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TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015
Proposed budget may cut two Amtrak routes to Carbondale
SINCE 1916
VOL. 99 ISSUE 45
Students show solidarity for survivors
JeSSiCa Brown | @BrownJessicaJ Two of the three daily Amtrak trains in Carbondale may be taken off the schedule later this year if Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget cut is implemented. Mike Richards of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association said the proposed budget will reduce Amtrak’s funding by 40 percent — dropping from an annual $42 million to $26 million. The trains affected are the Saluki and the Illini, which are state-funded and travel between Carbondale and Chicago, leaving at 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. If Rauner’s budget is approved, the only daily train remaining would be the City of New Orleans. It is federallysupported, and leaves for Chicago at 1:26 a.m. and 3:16 a.m. Since it is not state-funded, it is also the most expensive train to run, Richards said. Trains are one of the most popular forms of transportation, especially among SIU students from the Chicago area, he said. Students from the University of Illinois and Eastern Illinois University also frequently use the daily trains, as well as many non-student passengers. “One of Amtrak’s major markets is college students,” Richards said. “When you see this train come in, it will have six cars on it. It will bring hundreds of passengers every day.” The Carbondale station is the seventh busiest in the state, and ridership has increased by 50 percent in the past 10 years, Richards said. Amtrak employs 1,430 people statewide. Because of this, Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, said he is concerned a cut in train transportation will have a negative effect on Carbondale’s economic development and SIU’s student enrollment. “More people ride the train every year,” he said. “Instead of demoting it, we ought to be pushing it.” Train availability is one of SIU’s biggest recruitment tools because it connects Carbondale to other parts of the state, said University Spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith. The possibility the service will be diminished is a major concern for SIU. “It will be problematic — not only for students who come and go back and forth, [but] our alumni who come here, our faculty and staff,” she said. The potential removal of the two trains is not guaranteed to be temporary, Richards said. Even if there’s money available in the next fiscal year, the trains cannot simply be re-added. Amtrak uses tracks owned by Canadian National for its passenger trains. Canadian National may not agree to return the tracks once the slots have been forfeited. A permanent absence of the two trains may be seriously damaging to SIU, especially in addition to the potential budget cut of $44 million the Carbondale campus is facing, Forby said. “We need to make sure SIU keeps going, and this train is a big plus for that,” he said. “I’m all for cuts, but I’m for balancing the budget. You [have] to do it where you don’t destroy people.”
C arrington S pireS | @CSpires77 Mike Richards of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, left, stands next to Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, during a press conference Monday at the Amtrak Station in Carbondale. Forby and Richards raised concerns about the proposed budget cuts by Gov. Bruce Rauner that could affect the future of railway transportation in Carbondale. The passenger train routes at risk are the Saluki and the Illini, which link Carbondale to Champaign and Chicago.
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p eter r ogalla | @PRogalla_DE Sarah Dorau, a senior studying sculpture, and Aaunterria Bollinger, a senior studying cinema and photography, work on the collaborative art pieces produced during the Carry That Weight march Monday. The march and art collaboration were held for National Carry That Weight day of action, a day for standing in solidarity with survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Many campuses across the nation held marches on Monday, and a special topics class on feminist research at SIU organized the march for Carbondale’s campus. Students decorated mattresses and carried them on the march, similar to what Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz did last year in response to the New York university not punishing her alleged rapist. “We decided to amp it up and make it an art event as well,” Bollinger said. “It’s more peaceful than a protest. We’re against rape and we want to have something positive to show for it.” Students passing under Faner Hall were encouraged to join and add their own art to the mattresses and signs. “We’re going to collect everything that was made today and try to organize an art showing of it,” Dorau added. “I think it would be really cool to showcase all the collaboration that went into it.”
Cuts put Dewey center’s global influence at risk Sam Beard | @SamBeard_DE Most of the basement in Morris Library is a designated silent zone, but the Center for Dewey Studies — an outfit not bound to that policy — continues to resonate around the world. John Dewey was the most important educational thinker of his era, and possibly the 20th century as he fundamentally changed the approach to teaching and learning, according to the PBS documentary series “Only a Teacher.” The center, which is home to Dewey’s works and studies, is one of the non-academic units asked by the university to prepare for a 50 percent cut in state funding, equating to nearly $76,000. Larry Hickman, director of the center, said the proposed cut is not well thought out, because some staffers have their salaries guaranteed by contract. “[This cut] would be a serious blow to the work of the center, since we have already been cut a number of times and are down to the minimum staff required to do our work,” Hickman said. It comes in the wake of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed slash to higher education funding. If passed, his budget would cut funding to state universities by 31.5 percent — setting state funding for SIU back to where it was during the 1985-1986 school year. “The new governor says he is going to be spending ‘billions and billions’ on infrastructure, but he says he wants to cut higher education,” Hickman said.
“Does he not understand that education is infrastructure?” The state would save less than $20,000 if the nearly $76,000 cut is passed, Hickman said. The state must pay some of the Dewey Center’s staff, as about $56,000 of the $76,000 is contractually obligated to salary. The remainder is all the state can get away with cutting without breaking the terms of the contract, Hickman said. “What it would mean is, for [a savings of] very little money — less than $20,000 — the Dewey Center would be kneecapped,” he said. “The question becomes, ‘Is the Dewey Center worth $20,000 to the university?” The money can be moved from the budget of one unit to another, but it cannot be cut, Hickman said. The College of Liberal Arts may be left responsible for making up the difference, he said. “It’s a shell game — moving around money rather than saving it,” Hickman said. Eric Weber, associate professor of Public Policy Leadership at the University of Mississippi, said the Center for Dewey Studies is the reason many people have heard of SIU. “The Center for Dewey Studies was integral to the reason I came [to SIU] as well as my success,” said Weber, who got his doctorate degree in philosophy from the university in 2007. “It is a mistake to not fully support one of the premier programs that you can tout as being absolutely phenomenal at SIU.” The center, founded in 1961, is the greatest
resource on the planet for those who wish to study the works of John Dewey, he said. “It is clear that we’re not living up to the wisdom that [Dewey] had to offer about how to do things best in public education,” Weber said. “He is one of the people who contributed to the movement that made American schools the envy of the world. At least, they were for a long time.” John Dewey took his democratic theories and applied them to the concept of education. In Dewey’s educational theory, the teacher was not an authority figure but a coach. It was one of peer-based learning that centered on real-world experience and concept development, Hickman said. Dewey tried to steer public-education away from standardized education, textbook memorization, authoritative appeals and strict teacher instruction. Hickman said if that sounds familiar, it is because of No Child Left Behind testing — a policy implemented by former President George W. Bush, which makes states set standardized curricula for public schools. If school districts do not meet these standards, they are subject to government intervention and restructuring. Dewey said education is a fundamental part of a healthy society, especially a democracy. The center has furthered Dewey’s vision by publishing the equivalent of 113 print volumes — averaging 550 pages each — and about 25,000 items of correspondence since Hickman became director in 1993. Please see DEWEY | 4
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