Dear Editor:

While I attended SIU, I graduated from the U of I in Engineering because SIU did not offer an engineering degree way back in 1958. My wife graduated from SIU magna cum laude and all three of our children are SIU graduates employed in Africa, California and St. Louis. I do not recall anyone ever saying “gee let’s go to SIU because of the cool logo.” They went because it was affordable and handy.

Recently my wife and I tried to get our grandson to come here from Chesterfield, Mo., offered him free room and bord, the possibility of a job through our connections and a vehicle in case his gave out. Plus we just live 2.5 miles from the campus. We didn’t mention the new $1.5 million cool logo that is supposed to solve all of SIU’s problems. Perhaps that was our mistake because he is going to the University of Missouri in Springfield. I seriously doubt that would have made any difference since he passed up several thousands of dollars’ worth of perks to go to Missouri.

Frankly I feel it is a sad day when the administration spends $1.5 million on a logo that looks a lot like one we had many years ago and actually thinks this is going to solve the problem. If they are that far out of touch with reality there is little, if any, hope.

So there is my two cents worth,  which is probably worth about two cents, the same as the logo. If they had talked to me first I might have saved them $1,499,999.98.

Bill Schwegman

Carbondale resident