Daily Egyptian

Page 1

Daily Egyptian DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

VOL. 99 ISSUE 50

SINCE 1916

First open forum sets tone for chancellor search Luke Nozicka | @LukeNozicka The first of four open forum interviews for the chancellor vacancy began Tuesday morning with Susan Ford, the campus’ interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. While six people representing different constituent groups on campus asked questions, Ford, who has worked at SIU for more than 35 years, explained why she should become the Carbondale campus’ next chancellor.

An administrator and anthropologist committed to graduate studies Ford, the only internal finalist for the position, spoke significantly about working with all the campus’ constituents to make financial decisions regarding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget, which she said would cause dramatic changes to SIU. She said she has thought about the campus’ budgetary issues a lot, and agrees with President Randy Dunn’s plan to not make cuts across the board. She said administration has made

SIU autism center facing cuts, layoffs

cuts like that year after year, thinking the next year would be better. “I heard one person talk about it as death by a million cuts. At some point, you stop cutting fat and you start to cut meat,” Ford said to the crowd in Guyon Auditorium. “Consider what is the core. This is what the president has been talking about, and I think this is what we need to do.” Ford said the university has to honestly confront the issues facing it, which can only be done if everyone is involved. “I study dead monkeys. ... If you

ask me to describe and draw what the ankle bones of what all those new world monkeys look like, I could do it,” she said. “If you ask me to come up with the perfect plan to solve the economic problem of higher education in the United States, I don’t think I could do that. ... But I do think that I may be able to get all of us really smart people on this campus to work together... to find solutions that will work for us.” Ford, who was appointed interim dean of the Graduate School in December 2012, spoke highly of working with graduate students.

She received an award from the Graduate and Professional Student Council because of her work with the Graduate Council. “I’m particularly cognizant of... the graduate students in terms of union issues and student work situations,” she said. “I was also very aware that when students decide to walk across campus to talk to a complete stranger about a problem that they’re having... there must be something seriously wrong there, because that’s a pretty big step for a student to take.” Please see FORD | 5

Fans ‘Sorry 4 The Wait’

evaN JoNes| @EvanJones_DE April 2 was World Autism Awareness Day. It is typically a day of reflection, but this year, the day was celebrated by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s announcement to freeze funding for the cause. The announcement directly impacts The Autism Program of Illinois, or TAP, which funds 19 centers across the state, including SIU’s Center for Autism and Spectrum Disorders. Lisa Schippers, a graduate student who works in the center, said it could close as early as June 30, and three of the four professional speech pathologists and behavioral analysts have received termination letters. The center serves 150 families in southern Illinois with early intervention in children as young as 2. There are 17 children enrolled in intensive speech and behavioral therapy programs, and the same number of adolescents and adults enrolled in rehabilitation and counseling programs, said Valerie Boyer, the director Center of Autism and Spectrum Disorders. The majority of funding for the center comes from TAP. With no state funding, the program will no longer be able support Illinois autism centers, meaning families would need to travel as far as Paducah, Ky. or Indianapolis for treatment. Sarah Hazel, whose son is in the center’s early intervention program, said it is essential. “I have a son who was non-social,” said Hazel, who lives in Marion. “It’s like bringing your kid to school twice a week — but he’s too young for public school so this is all the help that we can get.” Schippers, a graduate student in speech pathology from the Quad Cities, said one of the main reasons many students chose SIU is because of the center’s location on campus. Rauner’s decision, and the impending closure of the center, could force prospective students to attend out-ofstate universities. Please see AUTISM | 3

N athaN h oefert | @NathanHoefert_DE Fans wait for rapper Lil Wayne to enter Levels nightclub Monday in Carbondale. Tickets were $50 to $100 and fans waited more than four hours after the doors opened for Wayne, who performed for about 20 minutes. “Waiting for like three or four hours for him to show up for that like five seconds [of performing] and then to get covered up by the audience was pretty [bad], because they paid that much money,” concertgoer Riley Wyans said. Please see page 6 for the story.

Supercomputer soups-up research potential sam Beard | @SamBeard_DE In the age of information, data rules. A new supercomputer has been installed in the basement of the Wham Education Building to keep SIU on the cutting edge of technology. SIU is the second Illinois state school to have a clustered supercomputer available to the faculty, said Rustomji Vania, deputy director of research computing and cyberinfrastructure. There are other clusters on campus, but this is the only

one that is not department specific. The supercomputer, which is actually 40 computers wired together, is centralized, meaning it is available to any researcher or faculty who demonstrates the technological need, Vania said. The high-powered computer will sharply increase storage capacity and computation efficiency for its users, allowing for larger and more comprehensive research projects. The “research overhead” fund allocated by the chancellor’s office covered the

$356,000 cost of the machine. “This is a Ferrari,” Vania said. “In terms of computers, it’s some of the best gear you can possibly have.” Vania said the centralized supercomputer will enhance research prospects for all departments on campus. The computer has four terabytes of RAM — about 500 to 1,000 times more than the average laptop. It is open source, meaning there are no inbuilt restrictions to what can or cannot be done with it. Please see COMPUTER | 5

@daiLyegyptiaN Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and New York Times best -selling author, will speak at 7:30 p.m. today at the Student Center.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Daily Egyptian by Daily Egyptian - Issuu