Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 101 ISSUE 3
If trends continue, Communicating emotions through art SIUE could surpass SIUC in students
LUKE NOZICKA | @lukenozicka
The university on Tuesday released its 10-day enrollment figures, which show a continuing trend among the system's largest campus. SIUC recorded a loss of 1,170 students from the year before, putting its total at 14,636, more than 12,600 of which take classes on campus. While the Edwardsville campus has not released its enrollment figures, officials there are projecting its second highest all-time spring enrollment. Over the last two decades, the Carbondale campus has seen a generally consistent decline in students while enrollment at the Edwardsville campus has remained stagnant and in recent years has seen minor increases. In fall 1975, when total enrollment figures were first available for both campuses in the university's factbook, the Carbondale campus saw a total enrollment of 21,214. It peaked in fall 1991, when enrollment totaled 24,869. While spring enrollment is
not tracked in the factbook, fall enrollment has not dipped below 15,000 since 1965. At one point, enrollment at the Carbondale campus more than doubled that of the Edwardsville campus. But in fall 2016, total enrollment at the two was within 2,000 students of each other. University officials attributed this trend to a number of factors, including location, facilities and the state's budget stalemate. The future of the two campuses During the next two to three years, while hoping the state's budget crisis comes to an end, SIU President Randy Dunn said the Carbondale campus is going to work to increase its enrollment. “If we can’t, we cannot maintain the physical and organizational infrastructure we have for the number of students presently,” he said. “We cannot do that for the long haul.” When asked if SIUE — which recorded 14,142 students in fall 2016 — could become the system’s Please see ENROLLMENT | 8
MorganTimms | @Morgan_Timms In a living room filled with his artwork, Joshua-Kyle “JK” Brandon, a senior from Buffalo Grove studying psychology, finger paints Tuesday between classes in Carbondale. The Marine veteran sought counseling at SIU after the sudden deaths of his family members and a suicide attempt last year. “[My counselor] helped me ground myself and reminded me that, as a human being, I need to honor all my feelings,” Brandon said. “I was liberated, it really changed me.” During counseling, Brandon rekindled his love for painting as a vehicle for communicating emotions. “We try to assign small, simplistic, parsimonious words to complex emotions and feelings and they just don’t do them justice,” Brandon said. “So I use my art to communicate how I’m feeling and I fully believe that individuals who look at my art can feel it because I put a lot of myself into it. ... When it’s hard to have a conversation with yourself, I project it on to the canvas and have the conversation with the canvas.” Counselling and Psychological Services is one of 15 services at risk of losing funding if the university receives no state appropriations by the end of the fiscal year. “It would be a real shame if they went through with the budget cuts.” Brandon said. “If it helped me, it can help other students, no matter who they are — traditional or non-traditional.” To read more about counseling and psychological services please see page 6.