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SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2023
VOL. 107, ISSUE 6
Broken Promise
SIU prepares for Family Weekend SIU’s schools, departments lose autonomy over millions in key funds
Annalise Schmidt aschmidt@dailyegyptian.com
Family Weekend will once again be taking place on campus Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, allowing families to enjoy many events such as a craft fair, an outdoor showing of Super Mario Bros., Greek Sing and an SIU football game. Sean Cooney, assistant director of Student Engagement and Programming, said Family Weekend is a tradition on campus to welcome the families back. It’s usually four to six weeks after the students have been dropped off. “It’s an opportunity for students to see their families, but also an opportunity for families to get welcomed back to campus, because families are just as much a part of SalukiNation as the students are,” Cooney said. “It’s a way to kind of make sure that [families] feel welcomed as part of the campus community as a whole” Having the opportunity for families to reunite and spend time together also allows students to share their newfound lives at SIU with those who are closest to them. “There’ll be all sorts of activities during the weekend. Having extra people on campus, enjoying the campus, seeing the campus, that’s all a benefit to the university,” Cooney said. Students can share their passion and pride for their club activities, classes and for their school. Junior Kate Faulkner said, “My parents usually come down for family weekend, and I really look forward to getting to see them. And as I’m in the band, I’m excited for them to get to see the stuff we’ve been working on. It’s also super cool to see all of my friends and other students happy with their own parents or families.” Faulkner said it’s cool to see where everyone is from. “For a lot of students, family FAMILY | 3
Guest reporter: Daniel Bethers
SIU’s distance education funds, monies raised by individual schools and departments by putting their programs online, are once again at the center of a controversy, with some school leaders saying the administration is breaking a key promise after removing the muchneeded funds from their coffers.
Former Chancellor Rita Cheng had allocated the money to schools and departments to spend on items such as equipment and student or faculty travel. When current Chancellor Austin Lane revealed millions of dollars in rollover distance education funds would be used for another purpose, he suggested it was just a temporary
fix to help pay down a large debt caused by the 2015 state budget impasse. Now, Lane has told the Faculty Senate’s Executive Council the university is completely changing how those funds are handled from now on. In an email to the College of Liberal Arts listserv, Dean Joddy
Murray explained it to his faculty this way: “To be clear, we are in a 10-month “chill” on all spending— everything requested will be intensely scrutinized at the Provost level. There is no such thing as “DE [distance education] money” anymore. Everything is going EDUCATION | 11
Quatro’s: Community memorializes
Restaurant owner Blake Morrison remembered
Brandyn Wilcoxen | @brandynwilcoxen
Photos from decades gone by adorning a tri-fold poster board; sharpies of all colors lying next to signs with a rainbow of memories; art along the walls and on the counters paying tribute by choice or by fate; a notebook granting the chance to write a parting message; family, friends and community members scattered across the room, sharing stories of a lost loved one. Blake Morrison, owner of the beloved restaurant Quatro’s Deep Pan Pizza in Carbondale, passed away, the restaurant announced on its Facebook page on Sept. 21. He was 31 years old. An interactive memorial mural was hosted on Friday and Saturday afternoon at what was formerly Jerry’s Flower Shoppe, next door to the southern Illinois mainstay. Morrison had planned to open up a merchandise store at that location in the coming months. His sister Jocelyn Morrison, who had spent the summer preparing the store for business, said the family wanted to have a space separate from the restaurant for people to show their support. But as Quatro’s continues to remain open, she said they welcome visitors there as well. “We would love to have people come and support the restaurant while we’re going through hard times, because life goes on, business goes
A doodle of Quatro’s mascot Q-Man, doodled by Annalies Dowell, sits on the interactive memorial for Blake Morrison Sept. 23, 2023 at the former Jerry’s Flower Boutique in Carbondale, Illinois. Lylee Gibbs | @lyleegibbsphoto
on,” she said. Morrison’s family intends to continue the plans put forth by Blake Morrison before his passing. That includes getting the merchandise store open in the near future. “We’re getting close to finishing this space, and we are going to be continuing to move forward with everything that he wanted for this space,” Jocelyn Morrison said. The store may not have been open yet, but it was showing signs of progress. Most obvious visually
was the yellow-painted walls, which Jocelyn Morrison described as “like a vintage Quatro’s,” as was Blake Morrison’s vision. To the right of the store’s entrance is a mural by local artist Keri. It features two angel wings made out of pizza slices, and a Q-shaped halo. It also features elements related to a solar eclipse, which Carbondale will in the path of in April 2024 for the second time in seven years. With the eclipse theme in mind, Jocelyn Morrison said the goal is to
have the store ready to go by the time that event comes around next spring. “We would love to have something that is open and ready for people who are coming through to see the eclipse,” she said. “That’s the date that I think we would like to have it done by.” The timing of the mural’s completion almost exactly coincided with Blake Morrison’s passing, having been finished just this month. What had started out as a concept that
QUATRO’S | 12
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