Daily Egyptian MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2016
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
Salsa Fridays
Bernie voters hit the streets
VOL. 100 ISSUE 59
BIILL LUKITSCH | @Bill_LukitschDE
Bernie Sanders supporters are ramping up efforts in Carbondale as the Illinois primary draws near. About 120 people attended a rally Sunday at the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign office at 715 S. University Ave. Sanders fans, draped in Bernie garb, manned phones, demonstrated on Illinois Avenue and went door to door to promote their pick for president. Southern Illinois native Ben Woolard, a 2012 graduate of SIUC, said he organized the event to bolster support in an area that traditionally tends to vote Republican. “I just felt like, ‘If you’re going to talk the talk, might as well walk the walk,’” Woolard said. The rally was about “getting people pumped up” and spreading the word to potential voters by phone banking and canvassing as much as possible before March 15, Woolard said. The Democratic contest uses statewide voting results to determine how many delegates will be awarded to each candidate from each district. There are 156 delegates — about 7 percent of the total needed to win at the Democratic National Convention — up for grabs in Illinois next week. Armed with a clipboard and a handful of pamphlets, small business owner Retha Daugherty, 65, of Carbondale, said she wanted to spend her Sunday afternoon knocking on doors because she thinks Sanders has the best policies concerning climate change and getting corporate money out of government. “He’s the only one who cares about the things that I care about,” she said, adding that it is the first time she has been truly enthusiastic for a candidate since Democrat George McGovern in 1972. “This is our best hope since then, and by God we have to do it this time,” Daugherty said. Please see SANDERS | 2
Morgan Timms | @Morgan_Timms Demetri Gray and Tori Cooper dance Friday at Social House’s Salsa Dance Night, which occurs 8:30 p.m. every Friday. This August the club will celebrate 17 years of Salsa Fridays.
Young, old rally against state budget crisis ANNA SPOERRE | @AnnaSpoerre
Andrew Bynom, a lecturer at SIU’s Center for English as a Second Language, stood among nearly 100 demonstrators along Carbondale’s Main Street on Saturday to raise awareness of how the state’s budget impasse is painfully affecting southern Illinois. Bynom, who stood next to the railroad tracks holding a sign with the words “Fair Budget Now,” said he is among the faculty in his department waiting to receive a notice at the end of the semester saying whether or not they will still have jobs next year. “We have absolutely no idea whether our contracts will be cut or not,” he said
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during the rally, which was organized by the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois and the campus’ Faculty Association. “It’s appalling because there is a complete lack of care from our politicians.” For more than eight months, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Legislature have been unable to negotiate a state budget, leaving universities and colleges without funding since July 1. During the gathering next to the Town Square Pavilion, former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon called the stalemate inexcusable and irrational. “I think all of us have the obligation to do what we can to let folks in Springfield know that this is a crisis for southern Illinois — for all of us” Simon said.
John A. Logan College in Carterville announced last week it will lay off 55 employees this fall. Bret Seferian, who works with about 3,600 SIU and John A. Logan employees as an Illinois Education Association regional director, said John A. Logan students are organizing protests every day next week. He said SIU students may not realize how much their school is hurting. “People have got to be aware of the damages this is going to do,” he said. “And, more importantly, the damage that is done when you lay faculty off is not something you can just un-do.” Ethan Stephenson, a graduate assistant in English, said funding
for GAs in the College of Liberal Arts has been secured through the fall semester, but he does not know if that will continue. He said any cuts to graduate assistants has the potential to affect the kind of education freshman get. “It doesn’t make any sense to me to cut funding when it seems counterintuitive for educating the next group of people who are going to take control of the state,” said Stephenson, who received his bachelor’s degree from Eastern Illinois University — one of the schools that has laid off employees because of financial uncertainty. “[Graduate assistants] are the backbone of the education system for students.” Please see RALLY | 3