There are serious problems with this University: worn-out facilities that had their heyday in the '70s; a long-standing feud between the administration and the faculty; programs that were dreamed up but never see the light of day; an enrollment drop of more than 1,500 students; a dying Strip that once was a party; dilapidated housing for students.
Of all the problems beyond the current budgetary strangle hold, Halloween looms as the crowning specter of SIUC's misery. It is the dastardly ghost of Halloween past that has scared off students and murdered our image nationwide.
Or so we like to lament.
The Daily Egyptian, which reports on these issues on a daily basis, has come to understand that the biggest problem with SIU is not Halloween. It's attitude.
A top-level administrator once remarked at an editorial board meeting that he loves this school more than some who have been here for 25 years. It is a sad truth that many of us are guilty of having little faith in the future of this institution, and even fewer positive things to say about it.
While this apathy or disgust is still the faulty wiring within this potential powerhouse, we have seen flickers of light this semester - the supernova being the Saluki sweep to the Sweet 16.
For the first time in a long time, students, faculty, alumni and administrators were cheering together in a smiling sea of maroon. There was a sense of SIU pride that burst through the city and the campus. We remembered, all too briefly, the good at this University we had been ignoring as we complained about problem after problem.
But a statewide budget crunch dampened our spirits again as the campus teetered further toward the edge. The chancellor proposed a tuition hike in the double digits. Students' cries and laments grew to a clamor. But the cause made students passionately band together to oppose it.
The Daily Egyptian worked hard this semester to take a critical look at the complaints and criticisms that have become commonplace here. We tried to serve as one of those little lights of truth, even sometimes angering the rest of the student body to stand behind what we believed was best.
We caught a lot of flak for agreeing with the tuition proposal. It was a hard sell, but we understood the important benefits. The tuition increase would save jobs and graduate assistantships, increase the quality of education, dissuade less serious students from attending, aid in rebuilding suffering colleges, melt the current hiring freeze and help the chancellor's workship set sail.
But we did call the administration on other initiatives, disagreeing with an alcohol-free campus, graduation prayer and hiring another image consultant.
We set an organizational goal of investigating the longtime concerns of African-Americans by addressing complaints that rarely see media coverage. Through our reports, we realized that the walk toward equality is far from finished as we grappled with our findings on continued segregation and racial profiling.
Our editorial page also served as a beacon of race dialogue. Not everyone agreed, but everyone was talking, and in that we take great pride.
We also tackled the city, lambasting it for encroachment, poor student housing and a lack of minority representation in the police force.
One could easily call us the loudest muckraking voices this semester as we challenged norms and even sometimes the opinion of the majority to find truth and better solutions.
But we did not come away from all the negative coverage disgruntled, disgusted or apathetic. Through the semester, and our time at SIU, we came to understand our strengths, such as this research institution's mighty potential. We came to see that we could affect change in people's lives, the campus and Carbondale simply with the written word. We rejoiced in the Sweet 16, finding a renewed pride in this institution and even ourselves.
As you graduates march off with diploma in hand and the world at your feet, we hope you will find pride and joy in that flicker of your life that was the college experience.
This light does shine through all of the problems we have faced at this University, and its brilliance is growing. As the ones left behind, let's continue to positively kindle that flame. It will be our actions during our time at SIU, not the University's or the city's, that will ignite pride in our hearts long after we are gone.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
