Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
VOL. 99 ISSUE 58
SINCE 1916
Rally against budget cuts reveals resistance sam beard | @SamBeard_DE
The sun beat down on more than 240 people at the Rally Against Bruce Rauner’s Budget Cuts at noon Wednesday in front of Morris Library. At a town hall meeting the morning before the protest, SIU President Randy Dunn said he hoped the rally would be a big one, urging more political involvement from the community. The rally was organized by all four SIU unions — three employee unions and one student union — on campus and drew awareness to the people hurt by the governor’s proposed cuts, organizer Johnathan Flowers said. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s proposed state budget would cut social services, including higher education, and has led to the university sending potential layoff notices to faculty members and graduate assistants. If passed, the governor’s budget would withhold an unprecedented $387 million from Illinois state universities next year, equating to a $44 million slash in state appropriations to SIU. The governor’s proposed cuts would put hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk, said Flowers, a doctoral candidate in philosophy form Oak Park. Messages like “Proud Union Member,” “Don’t Cut Students” and “I Love Illinois, Don’t You?” plastered homemade protest signs raised in opposition to the the cuts. Protestors championed school funding, unions and education as a human right. Some said the governor should raise taxes on the wealthy as opposed to a idan O sbOrne | @AidanOsborne_DE cutting the social support services of the poor.
A protestor displays a union sign Wednesday at the rally against Gov. Bruce Rauner’s cuts to higher education in front of Morris Library.
Please see RALLY | 2
Man charged in death of SIUE student Taylor Clark
President Dunn speaks out at town hall meeting
st. lOuis pOst dispatch
At Wednesday’s town hall meeting, President Randy Dunn spoke of the potential budget crisis, running through scenarios that may become reality if Gov. Bruce Rauner gets his way. The town hall meetings and talk of funding woes are a result of the governor’s cuts to higher education, proposed in his Feb. 18 budget address, which he said will balance the state’s finances. If passed, Rauner’s budget would take $62 million of state appropriated money from the SIU system — equating to a $44 million cut to the Carbondale campus. Two more town hall meetings are scheduled for 2 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday in the Student Center Auditorium. The town hall meetings offer community members an opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns on the proposed cuts, which could devastate the university and Carbondale, Dunn said. He speculated on SIU’s financial
Police have charged a suspect in the fatal shooting of Taylor Clark, they announced at a press conference Wednesday night. The suspect is Michael Gordon, 24. He is an employee of the MTC truck driver training center in Hazelwood, where Clark’s car and body were found. The two had met through a Craigslist ad that Clark had placed about the sale of his car, Florissant Police Capt. Tim Fagan said. A college student from St. Jacob was shot to death by a man he connected with through a Craigslist car ad, a police source said. The body of Taylor S. Clark, a 19-year-old student at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, was found Tuesday in a shallow grave in Hazelwood, near his abandoned car, according to the police source. Authorities have a suspect in custody and believe the man acted alone, the source said. Clark was reported missing by relatives Monday night. During a press conference on
Wednesday, Florissant Police Capt. Tim Fagan would not confirm where Clark’s body was found, and he denied that anyone was in custody. Fagan, who is heading the Major Case Squad investigation of Clark’s death, said only that Clark’s body had been found and that the case was a homicide investigation. He would not say whether police believed the Craigslist ad placed by Clark was connected to his death, but said police were “concerned” about the information. His family told investigators Clark had listed his car for sale on the site, and spoken to someone Monday morning about the ad. Authorities aren’t sure if Clark met anyone to discuss selling the car, a red 2007 Nissan 350ZX. Clark’s car was found Tuesday evening on the lot of a truck driver training center in the 12000 block of Missouri Bottom Road in Hazelwood, near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The body was found not far from there. Clark, of the 400 block of West Fifth Street in St. Jacob, was last seen by his
girlfriend in Glen Carbon about 10:30 a.m. Monday after he finished taking exams at SIUE. Clark was a sophomore in the School of Engineering. Cellphone records indicate Clark’s phone was near the St. Louis Outlet Mall, formerly the St. Louis Mills, in Hazelwood about 11:37 a.m. Monday. The lot where the car was found is 2 miles from the St. Louis Outlet Mall. A memorial page for Clark was set up on Facebook Tuesday night. Friends held a candlelight vigil for Clark Tuesday night and planned another one Wednesday night. Friends who knew him posted on the page that Clark was warm and caring, had a wonderful smile, and was always helpful. On his own Twitter account, Clark posted numerous photos of his car and modifications he made to it. On April 1, he posted, “I want a GTO, someone buy my car.” His last tweet was April 6, when he wrote: “Love watching people stare at my car as they walk by.” A man who answered the phone at Clark’s home in St. Jacob Wednesday declined to comment.
sam beard | @SamBeard_DE
future, as nothing is certain and the revised state budget will not be passed until later this summer. In planning for potential future cuts, the university is constructing possible courses of action. However, Dunn said the university is combating the proposed cuts, which would set state funding for SIU back to a mid-1980s level. “If the state budget cut is only 3 percent, you won’t feel it,” Dunn said. “If it’s a [$44 million] dollar cut — you will not recognize this place.” He said the potential cuts will not be easily mitigated. “Every campus — and we are no different — always has a couple of million sloshing around,” Dunn said. “We don’t have [$44] million sloshing around, or even half that, or even a fourth of that.” If the university only made up the funds by raising the cost of attendance, tuition would go up 90 percent, Dunn said. However, he assured the audience that will not happen. Please see MEETING | 3
@dailyegyptian Chancellor candidate Lawrence Schovanec will speak at an open forum at 8:45 a.m. Thursday at Guyon Auditorium.