MONDAY
DAILY EGYPTIAN APRIL 22, 2013
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOLUME 98, ISSUE 129
Dome Days delight
LAURA ROBERTS | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Miranda Needham, a third-grader from Carbondale, plays on a dome-shaped jungle gym Saturday during the first-ever Dome Days at the Buckminster Fuller Dome Home. Dome Days festivities included live music, children activities for kids and a benefit reception. The event was held to raise funds for the continued preservation of the home built by Fuller. Needham said she enjoyed the kids program and had fun playing on the jungle gym during the reception.
Prospective students test JESSICA WETTIG MILES
Several students encouraged their peers to act on the financial issues they face in college during a forum Thursday. Speakers filled the Lesar Law auditorium stage to voice their opinions on financial issues that surround college students during the event, “Deficits, Education and Funding: Student Voices on Money Matters,” sponsored by the Department of Speech Communication and the Society for Civil Discourse. Five student speakers — Evette Rudolph, Leslie Murray, Jess Michels, Noah Coleman and Kyle Rudick — suggested constitutional amendments, equal educational rights and student-teacher relationship improvement as solutions to students’ issues, said Rudick, a graduate student
in speech communications from Tulsa, Okla. He said higher education funding has declined because it makes Americans easier to control. While Rudick said he admits this sounds like somewhat of a conspiracy theory, this is the culture the U.S. government has built, and now we must deal with the consequences. Funding for education was at its highest between 1945-1975, he said. During this time period, college students held protests regarding civil rights, women’s rights and the demand for higher wages, showing that when students stand up for their rights, the government will listen, he said. “One thing was clear — give people an education, and they will learn to demand their rights,” Rudick said. Please see FINANCES | 3
MATT DARAY
Future aviation students not only had a chance to tour the university’s aviation facilities, but they also took a flight of their own. The university sponsored an aviation career day Saturday that brought 110 potential students to the facility to investigate what the university can offer. Chancellor Rita Cheng, along with aviation faculty and students, welcomed a plane full of students primarily from the Chicago area to tour the Department of Aviation Technologies. Chicago flight crew members included aviation alumni who returned to the university that launched their careers. David NewMyer, department chairperson and professor of aviation management and flight, said Aviation Day is part of the university’s partnership with United Airlines, which presently employs between 400-500 alumni. “(United Airlines is) the home state airline, and we’re the home state public university with
aviation since (the University of Illinois’ program) is closing,” he said. “It’s a natural partnership for us to work with them on developing future pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, managers that work at the airline.” NewMyer said the day’s goal was to recruit students and allow them to see the university’s facilities for themselves. Having alumni present allows students to meet members of their future career fields and ask job-related questions, he said. “The flight crew, the cabin crew . . . and then the other United volunteers are almost all SIU graduates,” he said. “They’re coming back to visit where they went to school. They’re coming back to share their career experience with the kids.” Alumnus and pilot Todd Mee said the day is important because it helps recruit students to a field that will be in high demand in the coming years as a large number of older pilots begin to retire. Please see AVIATION | 3