EDITOR’S NOTE: In this collaborative opinion project, The Alestle at SIUE makes the claim that their university is bigger, safer and a better performer than SIU, making it the better of the two schools within the SIU system. 

The Daily Egyptian denounces this claim, and says that our university is harder, better, faster and stronger than SIUE, making us the top Dawgs in southern Illinois.

POINT: SIUE bigger, safer, better performer than Carbondale campus

Torre Journey, The Alestle

According to national reporting, SIU Carbondale falls slightly short compared to SIUE’s enrollment, graduation rates and costs. In local safety and entertainment, there is no doubt that SIUE comes out on top.

Both universities in the SIU System have plenty of redeeming factors, but SIUE performs higher in graduation rates and first-year retention.

According to the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, a collection of college performance data reported from four-year institutions since 1996, SIUE ranks higher than SIUC in graduation rates by two percent and meets the national average of graduation rates of 58 percent.

A strong retention rate can be a measure for how well a school meets a student’s needs. The scorecard shows that SIUE has a first-year student retention rate of 71 percent compared to SIUC’s 69 percent. 

All students share one crucial aspect in common while at college — dealing with the cost of tuition. In navigating expenses, we also wonder if our education will result in higher earnings. 

The College Scorecard also shows SIUE’s average tuition cost of $13,696 is lower than SIUC’s by $2,481. Lower tuition costs create less debt for students receiving Financial Aid packages.

Both universities use the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which uses information from the U.S. Department of Education’s scorecard and measures a student’s access to the school along with their earnings eight years after graduation. 

SIUC is classified as an opportunity school with higher access and higher earnings. However,  SIUE has higher access for students and higher earnings after graduation. 

Students also value safety from their schools and communities. The locations of both schools are vastly different. The FBI’s 2019 Uniform Crime Report on Illinois, a statewide registry of all crime data, shows Edwardsville is a far safer region to be a student than Carbondale. 

With both cities having a population just over 25,000 in 2019, the crime report shows Carbondale had 208 violent crimes — 192 crimes more than Edwardsville. In terms of theft, Carbondale had 113 burglaries and 779 cases of larceny, or theft without force. This outnumbers Edwardsville theft by 98 burglaries and 610 larceny cases. The crime report also states Carbondale had 932 property crimes — 739 more than Edwardsville. 

Adventure and life experience are also factors for students. 

SIUE is more than 1,500 acres larger than SIUC and has several exciting amenities on campus, including The Gardens at SIUE, the Center for Spirituality and Sustainability and the SIUE Nature Preserve. Additionally, SIUE is just five minutes from Historic Edwardsville and 23 minutes from Busch Stadium and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

A new area of comparison is Athletics. The Cougars, SIUE’s official Men’s Basketball team, won entry to March Madness in 2025, the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. While SIUC has made it to March Madness 14 times, they have not been since 1990. 

Given the safety, entertainment, and level of savings—SIUE is more than a vibrant campus. It is better than SIU Carbondale and is growing everyday. 

COUNTERPOINT: SIU harder, better, faster, stronger than Edwardsville campus

Jackson Brandhorst, News Editor

You don’t have to put the “C” at the end of SIU to clarify that you’re referring to Carbondale — everyone knows which school you’re talking about:

The Salukis. The OGs. The Big Dawgs.

For starters, without context, the claim that SIUE is “safer” than SIU is a bit disingenuous. While it’s true that the cities themselves are comparable in size and that there is a discrepancy between the rates at which crimes are committed, Edwardsville is a stone’s throw away from one of the highest crime-rate places on the planet — East St. Louis.

There’s not much else to do in Edwardsville except to go to St. Louis, where crime is committed at a rate nearly 10 times higher than the national average, according to FBI and World Population Review data. That would mean that the very city that serves as Edwardsville’s main entertainment outlet just so happens to be one of the most violent in America.

No biggie.

Not that it really matters though; whether or not people feel safe is subjective, and crime is a systemic issue. Unfortunately, legislators in both Illinois and Missouri have historically neglected the St. Louis region, and the ways in which those two drastically different governing bodies have approached solving that issue have been abysmal, and that’s a real shame.

Either way, I’ll give you that one. Edwardsville itself is technically safer than Carbondale — we’re working on it.

What I won’t give you is that the E outperforms SIU in academia. It’s not even remotely close.

Correct, both universities are listed as Carnegie Institutions for Higher Learning — yay — but it’s incorrect that SIUE has higher access for students and higher earnings after graduation — boo.

I’m not sure where that came from, but the Carnegie site is pretty clear: Edwardsville’s Student Access and Earnings classification is higher access, medium earnings, and Carbondale’s classification is higher access, higher earnings.

So that claim is just wrong.

On top of that, the Dawgs are classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a “Doctoral University — Very High Research Activity (R1),” the highest possible designation for research institutions in the United States — literally the highest possible.

SIUE is not an R1 university; it falls under “Research Colleges and Universities,” which denotes a much lower level of research intensity. This distinction matters, as R1 schools represent roughly the top 3% of all universities nationwide in both research expenditures and doctoral degree production.

According to the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development Survey, which is used by Carnegie, SIU reported more than $58 million in annual research spending and awarded more than 100 research doctorates in 2023.

That’s right — more than 100 research doctorates.

SIUE’s research spending, by comparison, is typically around $30 million to $35 million, with fewer than 10 research doctorates granted in the same period.

That gap places SIU in a different academic league entirely.

Also, SIUE’s acceptance rate is nearly 100%, and its average incoming ACT composite scores are around 22. SIU’s range sits closer to 24–28, depending on college and program.

Plus, the graduation rate difference you tout is negligible — both campuses average around a 50% six-year completion rate. Your graduation rate being a smidge higher than ours just means that our curriculum is harder — probably.

And while I acknowledge that SIUE now outpaces SIU in enrollment — congrats — I’m sure our enrollment numbers would be up too if we offered in-state tuition to literally everyone. And it’s nice that your tuition rate is lower — I personally think that should be the case everywhere — however, there are probably a couple of reasons it costs a bit more to go to this school than it does Edwardsville.

Anyway, aside from academics, because that’s boring, the real appealing aspect of SIU is the Carbondale culture and the natural beauty found both inside and outside our lovely campus.

Carbondale is known nationwide for its radical, punk history and has been on the forefront of civil rights movements and social justice advocacy for decades. We’ve always been recognized as a safe space and a staple in the Midwest for both diversity and inclusivity — an incredibly important feat amid an increasingly polarizing political climate.

Our art, music and food scene reflects a culture and environment that is both biologically and demographically flourishing. We have the longest-running punk house in the country in Lost Cross, a tradition of summer Sunset Concerts and a history of legendary performances from the likes of Johnny Cash to Elton John to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

We are home to some of the most sought-after natural landmarks in Giant City State Park and the Shawnee National Forest — and that’s not even to mention our nationally recognized campus arboretum, in which we eloquently weave the whimsy of southern Illinois flora into the foundations of our campus buildings.

Furthermore, the king of DIY and one of the greatest minds of all time, Buckminster Fuller himself, claimed Carbondale to be the center of the universe, and I can’t say I blame him for that self-centered remark. If he were alive today, he’d have been blown away by the fact that not just once, but twice, Carbondale found itself positioned on the path of totality amid a total solar eclipse.

It seems Mother Nature agrees with his sentiment.

Speaking of notable SIU affiliates, have you ever heard of Hannibal Burress, Melissa McCarthy, Jenny McCarthy, Bob Odenkirk, Jim Belushi, Walt Frazier, Jeremy Chinn or Bart Scott? Those are all Salukis.

I couldn’t find much on notable SIUE alumni, but it’s cool that Gary Schroen went to Edwardsville. It seems that his contribution to the war on terror really paid off, considering that there are no more wars going on and that terror attacks no longer exist. Thank you, Gary.

Regarding athletics, which I fear is an incredibly poor topic for anyone from SIUE to be speaking on, I’d like to first note that Saluki basketball has only been to the Big Dance 10 times — not 14 — and our most recent appearance was in 2007 — not 1990 — when we went to the Sweet 16. So I’m not entirely sure where those numbers came from — ChatGPT?

Anyway, the Dawgs have been to the Sweet 16 a total of three times, one of which was led by my all-time favorite Saluki Brad Korn, who actually went to the NCAA Tournament three years in a row — something that SIUE will never, ever do.

Also, just so the record is clear, SIU has played SIUE only 11 times in basketball, and we’ve won 10 of those 11 games — with the total score discrepancy being 895 to 736. But that’s awesome that you guys won the Ohio Valley last year, a conference known for its athletic prowess.

Plus, as we all know, you guys don’t even have a football team. Like what? That is so tragic. I am truly sorry about that.

We’re ranked as the No. 8 FCS team in the country right now, and we’d totally love to adopt y’all as fans. I have plenty of extra Saluki gear, and I’m sure y’all wouldn’t mind getting out of those basic red, white and black threads anyway. I mean Cougars are cool or whatever, but maroon rocks and Salukis are sooo much cooler.

To get semi-serious, we have one of the best aviation programs in the world and one of the best CAM schools in the country — we pump out pilots and performers like the CIA did in 2001. Shout-out to Gary.

We have nationally recognized programs in law, medicine, arts and engineering. I mean, we literally made Dippin’ Dots, dawg. And while we technically didn’t make Jimmy John’s, our Booby’s inspired it.

All of that is to simply say that SIU is academically harder than SIUE, the Carbondale campus is much better than Edwardsville’s, Salukis are faster than Cougars and our athletics are way stronger than yours.

But before I conclude my counterpoint, I’d like to add one more thing. 

Some of you may have heard stories about the famous Halloween parties of Carbondale’s past. This year, after years of having to host our own unofficial parties because we got too rowdy during our reign as one of the top party schools in the nation, SIU, the city and the students are bringing Halloween back to the streets of the Dirty Dale.

With that being said, I’d like this column to serve as an official invitation to anyone from SIUE who isn’t doing anything spectacular on Halloween this year. Please feel free to head to your big brother’s house down in Carbondale to join us for a party on the Strip that may or may not be the best night of your life.

Don’t worry about bringing your own alcohol; we have plenty of that.

xoxo,

Jackson.

News Editor Jackson Brandhorst can be reached at jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com or on instagram @jacksondothtml 

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