian reporter requested to see…

Gaia House is essential to campus community

Dear Editor:

I was glad to see the front-page article about the financial difficulties the Gaia House Interfaith Center is going through, which indicates you recognize its importance to the campus community. However, it was unfortunate that you chose to position your statement about Erika Peterson resigning as president of the board right in the middle of that…

Best defense is a good offense when walking alone at night

Dear Editor:

The recent article by Ashley Zborek entitled “Students take safety into their own hands” reminded me of “Death Wish”, a 1974 film starring Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, a mild-mannered New York City architect.  The day after Paul and his wife return from vacation, his wife is murdered and his daughter brutally raped by a trio of thugs.  Paul Kersey then takes matters into his own hands, and…

Fracking, mining permits would likely sacrifice natural, societal Illinois values

Dear Editor:

I share the concerns in your recent article about hydraulic fracturing of subterranean shales by blasting water mixed with sand and hazardous chemicals into drilled wells, or fracking. Another concern is where does the fracking sand come from? Surely not next to Starved Rock State Park, an Illinois crown jewel with innumerable visitors including school children who learn to understand and treasure natural areas. Yet a local newspaper…

Dear chancellor: Keep the emails coming

I agree with Szczepanik’s letter on Friday: Students should be treated like adults. However, what the letter fails to contextualize is that this sentiment is usually expressed until somebody gets hurt.

Specifically, I take issue with the line, “Whether you choose to admit it or not, those students referenced in your letter who received citations or required medical care are fully responsible for their own actions.”

Students being responsible for their actions…

e-phobia makes e-textbooks impractical at SIU

Gadgets have been expressly banned in enough SIU classes that an implicit ban exists across the board. I’ve had several e-textbooks but I wouldn’t dare use them in an SIU classroom.

To access course materials and take notes on a laptop could be a leap in efficiency for many students. Sadly, it would be a spectacle in most SIU classrooms. Even today, a professor interrupted lecture time to tell students to put away their laptops.

While…

Chancellor’s letter sends condescending message

Dear Chancellor Rita Cheng:

I am writing this open letter in response to the wildly inappropriate, presumptuous and condescending letter I received in my mail box yesterday addressed to my Parent/Caregiver regarding the upcoming non-university events “Polar Bear” and “Puck Finch”.

Clearly this letter was sent to my home under the erroneous assumption that my permanent address is synonymous with my parents’ address.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I…

Mix partying with reason

While we as college students can understand the desire to kick back and relax with a beer at the end of the day, there’s a stark difference between being a student at a research university and stumbling around the streets of Carbondale at 10 a.m. drunk on a Saturday.

It’s hypocritical for students to complain about everything that may be wrong with this university when they find themselves lining…

Letter to editor doesn’t recognize hard work done by university’s maintenance, grounds crew

Dear Editor:

In response to the recent feedback to the article “Students and staff share thoughts on campus improvements,” I would like to question why Mr. Ross Smith felt the need to call out specific departments on campus, with the grounds crew being the main area of focus.

Mr. Smith felt the need to question the work ethic of the department. The comments made were not only ignorant but also slanderous…

Students should drink responsibly and not get plastered on Polar Bear

Dear young people:

By now it has probably come to your attention this is going to be an awesome weekend.  Chancellor Rita Cheng would not send you a personal note imploring you to not injure yourself if there wasn’t some kind of serious fun to be had.

And let me tell you, my young friends: Drinking outside during the day is fun.

But this is not just another drinking party. This is…

University needs to listen closely to students’ concerns, make changes

Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to the article published in Tuesday’s edition: “Students and staff share thoughts on campus improvements.”

Dear Editor:

I  really like that attention is being brought to the student body about some of these issues because, to be quite frank, it seems if there are quite a bit of major choices being made by the school that impact us, but our opinions are not even…

Penn State coach’s legacy dies along with him

Listening to the feeble whispers of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno in his first interview since his firing — and the last before his death — does not change my opinion of the man who could have done more to stop Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant coach who now faces more than 50 criminal charges for allegedly molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period.

Paterno’s death came just…

Anti-piracy bills should be revised to protect constitutional rights

Two controversial anti-piracy bills under review by Congress do not adequately address the issue of online piracy without infringing on our constitutional rights to free expression on the Internet.

Both bills, the House of Representative’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IP Act, aim to end the illegal distribution of American copyrighted material by companies based in foreign countries.

Although a large number of these services are free…

Climbing economic ladder in America is deteriorating into an impossible dream

Elisabeth Reichert Professor of Social Work

The common American belief that one individual can improve his or her economic status is deteriorating into the impossible dream.

A recent article in The New York Times discussed how Americans now enjoy less economic mobility than peers in Canada and much of Western Europe.

The Times article provided many points of view as to why moving up the economic ladder within the U.S. has become…

You can’t save face by censoring others

When I took over as editor of the Daily Egyptian in the summer of 2011, I could not have imagined the First Amendment lessons that lay ahead – the university’s stonewalling DE reporters, its refusal to turn over the memo detailing the new media access “policy,” the strike called by tenured professors to protect academic freedom or the university shutting down a Facebook page because of comments critical of…

“It” is not over

“It” Is Not Over

Dear editor:

The Faculty Association strike is indeed over; however, the cultural climate that instigated the strike in the first place is still present.  It is pervasive.  And it needs to change. 

According to SIUC’s mission statement, the university is committed to enhancing our community’s “quality of life through the exercise of academic skills and application of problem-solving techniques.”  Faculty, graduate assistants and civil service employees actualize this…

University needs to live up to self-proclaimed sustainability standard

Dear Editor:

When I chose to attend Southern Illinois University, I did so on the assumption that SIU would maintain a respectable commitment to sustainability. The university brags about sustainable efforts initiatives on the website and through events such as the Green Fair.

In the year and a half since my enrollment, I have been sorely disappointed in the university’s commitment to certain issues, one of which with real and dangerous…

Similarities between SIU strike and Occupy movement

james anderson graduate student in mass communication and media arts

Police raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York’s Zuccotti Park Nov. 15, destroying a 5,000-volume library, blocking media coverage, busting demonstrators with batons, firing tear gas into the crowd and forcibly arresting around 70 people, with credentialed journalists included.

This was only one day before Occupy Oakland in California was raided, resulting in the arrest of 30 protesters and the resignation…

Censorship bills threaten structure of the Internet

The Internet is the pulse of modern society. It is an information superhighway, a means of communication and a haven for individual expression. And above all, the Internet is a pure exploration in freedom of information. However, recent federal legislation threatens the structure and liberty of the World Wide Web.

The Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced Oct. 26 to the United…