THE
Daily Egyptian SERVING THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY SINCE 1916.
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2025
VOL. 109, ISSUE 4
SIU enrollment drops by 5 students Lylee Gibbs lgibbs@dailyegyptian.com Jackson Brandhorst jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com
SIU Carbondale enrollment for the fall 2025 semester is down at 11,785 students, which is five fewer students than last year, according to numbers released by the university on Wednesday, Sept. 3, breaking a streak of six straight semesters of increase. Enrollment numbers were released in an email and press release to the SIU system on Wednesday morning and then later deleted and re-released to the public on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Chancellor Austin Lane spoke with the Daily Egyptian Thursday afternoon after originally stating explicitly that he would not be doing media interviews, according to Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Jeff Harmon. DE reporters had hoped to speak with the chancellor to seek more information and clarification about the enrollment numbers, as well as the impact to his IMAGiNE 2030 strategic plan, which aims to enroll 15,000 students by 2030. The chancellor was able to speak with the DE over the phone while on his Saluki Takeover Tour in Indiana
after the original story was published, and Executive Director and Higher Learning Commission Accreditation Liaison Officer David Shirley provided the DE with more details concerning diversity and other demographic data. The numbers The largest dip among all reported demographic categories was in the freshman class, which dropped 13% over the last year, falling from 1,758 to 1,535 — the lowest since 2022. The number of total students on campus also decreased, dropping from 9,178 to 9,026, for a 2% decline. Online undergraduate enrollment is
up 23% in the last year — and up 53% over the last five years, while online enrollment in graduate programs saw a whopping 161% increase. In total, there are 9,026 students enrolled on campus and 1,894 enrolled in online programs. “Three years ago, we knew that if we wanted to reach our enrollment goals, that we couldn’t just do it with traditional students — we had to look for nontraditional students that wanted to go back to school in flexible and convenient formats,” Lane said. “And so the first order of business then was to attack the graduate
market. What we found is that 45% of the students in the state of Illinois were getting their online graduate education from outside of the state. So when we struck the deal with Risepoint, who used to be called Academic Partnership, we brought them in and, as you can see, those numbers are just almost unbelievable. We fully anticipate bringing in more students through that online market.” Enrollment among local students is up, with a 6% increase in students from the southern Illinois region and a 16% increase in students from ENROLLMENT | 3
Law requires colleges to offer contraceptives, medication abortion
Community holds memorial for demolished Washington Street Garden
Levonorgestrel, an emergency contraceptive, sits available for purchase at a Rec Center vending machine Sept. 8, 2025 in Carbondale, Illinois. Dominique Martinez-Powell | @ d.martinezphoto
Welcome sign for the Washington Street Garden stands alone in its recently demolished lot Sept. 8 2025 on Washington Street in Carbondale, Illinois. Daylin Williams | @photosbydaylin
Carly Gist cgist@dailyegyptian.comemail
Amilia I. Estrada aestrada@dailyegyptian.com
Illinois is expanding reproductive health care access to college campuses beginning this school year, after student activism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign led to a statewide law. On Aug. 22, Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 3709, amending the Public Higher Education Act to require public colleges and universities with health centers to offer contraceptives and medication abortion available for prescription, beginning in the 2025-26 school year. While the bill did not receive support from southern Illinois leaders, it passed 37-19 in the Senate and 74-50 in the house. Illinois Rep. Anna Moeller, a Democrat from Elgin, was the bill’s House sponsor. She said the law will help alleviate pressure on local health clinics. “Illinois has become kind of a haven for this kind of health care in the Midwest. We’ve seen a huge uptick in demand,” Moeller said. “And so having additional facilities who can provide this medication, it helps the whole system. It helps the students and it helps all patients in
Illinois who need access to this kind of care.” According to the bill’s synopsis, it requires public institutions of higher education to provide enrolled students with access to health care professionals that are authorized under state law to prescribe contraception and medication abortion. If there is a pharmacy on campus, it must dispense these medications. In the event of complications, the schools must refer students to tertiary care facilities. The schools are also required to report annually that the provisions have been adopted to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, which is required to post each school’s compliance to its website annually. Alicia Hurtado, director of advocacy and communications at the Chicago Abortion Fund, an organization that supported the bill with over 200 witness slips, credits student organizers at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign for driving the bill. “They identified a need on their campus and worked with lawmakers to transform what they saw as a gap into really powerful legislation, following the footsteps of students in California and Massachusetts and New ABORTION | 3
Several dozen people gathered Saturday, Sept. 6, on Washington Street to mourn the loss of a community garden that volunteers and neighbors said had provided food, peace and belonging to Carbondale residents for more than a decade. The Washington Street Garden, once filled with sunflowers, vegetables and gathering spaces, was demolished in late August after the property owner, Charles Greer, ended the lease. The memorial gave residents, volunteers and organizers a chance to honor what the garden meant and to share dreams for what may come next. “It’s pretty devastating,” said Paige Preston, who has lived near the garden for years. “It’s heartbreaking that it’s over, but it’s even more heartbreaking that the way that it ended has made it harder for us to rebuild. But I think seeing everyone come out, I think it was empowering. There’s hope to rebuild, but also a lot of devastation. So, mixed emotions.” For more than a decade, the Washington Street Garden was a communal place for organizing, learning and sharing food. The garden was managed by grassroots collective Carbondale Food Autonomy. Volunteers from the organization
grew fruits and vegetables, hosted herbal medicine workshops and welcomed neighborhood families and SIU students. “Lots of students from SIU would come as part of (community service),” said Sarah, a longtime volunteer who did not provide the Daily Egyptian with a last name. “But then they would come here and learn about different plants, learn about plant communities, learn about cultivation. Sometimes they would keep coming back.” Preston said she first connected with the garden more than 10 years ago. For her and her children, it was more than a food source. “For me, it was a safe haven, a safe place for me and my children and other children in the community,” she said. “Even if it was just for a little bit, it gave us peace. And it provided power and sustainability to different families, not just in this neighborhood, but throughout Carbondale.” Those memories echoed across Washington Street on Saturday, where former gardeners, neighbors and volunteers shared how the space shaped their lives. Sarah said the garden had always been a “third space” in Carbondale—a place that was free, open and welcoming. “Like when anybody that you love dies, you
GARDEN | 2