Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015
Price-Smith leaving SIU Track and Field
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
VOL. 99 ISSUE 74
SINCE 1916
Swimming up to the cave
Brent Meske| @brentmeskeDE Southern Illinois University track and field brought home three NCAA National Championships last season but will now be in search of a new head coach. Connie Price-Smith, who has coached 14 seasons at SIU and is one of six Salukis in the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame, accepted a job as director of the track and field program as well as track and field coach at University of Mississippi on Tuesday. “It is a great opportunity to be in the [Southeastern Conference],” she said. “I want to be known as a head coach of a program that is good at everything, not just throws.” University of Mississippi has never had an NCAA Champion in a throwing event. On July 15, Price-Smith was announced as the head coach for the Team USA women for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, making her the only SIU coach of all time in any sport to be an Olympic head coach. John Smith, SIU’s throws coach and Price-Smith’s husband, will also leave SIU for a new position at Ole Miss. Price-Smith said they are a package deal and leaving SIU was not an easy decision. “It was one of the saddest days of my life when I made the decision, and I’m sure John felt the same way,” PriceSmith said. “We love SIU… and leaving and going to Ole Miss is not going to change that. It’s family, it’s home. We’ll be in different colors… but SIU will always be a part of us.” Athletic Director Tommy Bell said the state’s current budget situation will not hinder replacing the coaches. “We know because of the success that [Price-Smith] had here that we’ll have a lot of people interested in our program,” he said. J.C. Lambert, current volunteer assistant coach and former Saluki thrower, said he would apply for Smith’s job as SIU’s throws coach. “Having people like them on your side is a golden ticket because they’re well known and well respected,” he said. “I’ll take the things I’ve learned from them and apply it to my coaching career.” Lambert said he thought Price-Smith and Smith would be there at least a couple more years, if not their entire careers. News of Price-Smith’s departure comes after a 2014-15 season with three NCAA National Champions to boost her coaching total to eight. Freshman Raven Saunders won the shot put both indoors and outdoors while junior DeAnna Price won the hammer throw outdoors. Please see PRICE-SMITH | 8
J ay H olland | @JayHollandDE Trey Saulsgiver, 11 of Laporte Ind., swims in the Ohio River Saturday afternoon after maneuvering the flooded path to Cave-In-Rock. Saulsgiver said, “The cave was awesome. The walk over was dangerous but, well worth the effort.” Please see page 4 for story.
Summer enrollment experiences large decrease CHase Myers | @chasemyers_DE Summer enrollment at SIU has declined by nearly 8 percent from 2014 to 2015, equaling a total decrease of more than 550 students, according to University Communications. While the School of Law had the only total increase, by two students, undergraduate enrollment dropped by more than 200 students and graduate enrollment dropped more than 300 students since last year. These statistics combine online and in-class courses and include continuing students, new students, readmission students and transfer students. Although the different reasons for the decrease are hard to place, the main reason is a shift to a new, experimental funding model established in 2014, Susan Ford, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said. The new model allows courses to be offered, as long as they generate enough tuition to cover instructional costs, as well as a 30 percent tax for central administration costs, she said. Instructional costs include faculty costs, graduate assistant costs, instructional travel or travel for offcampus classes, all of which would return to the college. The loophole in tuition costs is that not all students pay tuition. While some students are on scholarship and continuing their education, others decide to discontinue their education and payment all together, she said. “That is tuition that we didn’t get, but a faculty member that had to be paid,” she said. She said the previous summer budget would bolster the enrollment by allowing returning classes, but because of a smaller summer budget, the university has to adapt and drop classes that do not meet the new model’s standards. She said while the previous business model was consistent, large improvements throughout the
Summer enrollment Total Enrollment
Undergraduate
Graduate
Unclassified
-7.69%
-4.93%
-14.29%
-5.44%
2014: 7283 2015: 6723
2014: 4482 2015: 4261
2014: 2316 2015: 1985
2014: 147 2015: 139
School of Medicine -1.16% 2014: 173 2015: 171
School of Law +1.21% 2014: 165 2015: 167 B randa M itCHell | @BrandaM_DE
school had to be taken into consideration. “You knew year to year you’re going to the same thing the year before,” she said. “But it did mean there was no room for growth, innovation, or chasing students needs through changes in the summer schedule.” While this new business model utilizes a temporary loss to provide long-term upward potential, the town surrounding the university may suffer the same temporary decline. “The university and university enrollment is the economic engine that drives not only Carbondale, but most of our region,” Les O’Dell, executive director of the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce said.
Promoting enrollment is something the Chamber of Commerce and small businesses have been very involved with, creating street-side advertisements to printing paw prints on the streets, which the chamber prints, O’Dell said. “We want a thriving and vibrant university,” he said. Other than bars and food located on the Route 51 strip, retail remains the next prosperous business in Carbondale, which is directly affected by college students, he said. “They buy everything from dishes, to clothes to charcoal. Its everything,” he said. “There is not a segment of our business community that is not effected by the university.”