Daily Egyptian WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2015
VOL. 100 ISSUE 11
SINCE 1916
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
GPSC to help grad students with bursar bills BILL LUKITSCH | @BILL_LUKITSCHDE
The Graduate Professional Student Council has extra money in its budget and will use it to pay bursar bills of graduate students who cannot afford to register for classes because of the new debt limit. The Bursar’s office announced last semester it would revert to a former policy on registration holds for past-due balances, decreasing the threshold from $1,000 to $200.
A motion passed by GPSC on Tuesday night gave the green-light for need-based assistance spending in response to concerns about the policy change. And they actually have the money to do it, too. The organization allocated $5,000 of its $70,000 operating budget for a charitable donation fund earlier this year. An additional $1,000 was moved from an event fund, bringing the total fund to $6,000.
At least half of the charitable donation fund — or $3,000 — will be given to eligible graduate students whose accounts have been put on hold because of an overdue bursar bill, GPSC president Brandon Woudenberg said. Applicants will be reviewed and final approval will come from the organization’s feeallocation board. “The ideal candidates are going to be students who need under $200 to bring the hold off of their account to
allow registration for the following semester,” Woudenberg said. Last month Interim Chancellor William Bradley Colwell announced graduate student assistantships will be renewed for the spring semester, much to the relief of recipients. But students have voiced concerns about a possible drop in retention if the policy is not changed back to what it was before. A student-led Change.org petition has received almost 500 supporters since it was
launched last month. At least 1,000 graduate and professional students have registration holds on their accounts, including students scheduled to graduate at the end of fall, Woudenberg said. Although the state’s fiscal crisis has taken a toll on the university, Woudenberg hopes this fund will help as many students as possible. “If any student leaves right now, I think it hurts the university as a whole,” he said.
Bicyclist hit at intersection of Wall and Grand CORY RAY | @coryray_DE
An SIU student was struck by a car Monday night at the intersection of Wall St. and Grand Ave. The bicyclist was traveling eastbound through the crosswalk on East Grand Avenue at about 8 p.m. Monday when the accident occurred. The vehicle was turning north onto South Wall street when it struck the bicyclist, who failed to stop for a crosswalk signal. The bicyclist was issued a citation for failure to yield, police said. Carbondale Police Lt. Matt Dunning confirmed the student is a male at the scene, but police have not released his identity. The cyclist was responsive and talking to police when they arrived at about 8:11 p.m., Dunning said. The student was transferred to Carbondale Memorial Hospital for non lifethreatening injuries, according to police. Bill Lukitsch contributed to this story.
Jordan Duncan | @jordanduncanDE A bicycle struck at Wall and Grand hangs from the back of a Carbondale Police Department vehicle at the scene Monday.
ASA reduces grad assistantship funding, leaves staff positions vacant CORY RAY | @coryray_DE
The College of Applied Arts and Sciences is trimming its budget with cuts that have reduced available tenured professors and graduate assistantships. The college experienced a budget cut of more than $265,000 — nearly 2.4 percent of its overall budget. Coming from a combination of of sources, the cuts are made up of unfilled staff positions, a reduction of graduate assistantship funds and a reduction of travel. Unlike most colleges at SIU, Dean Andy Wang said the college only receives 1 percent of graduate assistantship funds issued by the university, while the rest is generated. In fiscal year 2014, Wang said the college spent more than $250,000 on graduate assistantships. Wang said this
year’s number is not final, but estimates $200,000 will be spent on assistantships. Plans are to reduce administrative assistantships rather than academic assistantships, Wang said. If an assistantship entails research or teaching, the college will work to retain those positions. According to Wang, his college is the only one on campus spending its own funds to support graduate assistants. “At this time, without a budget, we are basically in a surviving mode,” Wang said. “We are trying to ... spend less so we can have enough cash flow to keep the university open and running.” The college was given 11 staff positions for this year, but Wang said, was only able to fill six. The other five included three tenured-track faculty and two non-tenured track.
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Are millennials losing faith? ANNA SPOERRE | @ASpoerre_DE
Fewer college students can be found filling church seats on Sundays. Millennials are the least religious generation of the past six decades, according to research led by psychology professor Jean M. Twenge at San Diego State University. The study surveyed 11.2 million adolescents for 50 years. Millennials — those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s — are less likely than other generations to identify with a religious organization and participate in spiritual rituals, such as prayer and meditation, according to the study. Twenge’s research also found twice as many college students and high school seniors attended religious services in the 1970s compared to now. In the 1980s, three times as many college students affiliated with a religion than now. Twenge attributes it to rising individualism in today’s culture, according to the study. Darren Sherkat, a sociology professor at SIUC, said he does not agree with Twenge. Sherkat believes
the growing non-religious trend is driven by the country’s changing demographics. Sherkat discusses a decrease in religious participation, orthodoxy and religious identification in his book, “Changing Faith: The Dynamics and Consequences of Americans’ Shifting Religious Identities.” “It’s about young people growing up, old people dying off and new people coming to America and how many babies each group has,” Sherkat said. He said he thinks the change is influenced by the less religious baby boomer generation raising Millennials, who are now rejecting religion at higher rates than any previous generation. However, he said most parents teach children their own beliefs and values. “All religious groups have an interest in their own cultural reproduction and many parents value that,” Sherkat said. Connor Guidry, a sophomore from Aurora studying linguistics, said for the most part, the older people he knows are much more religious than people his age, which is a trend he thinks will continue. Please see RELIGION | 2