Alexa Aguilar
SIU is cheap.
That's the only reason student government leaders offered to Chancellor Wendler when asked about why they chose SIU. He had come before them with a tuition-increase proposal, and wanted to know what exactly they loved about this University. All they could come up with was affordability.
I'm not here on this last day of publication to argue the merits of the tuition increase. For the record, I'm for it - I think we desperately need the money.
But their opposition is not what bothered me. The chancellor said he was disappointed that there wasn't much more than cost that led them to spend four of their most formative years at SIU.
I was appalled.
I leave this campus in a week. And as I look back on my three years at SIU, I can think of dozens of reasons why Carbondale's worth so much more than its price tag.
Simply put, I love SIU.
That love lies somewhere in the sight of the sun glinting off of Campus Lake; in the roar of the Dawg Pound after a Saluki win; in the feeling of my little girl's hand as we walk up the stairs of Shryock Auditorium to see a ballet; in the smell of biscuits and gravy at Mary Lou's on a Saturday morning where hungover college students and old locals gather; in the thrill of walking to all your brand new classes on the first day of fall semester.
That love springs from the sight of Pulliam clocktower in the moonlight; from a fresh stack of Daily Egyptians with my byline on the front page; from the distinct taste that Dairy Queen ice cream has when you eat it along the curb of the Strip; from the first day of spring when you drive through the side streets, and it seems like everyone in Carbondale is throwing a Frisbee or softball in their front yard; from discovering your professor is an amazing lecturer that makes you want to go to class every day.
That love grew when I saw the Saluki mascot sparring with a Georgia Bulldog on the floor of the United Center in March; when my 5-year-old daughter talked me into buying maroon-and-white pompons so she could regale me with her SIU cheers; when a sleepy afternoon lecture turned into a heated debate; when I attended the Coretta Scott King lecture and realized that only in Carbondale would a kid from the west side of Chicago sit alongside a 70-year-old grandma from Pinckneyville.
That love will remain because of the memory of hot evenings at the Sunset Concerts where you were just as likely to see a professor as your pals; because of the sound of laughter that erupts from happy, tipsy college students on a summer night in Pinch's beer garden; because of going back to Winston for one more bagel at two in the morning; because of the mischievous thrill of jumping into Campus Lake after a hot game of beach volleyball; because of the knowledge that no matter what I do or where I go, SIU will always be its own distinct world that can never be recreated.
That's what I call a bargain.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
