by Catherine Boldrey Newell

As a local student attending SIU, I feel there have been some aspects overlooked by the administration regarding the faculty strike. Living in Southern Illinois all my life, I am quite familiar with strike situations as I, as well as others from this area, have grown up enduring strikes and striving for the benefits and better working conditions of our families and for ourselves.

As a student, I realize the economic impact the strike may have on SIU. Enrollment of the college is currently faltering and with the South Asian economy in peril, why would these countries send their children and residents to a university with this much discord, expensive tuition, and flailing university image? Individuals that do have great means to attend a university of choice will be quite wary of attending a university with the unstable image that SIU is quickly obtaining. Also, the local communities and people of this area are going to be concerned about sending our community members to a university that doesn’t embrace the standards that have made this area what it is today. Out of state students and international students seem to feel that this area is a little bit of nowhere but we who have grown up here are quite proud of this area.

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Now there is a new mediator in the arena. I thought that was what the high-priced Chicago law firm was hired for. If the university has the money to spare for all these mediators, and the administration and the faculty are still worlds apart on agreement, maybe an arbitrator is a better expenditure before the reputation of this credible university is severely scarred. Hopefully this will add a local-yokel perspective the administration is not considering in this strike situation.

junior, administration of justice