The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

A look back before passing the torch

I on the other hand live in no mountain or posses the grand wisdom of a village elder. Instead, the newspaper‚s content will stand as an achievement of 45 dedicated journalists. For the past four months I have lived in the communications building room 1247, sometimes knocked out on the floor with the distinct scent of feet clouding my nostrils. But, this is neither here nor there.

Journalists are supposed to question authority, raise the public‚s level of consciousness and fight for the proverbial „little man or woman.‰ That small list of directives for journalists is often said in different fashion and listed in different order, but the essence of that rather small and insignificant list lives in journalists across the country and journalists in the Daily Egyptian.

So in order to thank my staff and those who nurture the future journalists cooped up in the dungeon known so politely to the world as the Daily Egyptian, I will in a fashion that holds back no modesty list the achievements of the staff involved in the publication of volume 90 of the newspaper:

Challenging the administration to be accountable:

This would seem to be an easy feat, but alas it is not. A year ago a journalist haphazardly as they walked or rather dialed their way through a beat stumbled across a mention of a consulting group‚s report that reached conclusions about the feasibility of the administration‚s guiding mission „Southern at 150.‰With no thorough reporting a story was typed and published that bore mention of the report, but did not outline the specifics involved with its conclusions.

This year an enterprising reporter simply asked for a copy of this report and received it. In every nook and cranny of its conclusions the Washington Advisory Group, known as WAG, come to some pretty stark conclusions about the administrations and some 200 faculty members plan˜ achieving it would be nearly impossible, but having a plan nonetheless would at least challenge the University.

I asked the reporter to dig into the reports conclusions and present them to the university, in effort to display how this university was planning on changing its environment (educational and perception), because the students of this university were left in the cold in its planning. The reporter after doing so, took heat from various administrative circles and some even questioned pulling the Daily Egyptian‚s funding. This Editor-in-Chief even joked with his Irish cohort who shares an office with him, about the administration keeping files on us.

But, it was not for the glory of the story it was for the value it had to our readers. Challenging authority should not be down with a reckless hand, and this semester it was down in a measured and fact ridden manner. I thank the staff for its commitment to this university.

Directing federal dollars to corporate pockets:

This semester we found out rather by mistake than intuition that the university had allowed employees at corporate fast food chains to receive federal dollars as part of their paychecks instead of entire corporate funded paychecks, as part of the federal-work study program. Building a students future however should not be done in front of the French fryer, but behind the desk of a library or in front of keyboard, not at the trigger of the squeeze gun of quesadilla sauce. The practice has stopped. I thank the staff once again.

A student charged with violating university code:

Students have been subjected often behind closed doors to codes of conduct that are applicable wherever they maybe, without a direct and clear line of jurisdiction. After attending an open case, the daily Egyptian shone a light on this practice and how it applied to the students of this institution.

As free students of a free country, having to monitor our conduct wherever we maybe because of negative consequences they might hold for our academic future was a line that needed to be drawn. Thank the staff because the university is now looking to scale back its jurisdiction rules and new training will be given to the rather childish system of justice this university has employed on students for years. A thank you to the soldiers who fight for my freedom:

This semester the reality of war has slammed Southern Illinois. A child of a war torn country, I not only feel the pain that many of us are incapable of understanding but hope that the lives lost are not forgotten. My heart goes out to your families. Reading lists of Children, yes children, some no older than 19, takes a toll on your psyche and every one of the citizens of this country should realize it. Thank you, my yellow ribbon is wrapped around my heart.

A thank you to our readers:

It has been with great pleasure to serve every one of our readers. An n immigrant from the country this Newspaper claims its heritage from, I‚m proud to have worked my way to the top and it will be my pleasure to retreat back to the bottom. Thank you for picking up these 16 to 20 pages of print every day, watching your reaction is payment enough.

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