The Daily Egyptian - [August 17, 2022]

THE

Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.

DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2022

VOL. 106, ISSUE 1

1, 2, & 3

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Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Contact Us Email: editor@dailyegyptian.com Faculty Managing Editor: Annie Hammock

Multimedia Editor: Kylen Lunn

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Editor-in-Chief: Sophie Whitten

Sports Editor: Joey Bernard

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Design Chief: Seth Martin

Assistant Sports Editor: Cole Daily

Photo Editor: Domonique MartinezPowell

News Editor: William Box

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Interactive Editor: Mallory Aukland

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Student Ad Manager: Hannah Combs

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SIU revises COVID-19 guidelines; no testing required to return to campus Annie Hammock | ahammock@dailyegyptian.com

The SIU Emergency Operations Center said Monday the university will not be requiring COVID-19 testing for students returning to campus. However, free testing will be available for asymptomatic students and employees at Grinnell Hall each Tuesday, noon to 4 p.m.

Updated policies are based on new CDC guidance, with the federal health agency saying the virus presents a lower risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death than it did at the start of 2020, a statement from the Emergency Operations Center said.

Six-foot social distancing is being dropped and individuals exposed to COVID-19 will no longer need to quarantine at home (regardless of vaccination status). People who are exposed are urged to wear a mask for 10 days and be tested on the fifth day after exposure.

Someone who does test positive for the virus should isolate for five days instead of the

previous ten. They can end isolation on day six if they do not have symptoms and if they have not had a fever for 24 hours. Still, they are urged to wear a mask for five days after ending isolation.

The CDC says vaccination is the best strategy to avoid hospitalization. The Jackson County Health Department will hold a vaccination and booster clinic on Aug. 24 in the Student Center from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Employees with symptoms should reach out to their health care providers or Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH). Students with symptoms should call 618-453-3311 to schedule an appointment with the Student Health Center. Like other health care settings, masks are still required at the Student Health Center.

Faculty Managing Editor Annie Hammock can be reached at ahammock@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @anniehammock.

We don’t talk about the quarter life crisis enough About Us

The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale on a weekly basis. Fall and spring semester editions run every Wednesday. Free copies are distributed in the Carbondale, Carterville, and Springfield communities. The Daily Egyptian can be found at www. dailyegyptian.com or on the Daily Egyptian app!

Mission Statement The Daily Egyptian, the student-run news organization of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is committed to being a trusted source of news, information, commentary and public discourse, while helping readers understand the issues affecting their lives.

Publishing Information The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and functions as a laboratory for the School of Journalism in exchange for the room and utilities in the Communications Building. The Daily Egyptian is a non-profit organization that survives primarily off of its advertising revenue. Offices are in the Communications Building, room 1259, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Ill., 62901.

Copyright Information @2021 The Daily Egyptian. All rights reserved. All content is property of the Daily Egyptian and may not be reproduced or transmitted without consent. The Daily Egyptian is a member of the Illinois College Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Advisers Inc. and the College Business and Advertising Managers Inc.

Submissions Letters and guest columns must be submitted with author’s contact information, preferably via email. Phone numbers are required to verify authorship, but will not be published.

Students must include their year and major. Faculty must include rank and department. Others include hometown.

Submissions should be sent to editor@dailyegyptian.com

Oreoluwa Ojewuyi | ore.ojewuyi@gmail.com

The anticipation of receiving your degree, symbolic of all your hard work, and the gathering of your family and friends, makes graduation an overwhelming yet exciting period in life. It’s a celebration of your academic achievements, a celebration of the friendships and communities you have formed, and indicative of your transition from adolescence to adulthood.

This is the first true transition from adolescence to adulthood.

“The first day of the rest of your life” they say.

Unfortunately for me, and many other graduates alike, the feeling of excitement is quickly followed by anxiety and uncertainty about what is to come in the next chapter of your life. The loss of routine, community, and security that comes with college is heartbreaking.

The first few weeks following my graduation were filled with goodbyes. When the dust had finally cleared, I had to grapple with my identity. How do you say goodbye to who you were in college and prepare to enter the next phase of your personhood?

A large part of my identity throughout my adolescence was found in my academics. I found validation in my grades, extracurricular activities and the structure that schooling gave me. Without that structure I didn’t know who I was. I was mourning. It felt like I was attending a funeral of my identity, purpose and sense of belonging.

When I introduced myself I was Oreoluwa Ojewuyi, Editor-in-Chief, pursuing bachelor’s degrees in political science and journalism with a minor in french. Now I am Oreoluwa Ojewuyi with two bachelor’s degrees and no idea about my next step.

If you look at my life you would assume I had it all together. I was accepted into a masters program that seemed like the perfect fit for me. I was accepted into a German exchange fellowship program that would allow me to travel and meet other people in my field. I was offered a full time position as a grant writer for a non profit in Chicago. Yet none of it felt right.

I thought my trip would help me feel confident in my next steps. Growing up I had found solace in always having a plan. The opportunities I took were carefully calculated to achieve my professional and academic goals.

I didn’t realize that along the way I lost my spontaneity and ability to trust in the unknown. I lost trust in myself.

I questioned if the life decisions I was making moving forward would propel me to the life I had carefully curated for myself.

These experiences awakened something in me that I thought I had lost a long time ago. One might think “ugh is she really complaining about having too many options?” When you’ve lost trust in your decision making, deciding between career and academic options that might affect the trajectory of your real life can present a challenge.

Unexpectedly, I lost my grandfather, who lived in Nigeria, a few weeks before going to Germany and quickly learned that you can never perfectly plan out your life.

When I came back from my trip to Nigeria I decided to trust my gut. I was still not completely sure what I wanted to study in graduate school so I made the difficult decision to defer and take the full time job opportunity as a grant writer and move to Chicago. I realized that going to graduate school right now just for structure and stability wasn’t right for me. I needed to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

I always felt that creation had to serve a specific purpose which is partly why I chose to pursue journalism. To me, my job as a grant writer allowed me the ability to grow in a new way. It’s allowed me to have the space to create outside of work. To educate myself outside of the classroom. School is always there. A new job opportunity is always there. I don’t want to regret grabbing an opportunity.

My advice to anyone who might be confused moving into the next phase in life is don’t want to settle into a routine simply because it’s comfortable.

Though I’m not 100% sure that this decision is the right one, it has awakened a side of me that has laid dormant for so long. It allowed me to take time to discover myself again. Myself without RSOs or academic validation.

This decision is uncomfortable. It’s scary. Though I’ve always envisioned the path towards success as a straight line- I’m taking a detour.

Taking time to understand yourself and understand that detours from your plan can be more beneficial to me in the long run than staying on course.

Guest reporter Oreoluwa Ojewuyi can be reached at ore. ojewuyi@gmail.com

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VEO works to ensure safe experience for e-scooter riders and the public

Ethan Braun | ebraun@dailyegyptian.com

People in Carbondale may have noticed scooters over the past few weeks parked in groups on the side of the road, or resting solo on a sidewalk. In mid-July, Veo, a company that offers short term rentals for electric scooters, expanded its business to include the greater Carbondale area.

More than 350 of these scooters were introduced with some being stand-up “Astro” models and others being seated “Cosmo” versions. In the weeks since, it’s become a common occurrence to notice one of the scooters being driven in a bike lane, pulled off on a sidewalk, or, perhaps less conveniently, blocking a parking space or a driveway.

Such was the case for Carbondale resident Grace Grimmer, who found two Astro units parked in spots typically reserved for her apartment complex.

“My apartment complex has very limited parking for the amount of units and tenants, so plenty of people park along there,” Grimmer said. “Luckily, there were open spots for me [at the time] but I knew whoever needed that spot would be annoyed.”

Grimmer’s situation isn’t unique. The Facebook Group “WTF? Carbondale” includes several photos of scooters left in inconvenient or even potentially dangerous spots.

Such photos demonstrate the unfortunate reality that, along with the convenience these scooters provide, comes an associated risk. This is a reality that has made itself evident as rentable scooters, or micromobility services in industry jargon, have become a staple in American cities over the course of recent years. However, a lot of the potential pitfalls of scooter-sharing systems can be mitigated, provided that the proper precautions are taken by the vendor and the government.

A relevant example of this can be found in the city of Columbia, Missouri, which had its own experience with a similar electric scooter sharing system back in 2018-2019, albeit with a different company: Bird.

Founded as recently as late 2017, Bird was one of the progenitors of the electric scooter-sharing system, and after implementing its business model in dozens of American cities it became the fastest startup company in America to reach a valuation of $1 billion according to Quartz, a financial news conglomerate.

With that explosive growth came growing pains, however. In Columbia, for example, Bird deployed its scooters to the streets without alerting either city government officials or staff at the local University of Missouri (MU) campus first. According to Mike Sokoff, the Transit and Parking Manager for Columbia, the immediate aftermath of Bird’s deployment was chaos.

“Well, we saw a lot of really dangerous behavior,” Sokoff said. “We would see people sitting on a case of beer going down the street, [...] people trying to ride two of them at once. They were thrown into trees, they were thrown into ditches, they were left everywhere. And we didn’t really have a recourse. I mean, we could complain to the Bird company and the contacts we had but they didn’t have anyone local, who could actually manage it. That’s the way it was in 2018.”

As the Columbia Daily Tribune reported, MU ended up impounding nearly 150 of Bird’s scooters, at which point Bird had to pay a $1,400 fee to get them all back. By the fall semester of that year, Bird had to withdraw all of its units entirely, pending a long-term contract with the city and university setting up something more manageable for the citizens of Columbia.

Mallory Aukland | maukland@dailyegyptian.com Eventually, the city and university negotiated a contract with Bird which allowed the city to set the maximum number of scooters which could be deployed at once, as well as setting a stipulation requiring users to not ride on sidewalks. Another key difference, according to Sokoff, was a change in the staff that Bird uses to monitor scooter placement and complaints.

“In 2018, they had contract employees that would pick these things up,” Sokoff said. “This time around, they actually have a Bird employee that is located in the city. [...] If we have problems, it’s a matter of an email to a representative who contacts the individual who’s living in Colombia, and they take care of it. We didn’t really have that before, so now Bird is very responsive.”

Unlike the blunder Bird made in Columbia back in 2018, Veo is starting its relationship with the City of Carbondale off on a better foot.

According to Ben Thomas, a regional manager at Veo, the company had been working with Carbondale directly since the city put out a request for proposal (RFP) last year. Thomas now meets with representatives of the development management department in Carbondale once per week to discuss safety and potential improvements.

One of the representatives he meets with is Carbondale Development Management Senior Planner Molly Maxwell, who explained how the city had to make changes to code and regulations in order to accommodate the new scooters.

“We added several definitions to account for new modes of transportation, such as ‘micromobility vehicle’ and ‘electric standup scooter,’” Maxwell said. “We also needed to outline where micromobility vehicles are

permitted to be ridden, which, simply stated, is exactly where bicycles can be ridden.”

Maxwell also explained the expectation placed upon Veo in the incident of an e-scooter being improperly placed or parked.

“The service agreement outlines deadlines for specific incidents,” Maxwell said. “For example, an e-scooter parked in such a way as to obstruct paths of travel and other accessibility features must be moved within 3 hours of notification of the obstruction.”

Thomas outlined how Veo’s team of contractors operating in Carbondale aims for an even narrower time-span.

“We currently have a team that operates 24/7,” Thomas said. “And so we’re constantly [checking] vehicles, whether that be to swap batteries or rebalance them. [...] If anyone reports a vehicle that’s in a bad location, whether it be private property or someone sees a vehicle that may have been sitting for a day or two. Someone reports that, we respond within two hours of that report ticket coming into our team.”

Whether Veo’s team of repairmen will be able to keep up with the inevitable influx of fall semester students remains to be seen, but Thomas expressed confidence in his team’s ability.

“We’re ready to go. We’ve already seen a lot of good ridership, just from the city, people in Carbondale and the surrounding areas, so we’re excited for the students to get here.”

The easiest way to report an incident or misplaced scooter is through Veo’s hotline, which is 855-8362256, or their support email hello@veoride.com.

Staff reporter Ethan Braun can be reached at ebraun@dailyegyptian.com.

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Sophie Whitten | @sophiewhitten_

50 years with Title IX: How far have we really come?

Jamilah Lewis | @jamilahlewis

The passing of Title IX in 1972 guaranteed many women the freedom to participate in many sports and academic programs without sexual discrimination being a barrier.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity) in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Title IX has paved a way for many young women to be able to compete, receive scholarships and be acknowledged for their accomplishments in sports programs and teams, as well as academics.

Statistics from the Women’s Sports Foundation show, at the college level, there was an increase of 29,977 in female athletes from 1971 to 1972.

By 2020-2021, 215,486 female athletes were on competing and sponsored sports teams under the NCAA. The percentage of college women athletes rose from 15% in 1972 to 44% during the 2020-2021 school year.

At the high school level, substantial growth was seen in young women’s participation in sports from 294,015 positions to more than 3 million in 2019.

That same year, young women made up 43% of the high school varsity athletes.

Southern Illinois University (SIU) is on the right path to being a campus with equality despite developments in funding with sports programs still

needing to be improved, SIU student and graduate student instructor Janine Armstrong said.

“We still put a lot more funding into our men’s sports than our women’s sports, for example, that can be a big factor,” Armstrong said. “On the other end, I know that we’re pretty inclusive. There are transgender athletes on our swim team who are recognized for the gender identity that they are.”

When thinking of Title IX, the most often mentioned aspect is what it’s done for discrimination in sports even though it affects all education programs that discriminated against women.

Armstrong says the big focus with sports programs affected by Title IX is largely financial.

“We put a lot of money into athletics and so, not only are the administration, faculty, staff and students seeing that part of it, even people in the community are seeing what happens at the athletic level,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said, compared to when Title IX was first put in place, the act is giving women equal opportunity educationwise with still much-needed improvements to be made.

“I think there still needs to be a lot of work done when it comes to sexual harassment, as well as sexual orientation and gender identity,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said one of the biggest things Title IX got rid of for women is the quota system.

“There was a time in our country’s history where it was assumed that women couldn’t go to school because, if a woman uses too much energy with her brain, then her uterus won’t be

healthy,” Armstrong said. “This is just a step even further to show that women are fully capable of engaging in education at the same levels as men.”

In the area of sexual harassment, Armstrong believes there can be improvements made on things like the training students are required to do at the beginning of school.

“Some people like myself, I try to get into it to really understand it and break it down, but I know some people just click to get through it,” Armstrong said. “I think there needs to be something maybe more engaging that will get people to also want to say okay, here’s a very serious issue.”

Armstrong said she’s knowledgeable about her protections as a woman at SIU as a student and a faculty member.

“One of the things that we try to make sure [of ] is, ‘what are your protections as a student when it comes to sexual harassment,’” Armstrong said.

“Also, as graduate teaching assistants, ‘what do we need to do to make sure our students are also safe?’”

Armstrong realizes one of the things students struggle with is seeking help when something does happen to them.

Making sure students know about services that can help would go a long way toward making sure they take that extra step to feel safe at SIU, Armstrong said.

“In the case of sexual assault, for example, there are so many additional services that the average student doesn’t know that start to go into effect that you can have access to, just

because you came forward,” Armstrong said.

She said she personally knows people on campus who have felt discriminated against at SIU who have had protocols put in place to come forward with their problems in a safe and comfortable manner.

SIU has the Office of Equity and Compliance with Title IX coordinator Paul Frazier and multiple Title IX campus advisors to make sure equality is

instilled on campus.

On the SIU website, categories on the OEC page include the Title IX policies, discrimination procedures, documents that students can fill out to report discrimination, and discrimination training information.

Staff reporter Jamilah Lewis can be reached at jlewis@ dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @jamilahlewis.

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But we’ve always believed, through good times and bad.

And now you have control over COVID-19. Easy to understand steps to keep you, your family, and your community healthy.

From vaccines to treatments, the good news is we have proven, effective and trusted ways to prevent hospitalization and serious illness. Now that’s some good news we can all believe in.

Reasons to Believe - Vaccinate to protect from severe illness, hospitalization, and death - Get Boosted when eligible - Continue to Mask in crowded indoor spaces - As best as possible, keep a physical distance of 6 feet within public indoor spaces - Provide good ventilation in indoor spaces by using fans or portable HEPA filters - Visit your doctor and test immediately after exposure or if you get COVID-19 like symptoms (cough, fever, sore throat, cannot smell or taste)

To find the nearest vaccination location, go to vaccines.gov.

For local information call: Southern 7 Health Department 618.634.2297 Paid for by grant funds from the Illinois Department of Public Health

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

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Don’t freak out! How to combat campus stress

Erica Loos | eloos@dailyegyptian.com

Returning to campus can sometimes feel like being on a roller coaster. There are a lot of things students look forward to when returning to campus, but there is also a lot of work to do to prepare for the start of classes.

There are so many things to be excited about: new classes, seeing friends and roommates after summer break, making new friends, sports and recreational activities. The list could go on for a while.

The flip-side to that coin is, there are also a number of things that can cause students stress when returning to campus: preparing for classes to begin, a class that seems like it may be difficult, work, and other demands can begin to feel heavy in a short period of time.

It is important to make sure that we as students focus on our mental health, and striving to maintain a good school/work/ life balance is as good a place as any to begin.

Taking time to relax, reset and restore can be very beneficial. Self-care takes on many forms: carving out an hour a day to sit quietly while reading, going for a hike in the beautiful natural landscape that Southern Illinois provides, talking to friends on campus, maintaining the relationships with those back home, or anything else that brings you peace and calm.

Sometimes, however, we don’t even realize we’re in need of self-care until we’re to the point that reading or hiking

won’t quite help what we’re dealing with.

In that case, there are a wide range of resources available to students on campus who may be feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of the upcoming academic year.

Taking advantage of the services provided at the Counseling Center is an excellent way to prevent sliding further into distress.

Don’t forget that reaching out to our professors is always an option as well.

Every professor has scheduled office hours and many are available for private zoom meetings as well. Keeping your professors in the loop will help to lessen your burdens if you’re struggling.

Joining one of the numerous registered student organizations (RSO) is a great way for newcomers and returning students alike to make new friends in an environment they can feel comfortable in.

There are so many amazing things to do on campus, in Carbondale and the surrounding areas. Your next adventure is just a Google search away!

Above all, it’s important to do your best to enjoy not only your college experience, but life in general. The demands of being a student can be overwhelming at times, but striving to balance those demands with things you enjoy will help tremendously.

Stay healthy and happy. Welcome back to campus!

Staff reporter Erica Loos can be reached at eloos@dailyegyptian.com

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A student checks her phone while working on homework at the SIU Student Center March 28, 2022 in Carbondale, Ill. Triston Allen | tallen@dailyegyptian.com

The Ultimate Guide to Your First Year of College

Sophie Whitten | swhitten@dailyegyptian.com

Your first year of college can be daunting.

You’re likely in a new city, far from home and away from your friends and family. On top of that, college classes don’t often work like high school classes. They require much more independence and it can take a while to adjust to your new schedule.

However, while college may seem overwhelming, there are many things you can do to help ease your transition from high school to university. Here are five tips for the ultimate guide to your first year of college: 1. Don’t read every syllabus on day one This was the first piece of advice given to me before leaving for college and it was also the first piece of advice that I didn’t follow my first semester. Big mistake, but I have followed it ever since.

When you get your syllabus for each class, it seems like a good idea to go through all of them on the first day, but the more you start to look at all of your assignments and tests and papers, the more it seems like you are up against an impossible wall of work that you can’t possibly get through. You start to see that you have a six page paper for one class due on the same day you have a midterm in another or that you have to read half of a book for your literature class on the same day you have a project due in your Spanish class and a speech due for your speech class.

During my first year, I had five essays all due in the same week. As an English major, I expected as much, but it was incredibly overwhelming to be looking through my assignments on the first day of my college career and seeing that looming in front of me.

I hadn’t been given my first assignment yet and I was already panicking about the course load.

Instead of smothering your confidence on your first day, choose only one syllabus to go through each day of your first week. This way, you get a bit of a break between each syllabus to relax and realize that the workload is much more manageable than it seems.

2. Leave your dorm to do homework or study Working on homework in your dorm is incredibly convenient, but it is one of the

easiest places on campus to get distracted and start procrastinating. There are a million things to keep you from getting your work done in your dorm room. You have laundry to do, shelves to dust, dishes to wash, a Netflix series to binge, snacks to eat, and a bed to nap in.

Don’t do it. I began a dozen papers in my dorm and the same thing happened each time.

First, I start by thinking I should turn on Game of Thrones for background noise while I work.

Then, I think I’ll take a fifteen minute break from working to refresh my brain, so I put on a timer and lie down in my bed to watch my show. That fifteen minutes gets snoozed until thirty minutes, and at that point, I might as well finish the episode before I start working.

Once the episode ends, though, there is a cliffhanger and I need to at least start the next episode. Another episode goes by and now I’m hungry so I go to the dining hall to get supper and clear my head before I get back to work.

When I get back, I feel sleepy, so I decide that I’ll take a quick nap before working, but it’s close enough to bed time that I might as well just turn on a movie and then go to sleep and I’ll finish the paper tomorrow.

That’s how almost all of my papers were started the morning of the due date. It wasn’t uncommon for me to start papers a few hours before they were due and turn them in only minutes before the deadline. This doesn’t create a healthy college experience. It will stress you out, and also have a side effect of associating your room with frantically finishing up assignments at the very last second.

Instead, go to the library, the student center, a coffee shop or a picnic table outside.

Find a friend to work with you and keep you accountable for your work. In the end, you will thank yourself for getting out of your stuffy, distraction-riddled dorm to do your work when you start to get your assignments done much sooner than you thought you could and have less anxiety about procrastinating on your work.

3. Get involved on campus

At the beginning of the year, go to the registered student organization (RSO) fair and speak to any and every club that you might be interested in. You don’t need to join every club at that moment, but don’t be afraid to speak to

them and get an idea of what clubs you like. At the very least, you will walk away with some free pens and maybe a t-shirt or two. Then, once classes start, ask the students in your major if they are involved in any RSOs and which ones they recommend.

I have met all of my closest friends on campus through the RSOs I’m in, and the more I became involved, the more I met new people in similar RSOs who introduced me to different aspects of my major and possible career options. Through the RSOs, you also have the opportunity to network with people across the country who will become very valuable to you once you graduate and join the workforce.

Even if you don’t join a club, it still helps to go to campus events such as family week, homecoming and spirit week celebrations.

There are normally a lot of people at these events that you can connect with and form friendships.

If you need a reason to feel motivated to leave your dorm to go out and make new friends and connections, know that there is normally free food at these events and nothing motivates a college student quite like free food.

4. Go to your classes Transitioning from an eight hours a day high school schedule to the freedom of my two classes a day college schedule was my favorite part of coming to university. I felt like I had so much time on my hands to do whatever, so I did. I did whatever I wanted and stopped going to some of my classes regularly. I got pretty good at figuring out what my professors needed from me in order to get an A in the class so I didn’t feel the need to put in any extra effort.

This sounds like a great idea and it always looks like it is working perfectly fine, until the end of the year when you realize that you’ve missed major discussions in the lectures that will help you on your finals or final papers. Worse than that, you may be missing skills that will help you in your future classes or future career.

It is so tempting to skip classes, trust me, I’ve skipped many classes, but it will only hurt you in the long run. Sure, I was getting my precious A, but I wasn’t learning anything because I wasn’t bothering to put in the work, and that’s a waste of time, money and energy for everyone involved.

Understand, too, that once you skip a class, it becomes easier and easier to skip again. Avoid the cycle of skipping by forcing yourself to get up and go to class. Save the skip days for when you really need it, because you most likely will need it. Going to class will also build trust with your professor so that if you need a day off, it isn’t the end of the world. Also, professors don’t want to write recommendations for students who never attended their classes. On top of that, you might learn something while you’re there and that’s what you’re at school to do anyway.

5. Take care of your health Energy drinks and coffee won’t keep you alive forever, you need to actually take care of your health. Getting enough sleep is so important for your mental and physical well being, but so many college kids trade this in for a few extra hours at a friend’s house or party. Get to know your schedule and figure out a balance between going out on weekends and going to bed on time during the week.

Additionally, don’t forget to go outside every once in a while. When you start to feel stressed or anxious, taking a walk around campus can really help to clear your mind to refocus on your work. Almost every night, I make a loop around campus from the towers, over to the Bantera Center, to the Communications Building, around Pulliam, circling back towards Faner and finally back to the towers, and it helps me think through my day and relax my mind for a good night’s sleep.

I recommend this to anyone who is feeling stressed or overwhelmed, especially your first year of college when almost everything seems overwhelming. (Editor’s note: Professors need to get outside too and I find the loop around Campus Lake is quite calming.)

If you do get physically sick, don’t be afraid to go to the health center or a walk-in clinic.

It’s not fun to be sick, but it’s even worse to be sick away from home. It can be daunting making an appointment, but it’s better to prioritize your health, because your mental and physical health will greatly affect your ability to learn.

Staff reporter Sophie Whitten can be reached at swhitten@dailyegyptian.com

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Aaron Elliott

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Wake up, it’s time for school

aelliott@dailyegyptian.com

The past couple nights of sleep have not been as fulfilling as I wish them to be. I have found myself fluttering my eyes open at 6:45 every morning, no matter the amount of slumber that I have received. At first I didn’t really notice it, and brushed it off as common restlessness. As I found myself this morning being physically jilted out of bed by my own might, I grew rather frustrated with this new habit.

Sitting straight up staring into the dim light of my bedroom, I made my thinking face. Am I missing something? I am quite forgetful and have a terrible issue with forgetting about occasions, but I really have nothing on the horizon. I went on with my morning as usual, still allowing this weird phenomenon to burn a hole in the back of my skull.

Then it really hit me. School is upon us.

I have always romanticized the first day back at school. I think far into detail of what I am going to wear and what to do with my unruly hair, and have since being a young boy. I remember laying out my outfit the night before and thinking about what that next day has to hold. Now I am all grown up, still laying out my outfit the night before, but more worried about what my entire year has in store for me. I feel that this might be a pretty universal feeling to anyone. The feeling of anticipation eating you away so hard is nerve racking.

Like how the night before my first day of fourth grade, I got extremely nervous. So, I watched the movie “My Girl” alone in my bedroom for the first time, without my mom’s permission. I am embarrassed to say that I was trying to calm my nerves, but ended up having my first panic attack because he couldn’t see without his glasses. It is terrible how first day nerves always get to you.

This time last year, I was an incoming freshman here at Southern Illinois University.

Something I worried about a lot as an incoming Saluki was what is appropriate to wear? I am not talking about modesty, because if I were, I would just toss everything out the window, as that has no place here right now.

There is such a thing as being overdressed and underdressed, in multiple different ways. Of course there is overdressed in the way of me trying to wear my Manolo Blahniks strappy heels to the Borowiak’s IGA supermarket, and undressed like showing up to a job interview in a pair of cookie monster pajama pants. There are also the literal actions of being overdressed and underdressed, and they both seem to happen a lot more than anticipated.

I’ve run into far too many fashion do’s and dont’s whilst making my way around campus, and I am far

too much of an overthinker not to make a list of them. I would love to share them with you now.

I could name off a million tips to help aid in your experience at SIUC, but I will save you that time. I have boiled it down to five rules that I have followed by.

Rule number one: Dress however you want. There is going to be a plethora of styles, and even more types of people to present it. Although Carbondale is tucked in a more conservative region, the amount of diversity in fashion that we have here is amazing. You are destined to find people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and beliefs that add to the big melting pot of our college town. Nobody here dresses alike, and nobody here really cares enough to think poorly of someone wearing what makes them happy.

Rule number two: Dress in layers. I learned this one frightfully quickly, and I would love to help anyone who will listen. Most buildings on campus are older, meaning that the buildings themselves are hard to regulate temperature wise.

In the summers, most buildings are a bit warm, and if they have good air conditioning, they are a bit too cold. There is never a happy medium. Always dress in a way that you can either remove an item of clothing, or add one.

Keep that tip in mind, even during the winters.

Rule number three: Do not wear heels or uncomfortable shoes unless they are a must. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people making their way across campus sporting tall uncomfortable heels, or trying to break in a pair of new Doc Martens, and for what? I almost made this mistake on my first day of school last year, but my older sister talked me out of it.

I underestimated the amount of

walking there was going to be. It does not matter how close your red lot looks to the building your class is in, it is not worth it. If you were to ask my fabulous professor Ms.Huyke what her opinion is on the matter, she would probably laugh and say that more people need to wear heels to school. This would be coming from a woman that I have never seen in a pair of flats, and quite honestly, repeat an outfit.

Rule number four: Pack a bag.

Never travel lightly, the world will still find its way to slow you down. At first I always packed very sparsely, trying not to lug around a bag of unnecessary crap.

As the year got rolling, I realized that I never had anything that I needed or wanted. I always found myself under-equipped for what the world had in store, and I needed a solution. Invest in a good tote bag. Yes, my arm does feel like it’s going to completely detach from my body sometimes, but it pays off to be your own Mary Poppins.

Finally, rule number five: experiment with your own style.

College is a breath of fresh air to

most, and a chance of freedom from nagging mothers or strict fathers. Do not be afraid to try something new while on campus this year. Take advantage of the strangeness and secludedness of Carbondale and step out there a bit. What better place to do it? If you are afraid to experiment with your style and the new trends of today, I encourage you to give them a spin around campus. Be yourself, and continue to grow in many ways.

I hope that these out of the blue and rather odd tips help anyone who is getting ready for this fall semester. Now you might find yourself asking, “who is this gay kid to tell me what I should and should not do?” and honestly you are so right, but take these into consideration when entering this fall semester.

I expect to see many fall of 2022 runway trends coming our way, mainly this “endless summer” look that has really taken hold and is expected to linger around a bit, as the name implies. Lots of tank tops with no bra underneath, which I am still getting used to seeing. Low rise

jeans and thick chunky belts are still the rage, as the resurgence of 2000s fashions rule the runways.

Something that is being seen in multiple runway shows this season by design houses such as Ralph Lauren and Givenchy are bringing back the casual blazer, which is something that we let die off in recent years. Some calling back to the overly large shoulder padding of the 1980s, and some from the more modest callback of the 1940s. This trend has also made room for the equestrian riding jackets, shown in shows by Hermes and other designers. As it is a bit early for Southern Illinois to really get into the more heavy fall styles, expect to see large coats in different textures like furs and oversized trench coats.

A great excitement grows deep within me as I sit in anticipation thinking about the first week back to school, and to see what people are wearing now and what the people who fill our dorm halls and apartment buildings will bring to campus this year.

Staff reporter Aaron Elliott can be reached at aelliott@dailyegyptian.com

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Wednesday, August 17, 2022

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Wednesday, August 17, 2022

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