Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
Reunion at the rock
VOL. 99 ISSUE 58
Library to host budget cut rally Sam Beard | @SamBeard_DE
e llen B ooth | @EllenBooth_DE SIU alumna Maurine Pyle, left, gives her friend Pam Richards a personal tour of SIU on Tuesday in front of the Nicholas Vergette Sculptures near Morris Library. Richards is visiting from Cincinnati and met Pyle two years ago in Ohio while Pyle was on a missionary trip.
Proposed cuts threaten Career Services heather CaChola | @HeatherCachola The center on campus that strives to serve undergraduates and graduates preparing for their futures is also one being threatened by budget cuts. In response to Repbulcian Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget, President Randy Dunn asked the office of Career Services to present the effects of a 50 percent reduction in funding, amounting to a nearly $147,000 cut. The department’s budget is half-funded by state money and half-funded by revenue from career fairs, which can collectively cost students up to $400. Dunn has proposed this exercise because the department, which offers help with resumé building, choosing a major and job interviewing, was deemed a non-academic
service. The cut represents the entirety of state funding that makes up the center’s budget. The majority of money from the state is used to fund employees’ salaries within the department, said Doug Reichenberger, director of Career Services. “If we had to cut staff, it would mean cutting all of our graduate assistants and we would also be losing at least one of our civil service staff and the undergraduate assistant position as well,” Reichenberger said. “It would mean a 50 percent reduction in our staff here.” He said undergraduate assistants collect employer data and graduation data to help with annual reports. The center employs four professional staff, two civil service staff, four graduate student staff, one undergraduate assistant, one worker in the undergraduate and graduate assistantship office and four work-study students.
Casey McFadden, a graduate student from Hoopeston in the College Student Personnel program, is one of the four graduate assistants that will lose her job if the budget proposal is approved. “The GAs provide a key service for the students. We meet with approximately half of the students that come through our office,” McFadden said. “We do a majority of the work with the undergraduate students, so it would make a major cut if all the GA positions were eliminated from our office.” Reichenberger said the center helped 1,700 students in 2014, but it has not always tracked its clientele. As of March, the office has seen about 600 students individually and has made contact with 1,800 students for presentations, résumé workshops and tabling at events, according to a report by the office of Career Services. Please see CAREER | 4
Nepal fundraiser to be held in Gaia house evan JoneS | @EvanJones_DE The Nepalese Student Society of Carbondale is hosting a dinner fundraiser at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Gaia house. The death toll in Nepal has exceeded 7,500 and continues to rise after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25. Ramesh Neupane, a doctoral candidate in higher
education from Nepal, said authentic Nepalese cuisine will be served, and the group is accepting a minimum donation of $10 to attend. “Rotary club of Carbondale Breakfast and the Saluki Rotaract group came to us about this idea,” Neupane said. “They usually have it every month and they want to do it this time for Nepal and Nepalese people.” The Nepalese Student Society will also host
a yoga class on Friday at 101 S. Graham Ave. in Carbondale from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., again with a minimum donation of $10. The money will be deposited into the Nepal earthquake relief fund. A GoFundMe.com page was created by the students to send back home, and has raised nearly $2,500. Other organizations involved with tomorrow night’s dinner are the Rotary Club of Carbondale, Advanced Energy Solutions and the Gaia house.
A rally against Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget cuts is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday in front of Morris Library. It has been organized by the four unions on campus, with cooperation from student government and others throughout the university. The protest comes in the wake of the governor’s proposed cuts to social services, which would slash $62 million from the SIU system — including $44 million from the Carbondale campus. “The point of this rally isn’t to blame anyone,” organizer Johnathan Flowers said. “The point of this rally is to say: ‘If this happens, then all of these people will suffer.’” If passed, these cuts would create a domino effect across the university and Carbondale in general, said Flowers, a doctoral candidate in philosophy from Oak Park. Newly elected Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry said he will be speaking at the event shortly after it begins. The proposed reduction in state appropriations, if passed, would return state funding to a level last seen in the mid-1980s, University Spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said. “My big issue with the budget cuts is the way that it is forcing the erosion of the university’s educational mission and the support structures that enable that mission to continue successfully,” Flowers said. In addition to impeding the university’s academic and research missions, student affordability and SIU’s service to the region would be drastically affected if the governor’s budget gets passed, Goldsmith said. “We support the rights of faculty, staff, students and others to express their opinions as individuals in multiple formats and ways, as long as they are civil and respectful,” she said. “By its nature, the university is a place where all voices should have the opportunity to be heard.” The aim of the event is to demonstrate the SIU community’s opposition to the proposed cuts and how they would be a serious blow to the university and the southern Illinois community, Flowers said. “It’s your lives on the line, it’s your education,” Flowers said. “If students are concerned about this, we need to speak up.”
@dailyegyptian Meet with different groups on campus from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Student Services Building for “Let’s Make a Quad.”