TheDailyEgyptian - March 25, 2026

THE Daily Egyptian

DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM

InsiDE Horstman’s announces closure, Page 3 |

ICE agents arrest Carbondale man

Daughters watched from a nearby window as their father was taken into custody

JACKSON BRANDHORST

jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com

Federal immigration agents arrested a Carbondale father and business owner outside of his home less than a month after minor traffic tickets against him were dismissed in court.

Bulmaro Perez Ramirez, who has lived in the United States undocumented for more than 25 years, was taken into custody on March 17 outside of the home where he has lived with his family since 2011, according to relatives. It was his second time being detained by immigration agents outside his residence.

In February, a Perry County judge dismissed two citations — for allegedly speeding and driving

without a valid license — that stemmed from a September traffic stop in Du Quoin, court records show. It was the 52-year-old’s first violation of southern Illinois law in two decades.

On the morning of his arrest, Perez Ramirez was in his front yard working on a lawnmower for the landscaping business he started in 2018, unaware that federal agents were waiting nearby, his family said.

About 10 minutes later, his daughter Fernanda heard him yelling her name.

“I thought he just needed something from me. He usually yells my name from outside whenever he needs help while working,” Fernanda said. “As I was walking out of my

Carterville coach under investigation has history of disciplinary action

JACKSON BRANDHORST

MOLLY PARKER

jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com

mparker@capitolnewsillinois.com

John “Jake” Wakey, the Carterville High School assistant football coach and teacher at the center of an ongoing criminal sexual abuse investigation, had been previously disciplined by the district for inappropriately texting students and letting them hang out at his house late at night without any other adults present.

As a result, Wakey was suspended for 10 days without pay in December 2009 by Carterville Unit 5 District’s Board of Education, according to school records obtained by Capitol News Illinois and the Saluki Local Reporting Lab under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

In an eight-count “notice of

charges,” the district at the time also accused him of drinking in front of students before driving to catch the bus headed for a football game that he helped coach. It also said that he let students remain in his home unsupervised.

He did not face criminal charges.

Wakey joined the Carterville district in the fall of 2003, days after he ended court supervision for a misdemeanor conviction for providing liquor to minors earlier that same year in Coles County, about 150 miles north of Carterville, court records show.

The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office announced last month that it had opened a criminal sexual abuse investigation into a district employee, but didn’t name Wakey at the time. CNI and the Saluki Lab first reported last week that Wakey was the subject

of the abuse allegations, upon obtaining three subpoenas served to the district seeking school records about him and 17 former students.

The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the criminal investigation, and the Illinois State Board of Education, which is conducting a separate investigation into his teacher’s license, served the subpoenas on the school district.

A subpoena is a legal process that compels the production of records or interviews in an investigation. It does not indicate that wrongdoing has occurred, or detail any allegations, and Wakey — who has worked in the district for more than two decades — has not been charged with a crime. He has not responded to multiple calls and text messages to his cellphone seeking comment.

City Council hears concerns over camping ordinance in special Friday meeting

ORION WOLF owolf@dailyegyptian.com

The Carbondale City Council did not take action on an ordinance that would have banned public camping in the city after three hours of public comment in a special meeting Friday morning. The public offered alternative approaches to addressing homelessness in Carbondale, and the City Council offered their own ideas as well.

The council chamber was filled with people, and more chairs were brought into the already crowded room to account for more residents and neighbors who had come to comment on the ordinance.

The proposed ordinance would have declared public camping to

be a “nuisance,” which is defined as “‘a significant and unreasonable interference’ with the rights of the public,” according to Justia.

The ordinance included an exception for camping on land that the city authorized for the specific use of public camping. If adopted, it would have imposed fines on those who violate that.

According to the meeting agenda packet, the ordinance was introduced to create a structure of clear, set rules on the use of public property for camping and to address health and safety concerns involved with such encampments.

Alongside this ordinance was another item of discussion regarding the standards of communication

ORDINANCE | 5

Contact Us

Email: editor@dailyegyptian.com

Editor-in-Chief: Carly Gist cgist@dailyegyptian.com

News Editor: Jackson Brandhorst jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com

Design Chief: David Starr-Fleming dstarrfleming@dailyegyptian.com

Photo Editor: Emily Brinkman ebrinkman@dailyegyptian.com

Ad Chief: Samantha Barnhill sbarnhill@dailyegyptian.com

Senior Editor: Lylee Gibbs lgibbs@dailyegyptian.com

Digital Editor: Peyton Cook pcook@dailyegyptian.com

Faculty Managing Editor: Alee Quick aquick@dailyegyptian.com

Business Manager: Amy Dion businessmanager@dailyegyptian.com

About Us

Published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale on a weekly basis in print, and every day on dailyegyptian.com. Fall and spring semester editions run every Wednesday. Free copies are distributed in the Carbondale, Carterville, and Springfield communities.

Mission Statement

The Daily Egyptian, the student-run news organization of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is committed to being a trusted source of news, information, commentary and public discourse, while helping readers understand the issues affecting their lives.

Publishing Information

The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and functions as a laboratory for the School of Journalism in exchange for the room and utilities in the Communications Building. The Daily Egyptian is a non-profit organization that survives primarily off of its advertising revenue. Offices are in the Communications Building, room 1259, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Ill., 62901.

Copyright Information

@2026 The Daily Egyptian. All rights reserved. All content is property of the Daily Egyptian and may not be reproduced or transmitted without consent. The Daily Egyptian is a member of the Illinois College Press Association, Associated Collegiate Press, College Media Advisers Inc. and the College Business and Advertising Managers Inc.

Submissions

Letters and guest columns must be submitted with author’s contact information, preferably via email. Phone numbers are required to verify authorship, but will not be published. Students must include their year and major. Faculty must include rank and department. Others include hometown. Submissions should be sent to editor@dailyegyptian.com

is a beautiful tuxedo cat from Southern Illinois with striking markings and a sweet, vocal personality that makes every interaction memorable. Found homeless, Wednesday has a gentle and affectionate nature, eager to share attention, conversation, and companionship with those around her. Soft fur, bright eyes, and a friendly demeanor make her a delight to be around, while a confident, communicative spirit ensures she never goes unnoticed. Ready for a loving forever home, Wednesday is looking for a family that will appreciate her playful charm, chatter, and loyal companionship for years to come.

100-year-old Horstman’s Cleaners & Furriers announces potential permanent closure

BRAYDEN GUY bguy@dailyegyptian.com

Sitting on the corner of University Avenue in Carbondale, Horstman’s Dry Cleaners has served the community since 1925. But the business faces the possibility of permanent closure.

The business’s website states that Horstman’s has permanently closed its doors and thanks its patrons for “allowing us to serve you for nearly a century.” But there is still a possibility that the closure will only be temporary, according to employees.

Arlene Reese and her daughter, Ivaree Reese, were working the drive-thru on March 21, the dry cleaners’ last day for pick-ups. On whether the business would permanently close, the two said they were “playing it by ear,” but “more than likely,” March 21 was the last day.

Arlene Reese said that the “boiler went out,” and was not sure how much the repairs would cost. She also said that the owner, Jon Kirk, is dealing with health issues.

“I broke my ankle in two places,” Kirk

CARTERVILLE

CONTINUED FROM 1

The announcement of a criminal sexual abuse investigation on Feb. 21, 2026 resulted in the district placing Wakey on paid administrative leave — an action that came 15 months after the FBI first received a tip accusing an employee, later identified to be Wakey, of inappropriate sexual conduct involving a former student.

The FBI, which first received the tip alleging sexual abuse in November 2024, immediately determined that it didn’t have jurisdiction to investigate, and passed the tip to local law enforcement.

The district had been informed of the FBI tip by local law enforcement when it was first received, but said it didn’t have enough information to contact child welfare services or conduct its own internal investigation at that time. The Williamson County sheriff also said recently that his office could not officially open an investigation until last month, when a former student agreed to go on the record with his allegations. The sheriff said investigators believe there may be multiple victims, and that his office has since received numerous tips concerning Wakey.

District received two tips from anonymous reporting service in 2025

Carterville Board President David Schwartz said during a school board meeting Thursday night the district also received two anonymous reports in February 2025 — just three months after the FBI tip came in — alleging that Wakey had sent inappropriate text messages to students.

Those tips came through an online service, FriendWatch, a grassroots

told the Daily Egyptian over the phone.

Kirk said he did not want to discuss the state of the business yet and asked the Daily Egyptian to call back in two weeks.

Arlene and Ivaree said the nearest dry cleaners were Monroe Cleaners in Marion and Immediate Cleaners in Benton, but they had heard Monroe Cleaners was experiencing boiler issues, as well.

Monroe Cleaners is a dry-cleaning business that has served the Marion community since 1916.

Fred Monroe of Monroe Cleaners said they were experiencing boiler issues but were still operational and taking orders.

Monroe said they were getting more business from Horstman’s closure, which was increasing their staff’s workload.

“We are at the same amount of people with more business,” Monroe said.

The Daily Egyptian will continue to update as the story progresses.

Staff Reporter Brayden Guy can be reached at bguy@dailyegyptian.com

organization that gives teens an instant, virtual and anonymous way to report concerns.

The district says that it contacted FriendWatch to see if the company could provide additional details. But FriendWatch told school officials its services are confidential and anonymous, and that it could not share identities or contact information unless it was provided by the reporting parties, which had not shared it in making these reports.

District administrators also said that they asked if FriendWatch had the ability to reach out to the tipsters to encourage them to come forward with additional information. FriendWatch stated it did not have that ability. As a result, the district’s investigation of this report was limited to speaking only to Wakey, who denied having sent such communications.

Wakey had also initially denied sending inappropriate texts when he was disciplined in 2009, but when given a “second opportunity,” told the district he’d “forgotten.” The district cited his initial story as being “not entirely accurate,” according to school records.

District received additional tips in 2026

Since the alleged sexual abuse became public in February of this year, the district has also received two additional reports concerning inappropriate text messages — allegedly sent in March 2022 and November 2025 by Wakey to both a former and a current student.

A screenshot of one of the inappropriate text messages allegedly sent by Wakey has been circulating on social media in the wake of Wakey’s suspension. In the message, which appears to be from 2022, Wakey allegedly encouraged

the student to use the hair-removal product Nair on his private parts so that he could “show size and definition.” The student responded with a light joke, noting that the product’s instructions warn against using it there.

“You should try it,” Wakey allegedly replied. “Hopefully it will make it bigger.”

The district has since launched its own internal investigation into these reports, Schwartz said Thursday night, and has also provided information and evidence about the messages to the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office and ISBE.

One Carterville district parent, addressing the board Thursday night, said he was concerned with the amount of time that had passed

between the FBI receiving the tip and the district placing Wakey on leave. Given the prior allegations, “maybe there should have been more done,” he said.

In the letter, read aloud by Schwartz and signed by school Superintendent Sarah Barnstable, the district said it is taking steps to improve the safety and well-being of the school community. That includes more frequent training for appropriate social media usage, a review of board policies governing employee conduct and a prohibition on the use of personal technology for school-related communications.

“We take any allegation involving inappropriate conduct with students extremely seriously, and we recognize the concern this situation

has caused for our students, families, staff and alumni,” the letter read, which was sent out to district parents during the meeting.

The school board held a lengthy executive session during Thursday night’s meeting, but did not take any public action concerning Wakey’s employment.

Records show that he continues to receive his $3,300 biweekly paycheck.

This story was produced for Capitol News Illinois through the Saluki Local Reporting Lab, supported by grant funding from the SIU Foundation and the Illinois Press Foundation.

News Editor Jackson Brandhorst can be reached at jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com.

room, I heard him calling my name again, this time, more frequently and louder.”

When Fernanda opened the door of her childhood home and looked out into her front yard, she saw what no daughter of an immigrant ever wants to see — plainclothes immigration agents with vests emblazoned with “police” and “ICE” arresting her father.

“Two ICE agents on each side of him,” she said. “They were walking him out to their car.”

Fernanda rushed back inside and began yelling to her family “they’re taking him, they’re taking him!”

She then went back outside and started running toward them, but she didn’t know what to do.

“I froze,” she said.

Perez Ramirez directed Fernanda to call her mother. She ran back inside to grab her phone. With shaking hands, through tears, she explained to her mom what was happening.

“I was crying,” Fernanda said. “I told her that they had come for dad, and that I didn’t know what to do, and that’s when she started walking me through the whole thing. You see all these videos and information about what to do when ICE goes to your house — but all of that went out the window.”

As agents began to drive away, now with her father in the back of a car, Fernanda ran down the street to catch up to them. A few of them stayed behind and talked with her, and she asked the agents why they were arresting him.

“They didn’t tell me,” said Fernanda. “I asked them if I could talk to him, and they were like, ‘No, you can’t talk to him and you can’t see him.’”

An ICE spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

According to Fernanda, the agents told her that they were going to take her father to St. Louis, and from there her father would call her. After that, they would then transfer him to the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center in southeastern Missouri.

The federal officials asked Fernanda to go get her father’s diabetes medication, which she was finally able to get after convincing her family to let her back inside their house — in fear of the agents, they had locked themselves in, and her out.

Fernanda said she waited for the agents to step outside of her family’s property before she was let inside her home. “I grabbed his medicine,” she said. “I was shaking. I don’t even think I gave him enough for a month.”

In the rush of the situation, Fernanda admits that she didn’t think of asking the immigration agents to see a warrant authorizing the detention of her father.

“And that was that,” she said. “That’s when they left.”

Later that afternoon, Fernanda said she got the call from her father, in which he was able to recount what happened from his perspective.

“Our dad told us his story,” Fernanda said. “He said that he saw them at first, but that he didn’t know it was ICE, because he only saw them from his peripheral vision.”

Thinking nothing of it, Perez Ramirez told his daughter that he went to work on his lawnmower until he heard voices calling him from behind. Assuming that it was a neighbor who needed help, he turned around, only to see what he described as police officers in his front yard.

“He said that, allegedly, one of them pulled a gun on him,” Fernanda said. “That’s when he said that he started screaming my name.”

This was not the first time that Perez Ramirez had been arrested by ICE. In 2011, he was arrested and subsequently deported back to Mexico, but this time, he told his daughters the agents were not nearly as aggressive as back then.

“He said that they weren’t as aggressive as the first time, because the first time it was really aggressive. This time, he said that they did almost tackle him down on the ground, but that they were nice,” Fernanda said.

“One of the guys even asked him if he wanted his daughter to have his personal items. And he was like, ‘Yeah.’ So they gave me his stuff that he had. The first time, they took everything that he had on him.”

‘He needed everything’

Perez Ramirez came to the United States in 1999 in search of what his family described as “necessities.”

“He basically grew up with nothing,” Fernanda said of the stories her parents would tell her about her father’s past. “He needed everything. He didn’t have toys. He didn’t have clothes. He’s always been working — since he was a kid. To go to school, he had to walk two hours there and two hours back. Sometimes he would say that his grandma gave him food because at home they didn’t have any.”

He grew up in Motozintla, a city of just under 80,000 people in southern Chiapas, Mexico.

Perez Ramirez had been in southern Illinois since 2001. From then until 2006, he struggled heavily with sobriety.

“Before, when he used to drink, he would spend it all on drinking with himself and his friends,” Fernanda said, recalling what her mother would tell her about the beginning of her parents’ relationship. “Then on Mondays, we didn’t have any money. Our mother would gather cash to help him with the bills, with the food. That’s why she never stopped working. It was really irresponsible. He wouldn’t even pay the babysitter.”

From 2001 to 2006, Perez Ramirez accumulated a string of DUIs and various traffic violations in Jackson County, records show. In 2007, Ramirez was released from jail after an 11-month stint and came out a completely different man, vowing to change his life forever, according to his family.

“He stopped drinking completely,”

Fernanda said. “After that, everything changed. He started putting his family first. He started spending more time with us, talking to us more, being there more. You could really see the difference in him.”

For 20 years, Perez Ramirez hasn’t had a single sip of alcohol, according to his friends and family. He’s become an active member of his church and his community and has built a robust clientele through his landscaping business.

His family said that during his time in jail, Perez Ramirez had really found God.

“He was always a believer, but he just wasn’t in the path. He was believing — but not practicing,” Fernanda said.

Despite his religious rebirth and clean record since 2007, his past still follows him.

In 2011, his then-4-year-old daughter, Julissa, watched as her father was “violently” detained by ICE agents outside of the very same house that they live in today.

“We had recently moved there,” Julissa said. “That day, it was about late morning, mid-afternoon. They came in a red pickup truck, and I remember it so vividly. Two guys came out, and they didn’t look like regular ICE agents. They just looked like civilians, so it really kind of threw me off. They beat my dad to the front of the car. They stunned him on the hood, and then they just handcuffed him and took him away.

“I didn’t know what it was about, I didn’t understand, because I was so young, but I just know that whatever happened was something I shouldn’t have been able to see,” Julissa said. “I shouldn’t have even been there.”

Ramirez was then deported to Nuevo León, Mexico — a place he had never been before. He had no family there, no friends and nowhere to go but north — back to his family in Carbondale.

‘It’s going to be very difficult’

Four months later, Ramirez was reunited with his family — still undocumented and, in the eyes of the Department of Homeland Security, still in Mexico.

According to those closest to Ramirez, when he came back to the U.S. in 2011 after being deported for the first time, he began ramping up his attempts to achieve citizenship status in the U.S. Knowing that it would be a tall task, he began working with a lawyer and members of his church to clear his record and to ensure that he had no run-ins with law enforcement that would jeopardize his or his family’s livelihood in Carbondale.

“After all of those DUIs and being deported, he went to pastors, and they helped him get legal resources,” Fernanda said. “At church, he would say in his testimony about how he used to be, and how after he got in trouble with the law, it changed him — mentally, physically — and that’s why he is the way he is now. His view on everything changed.”

Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen as an undocumented adult with even the most mundane criminal record is nearly impossible, according to SIU

Immigration Law Professor Cindy Buys.

“It’s going to be very difficult, if not impossible, for this man to ever obtain US citizenship,” Buys said. “Normally, if you are being deported a second time, you don’t even get to see a judge — they can deport you with very little due process. If you’re deported a second time, the statute typically says that you are never eligible to come back without a discretionary waiver from the attorney general. So the family would literally have to apply to the U.S. Attorney General, and ask the attorney general to exercise discretion to waive this ban on his return to the United States.”

In the case of Ramirez, whose daughters are legal U.S. citizens through birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, there is a narrow but potential path to citizenship for him. Fernanda, who turned 21 in December, had just begun the process of sponsoring her father through the Petition for Alien Relative Form.

This would be a long and arduous process in which Fernanda would be attempting to get her father a Green Card, which would make him a permanent resident of the U.S. and would allow him to eventually apply for citizenship.

“It is possible for a child, who is a U.S. citizen at age 21 and above, to sponsor a parent,” Buys said. “But the parent has to basically have a clean record in order to apply for a Green Card and then ultimately to apply for citizenship. So, while there is a path for a 21-year-old U.S. citizen daughter to sponsor her father, the father’s record still matters.”

However, the difficult timeline and unlikelihood that citizenship would be obtainable were of no concern to their family lawyer, who raised a much more daunting red flag.

“We were telling the lawyer that he had a court date for the traffic ticket,” Fernanda said, “and that’s when the lawyer told my dad, ‘I don’t recommend you stepping foot in court, because they’re going to see that you were deported in 2011.”

But that wasn’t an option for Perez Ramirez. On Feb. 25, he had to appear in court in front of Perry County Judge James Campanella for the tickets he received in Du Quoin a few months prior while driving his family back home from St. Louis. He was driving 45 in a 35-mileper-hour zone with an invalid license.

“We’d seen on social media that when people go to court, ICE would take them immediately from court,” Fernanda said. “That’s when I started thinking, ‘They might take him.’”

During court, those tickets were dismissed, and nothing happened to Perez Ramirez that day, allowing his family to breathe a sigh of relief. However, according to the counsel he had with him during that hearing, Campanella told Perez Ramirez that he had “bigger problems.”

According to his counsel, Campanella asked Perez Ramirez about his citizenship status during his hearing. Being under oath, he told the judge the truth.

“When the court day had gone fine

and nothing happened — we thought everything was good,” Fernanda said. “We thought ICE wasn’t gonna come anymore. But we got too comfortable in the situation.”

‘Boomer was there for me’

Dolores Lovell, a woman in her 70s, has been a client of “Boomer,” as she calls him, for over five years. Each year, right around this time, Lovell looks forward to Perez Ramirez’s presence as he helps prepare her yard for spring.

“I’m a senior citizen, and there are days when I just cannot move,” Lovell said. “Boomer was there for me.”

According to relatives, Perez Ramirez is always working and has been doing lawn care in southern Illinois since 2011.

“When his company first started, it was just him, and we all had to help — my mom, my sister and me — because he didn’t have workers yet. It was really small, but little by little, he built it up,” Fernanda said.

When he started his own landscaping business in 2018, the family struggled as Perez Ramirez sacrificed consistent paychecks to take a risk with his own entrepreneurial endeavor.

“I remember the first few years, we were struggling with money, but he kept working, and eventually we started doing well financially because of his work,” Fernanda said.

That work, according to Lovell, Perez Ramirez is very good at.

“He’s very conscientious about his work — he’s a very hard worker,” Lovell said. “He would always try to accommodate me with the times that I was available. He is reasonably priced and a very generous individual. I just can’t say enough about him. I’m heartbroken over what’s happened to him.”

Within the past few years, his business has really started to flourish, and as winter turned to spring, his phone has been ringing off the hook with calls asking for Boomer’s lawn care service.

Now, as Perez Ramirez sits awaiting deportation in a Missouri detention center, his daughters have been tasked with assuming his clientele during the busiest time of year.

“I’m basically handling his business while also going to school and working my own job,” Fernanda said. “It feels like I have three jobs at once. We don’t even know how many clients he has. It’s a lot.”

The daughters have been mostly hands-off from the business since it began expanding as of late, and said that they didn’t even know how their father organized the paperwork, records and properties that he tended.

“One client canceled on us, and I just broke down because I was thinking, ‘We just lost money, I don’t know how I’m going to tell my dad,’” Fernanda said.

Fernanda and her sister Julissa both work jobs while they attend school, and will have to communicate with clients like Lovell to prevent further cancellations.

“His family,” Lovell said, “I’ve met them, and they’re wonderful people, very friendly, very kind. And I just hate to see

ICE | 11

between city staff, City Council and the city manager.

Public camping ordinance yields high turnout and new perspectives

Upward of 75 people came to the meeting, many among them came to encourage the City Council to stand against the ordinance and suggested alternatives to such a decision.

“Criminalizing homelessness is a nonstarter,” Erikah Buker, who lives at the homeless encampment on East College Street, said during public comments. “You are putting people that are already ground into the dust into a pattern of further grinding,” Buker also discussed how the encampment, which has become the only shelter for over 40 people, had also become overloaded with trash.

“So many people use us as a dumping ground, to take their old closets that they don’t wear anymore, to take their old bedding that’s worn out, to take their food that’s expired, and dump it in our laps in the guise of charity,” Buker said. “It’s all just garbage that gets put on our front porch.”

For Buker, sanitation was also an issue. Buker described what it was like to wait for the bathroom every day: one porta-potty shared by the entire encampment.

“I don’t know about you, but have you ever lived in a house where you had to wait for the bathroom? That’s every day,” Buker said. “And it’s no shower. No shade. It’s a porta-potty everyone’s waiting for.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to have it. I’m very glad. But it’s too little, too late. It’s putting the cart before the horse. It’s taking the problem and making it a solution. This is backwards thinking the whole way around.”

Chastity Mays, co-administrator of The Little Resource Center, which serves families and parents in Carbondale, talked about her experience with one of her clients.

“I recently had a pregnant client who was homeless,” Mays said. “She had to get an ID and a

birth certificate, she has no address. Those things cost money. That is a rolling circle. If you don’t have an ID, you don’t have a birth certificate, you don’t have a social security card.”

That client, according to Mays, was able to obtain those documents and is on the way to more permanent housing.

“It’s going to take a local, a national and a clever collaboration,” Mays said. “It’s going to take all of us to work together.”

One more broad proposal from the community was from Deborah Gates, a resident of Carbondale.

“I propose that the City Council use us, the community members, as a resource, those of us who are passionate to do something to help end homelessness, to propose a coalition made of those of us who are interested in ending it and that we work with the city on proposals and ideas and actualization,” Gates said.

This idea of a more community-based group was repeated throughout the meeting.

Council members Adam Loos and Nathan Colombo also suggested that those who can and are willing should offer a place in their home for a homeless person.

In an interview with the Daily Egyptian, Colombo said, “We’re not saying everyone needs to open their doors tomorrow, but there are folks that are interested in that in our community.”

“It’s one of those radical ideas that cost us nothing to produce,” Colombo said.

Council member Clare Killman also offered her own suggestion as to how Carbondale should model its approach to homelessness. She had done research into Finnish law regarding their housing first policies.

“The model emphasizes stable housing as a basic human right and creates a triage approach to managing substance abuse or mental health issues that could be contributing to a state of chronic homelessness,” Killman said.

“Finland was able to convert former shelters into permanent housing units,” Killman said.

“They were able to partner with government and nongovernment agencies to build new housing

for the homeless. And they’re currently set to eradicate homelessness by 2027.”

She suggested Finland’s model as something that could potentially be done similarly with vacant housing units in Carbondale.

Council member Dawn Roberts pointed out how different Finland and the United States are, citing Finland’s immense federal support for eradicating homelessness and keeping people off the streets, as well as their smaller population, which makes it easier to implement on a smaller scale.

“There are definitely lessons to be learned from that model, but we are definitely very different,” Roberts said. “Our town does not have the financial resources or the federal support for something that broad.”

Most people were concerned about how the public camping ban would affect the homeless encampment on East College Street.

However, Donald Monty, a former City Council member and current resident of Carbondale, raised the question on the specific wording of the ordinance that seemed to include people sleeping in their vehicles.

“That is one provision in the code of this proposed ordinance that applies everywhere,” Monty said. “It’s not restricted to just public property. Which means that if my neighbor has weekend guests, and they come in their RV, and they sleep in their RV, they’re violating the ordinance.”

Colombo assured the audience that the city isn’t ignoring homelessness.

“We are all working on this issue, consistently we find ourselves tripping over the way that we come forward and we present how we are going to work on this issue,” Colombo said.

He said he created a PowerPoint of a nonexhaustive list of ideas to address the issue from City Council members, himself and the public.

He said in an interview, “They are all just somebody else’s ideas that I’ve tried to collect into one big bucket here.”

“You will not agree with everything, you will not like everything, but it will be something to chew on,” Colombo said at the council meeting.

He encouraged those who wanted a copy of the presentation to email him at ncolombo@ carbondaleil.gov.

Killman discussed how some members of the council, including herself, had also experienced homelessness to varying degrees.

“I think the easiest way to think about suffering and certainly the laziest is that suffering is deserved,” she said. “That someone must have done something to deserve the way that their life has led.

“I think that creates kind of an emotional cheat code to separate ourselves from the people who are around hardship. It’s so much easier to punish or judge others and save your ego than it is to admit we’re all much closer to experiencing suffering than we can admit.”

In Champaign, Illinois, a similar ordinance was proposed to ban public camping in the city, according to reporting by the Daily Illini. The Champaign City Council voted against it after the public voiced their concerns.

Champaign operates similarly to Carbondale in the fact that it is a college town, and a “sanctuary city” for the neighboring towns that do not have the same resources.

A common complaint among the community members that attended the meeting was the short notice. The city did not announce the meeting until Wednesday, and the meeting took place on Friday at 9 a.m.

Colombo discussed with the Daily Egyptian how the ordinance item might have appeared to the public, considering the standard format of the agenda item.

“It landed as if we were trying to sneak in and vote on this camping ordinance. When the reality is, there are not the votes there, I think, as it stands to pass this ordinance as it is,” he said.

City Council discusses concerns over breakdown of communication between the city and the public

While the room was filled with community members wanting to voice their concerns over the ordinance, the special meeting also included discussion about the boundaries and expectations on communication between city staff, the city manager and City Council members. The discussion was extended to refer to the public, as well, as the conversation continued.

By the end of the ordinance discussion, most of the public had left the meeting; however, the discussion continued to involve concerns over homelessness.

Council member Brian Stanfield said communication can help everyone coordinate resources.

“The more we can be armed with information ahead of time helps us to communicate to other people so they don’t feel like they’re getting caught with two days’ notice for a meeting,” he said.

Though the special meeting was an exception, lack of communication on when a meeting happens becomes something that reflects badly on the image of the City Council, Stanfield said.

“Even though it might not be a city-sponsored event, it’s the sort of thing that when we want to coordinate our resources for something like the homeless situation if we can’t even coordinate our notification for council meetings,” he said. “That’s a bad precedent and a bad look.”

Killman was a delegate to a think tank called Local Gov 2030, which brought together local government employees trying to find solutions to different community issues.

“One of three key problems all local government employees throughout the country identified among themselves was the difficulty of communication with the public, with each other, with electeds. It was pervasive,” Killman said. “Current government communication models rarely work well and have led to continued declines overall in the United States in public trust.

“They’ve contributed to sporadic or low engagement with communication efforts, misunderstanding as to what we even do as local governments and they lead to the general feeling that what cities actually do is reactive and transactional,” Killman said.

She offered the studies from Local Gov 2030 to the rest of the council for consideration on their own time.

Staff Reporter Orion Wolf can be reached at owolf@dailyegyptian.com or orionwolf6 on Instagram

Sweet Traditions: History lives on at the Maple Syrup Festival

JAKE HAINES jhaines@dailyegyptian.com

This year marks the 15th official Maple Syrup Festival presented by Southern Illinois University’s Touch of Nature Educational Center. While the first official festival took place in 2011, the event was held for several decades at a much smaller scale. The festival educates the public about the production of maple syrup locally and how Indigenous tribes in the southern Illinois area would retrieve the sap of the trees and create the syrup.

Touch of Nature presented the annual festival on Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22, which included live music, vendor booths and several demonstrations such as blacksmithing, lumberjack skills

and maple tree tapping.

“The Indigenous people used to freeze the sap so that the water in it would separate and move to the top as it froze allowing them to scrape it away and leave the syrup at the bottom,” SIU senior Jayne Reed explained.

The event featured a pancake breakfast in the morning to showcase the area’s maple syrup, as well as food being cooked throughout the day.

Don Croft, one of the two musicians performing together at the event on Sunday, laughed as he said, “This is the first time that Tom and I have actually played as a duo together. I have set in with his band before but this is our first time as a duo.” He said

it felt more like a jam session than an actual performance.

Down the path from the live music, several students from the forestry school showcased demonstrations on how to be a lumberjack. Ben Pennino, a junior at SIU studying wildlife and conservation, said the event was great practice for their upcoming 69th annual Midwest Conclave event on April 11, 2026. The event, which also takes place at Touch of Nature, will showcase members of the SIU Timbersports Club against other college teams in both

Staff Photographer Jake Haines can be reached at jhaines@dailyegyptian.com

Olivia Herron makes waves in pools across the country

ELI HOOVER ehoover@dailyegyptian.com

When senior SIU swimmer Olivia Herron stepped onto the pool deck in Seattle for the 2025 NCAA Championships, her first reaction was one of disbelief.

“It has always been a goal, but it’s never something I thought was possible until last year,” she said.

Now that she’s had the experience, she knew what to expect going into her encore performance in Atlanta for 2026.

“I came into this year with a lot more confidence,” she said.

Despite all the pressure that might come with a second straight NCAA Championships appearance, Herron has made it her mission to savor every last moment.

“Since it’s my last college meet I just want to enjoy it and make the most of it,” she said.

According to her teammates, she has no problem making the most of any situation.

“She’s just the funnest little gal. She has so much life to her,” junior teammate and All-Missouri Valley Conference first-teamer Ava Rines said.

Rines also commented on how much has gone into this moment for Herron.

“She’s worked really hard to be where she is now,” Rines said. “We’re all super proud of her and I’m glad I get to call her my teammate.”

Herron living in Manchester, England, along with the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, made the recruitment process tough. It took a lot of Zoom and FaceTime calls with head coach Geoff Hanson to get her to Carbondale.

Herron credits the care Hanson and the rest of the coaching staff showed for why she ended up choosing SIU over a host of other offers.

“The coaches were a big deciding factor. It felt like they actually wanted me here,” she said.

Herron started with an impressive freshman year, garnering the 2023 MVC Freshman of the Year award, and her stock has only risen since.

She has been on the All-MVC first team each of the last three years, was named a 2025 First-Team Scholar All-American and was a 2025 Second-Team All-American in the 200-yard breaststroke. This year, she has added an MVC Swimmer of the Year trophy and another SecondTeam All-American honor in the 200-yard breaststroke to her resume.

At the 2025 Championships, Herron wasn’t the only Saluki to participate. She was joined by Celia Pulido, who is still with the program as a graduate assistant. It was the first time that SIU had sent multiple qualifiers to the NCAA Championships since 1992.

Hanson realized how big it has been to have two talents like Pulido

and Herron come in back-to-back, and how little that happens at SIU’s level.

“Sometimes you have to get a little bit lucky,” he said.

Rines said she thinks it’s a testament to the program Hanson and the rest of the coaching staff have built.

“I think it says a lot about our program, that we’re constantly evolving,” Rines said.

Herron has rewritten both the program and MVC record books,

holding a combined 11 individual records across four different events, to go along with six relay records.

Herron hopes that inspires the next generation to realize those records are within reach.

“I know when I got here a lot of those records were deemed unattainable. I looked up to them and I was able to get them,” she said.

“Hopefully that inspires others to work hard and achieve those things.”

When she was asked what the most

important lesson she learned at SIU was, Herron simply replied, “Don’t let any doubts stop you from making an experience.”

Any doubts she may have had sure haven’t stopped Herron from making plenty of experiences in Carbondale and beyond.

Sports Reporter Eli Hoover can be found at ehoover@dailyegyptian.com or on Instagram @hoovermakesart

Salukis surrender first conference series to UIC, go 1-2 against the Flames

grounded into a game-ending double play, and the Dawgs snagged the first game of the series, 5-4.

SIU Baseball traveled to the Windy City to take on the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames in a three-game series on March 20 and 21. A Saturday doubleheader kicked off Missouri Valley Conference play for the Salukis. While SIU took a come-from-behind victory in the first game, the Flames took late-game wins in the latter two games, taking the series two games to one.

MARCH 20: SIU 5, UIC 4

Pitcher Andrew Evans started the game for the Dawgs and worked efficiently, allowing only two unearned runs through five innings of work.

The Salukis could not string together enough baserunners or hits to drive in any runs for the first five innings. Facing a two-run deficit, centerfielder Julio Guerrero came up in the top of the sixth and knocked a three-run home run over the left field wall, giving the Salukis the lead.

After holding the lead for an inning, the Flames charged back with a lead-taking two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Second baseman Tim Simay led off the ninth inning with a single, bringing up Kaleb Hall. The first baseman sent a ball over the left field wall, giving the Salukis a late 5-4 lead.

Although the Flames loaded the bases, UIC

MARCH 21 (G1): UIC 10, SIU 9

Looking to take the series, the Salukis sent out pitcher Meade Johnson to take on the Flames. SIU was down 1-0 early after surrendering a secondinning home run.

Right fielder Jackson Dibble answered with a game-tying home run in the top of the third.

Catcher Jacob McKenzie gave the Dawgs a fourth-inning lead with a two-run homer.

Guerrero, continuing his strong series, hit another home run to give the Dawgs a 4-3 lead.

Third baseman Jaden Flores tacked on another run in the fifth with an RBI single, followed by a McKenzie two-run single.

The Flames reclaimed the lead after adding five runs between the fifth and seventh innings.

McKenzie and pinch hitter Kye Watson gave the Salukis a 9-8 lead in the top of the ninth.

Looking to carry some of the late-game magic from Friday’s game, pitcher Charlie Miller came out for the ninth inning, but could not escape the Flames’ offense. UIC walked the game off on a home run and a single.

MARCH 21 (G2): UIC 6, SIU 5

Both teams sought out a series victory heading into the second game of the Saturday

doubleheader. Pitcher Troy Shepard got the nod in the rubber match of the series and got off to a strong start. After giving up a run in the second inning, the lefty didn’t surrender an earned run until the eighth inning.

Designated hitter T. Simay gave SIU the lead with a two-run single in the second inning.

The Flames continued the back-and-forth affair with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.

First baseman Cecil Lofton got on base with a single, and left fielder Michael Mylott got hit with a pitch, putting the Dawgs in prime scoring position. McKenzie, tallying his fifth hit in the series, drove in the two runners with an RBI double to right field.

Guerrero produced another run after stealing third and sprinting home on a throwing error.

UIC tied the game with a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, making it another close contest.

The Salukis couldn’t push across any runs in the top of the ninth, and, for the second time on the day, the Flames walked off the game.

With this series loss, the Salukis are now 9-13 overall and 1-2 in conference play. The Flames are now 6-14-1 overall and 2-1 in MVC play. The

Low turnout for primary midterm elections in Jackson, Williamson county

PEYTON COOK

pcook@dailyegyptian.com

Polls opened at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, March 17 for the Illinois primary election in Jackson and Williamson county, where there was a low but steady turnout of voters.

“The midterm elections always have a low turnout, it’s bad,” Donna Gibson, a poll worker at Carbondale City Hall said. By 10 a.m., the location had only received nine votes.

Precinct 25 in Grinnell Hall, on SIU’s campus had their first voter arrive at 1 p.m. The precinct consists mostly of students. Jane Dougherty, an English professor at SIU and poll worker, said the turnout has been slow.

“I think one of the issues is that we are in Precinct 25, which is very student heavy, and students tend to move around a lot,” Dougherty said. “We’ve had a few students come in to vote who we had to send to City Hall so they could register and vote there because they weren’t on our roster.”

SIU student Tayja Sykes had just

this problem. She went up to vote in Grinnell Hall and wasn’t able to since her voter location changed when she updated her driver’s license. She went to City Hall to reregister and vote, also convincing some of her friends to do the same.

“I want to see a different future, so I came out to vote,” she said.

Dougherty recommended people make a plan to register before Election Day in November and figure out where they will be voting.

“There are long lines of students who are trying to register to vote on Election Day and we’ve had students who’ve had to sit in like a three or four hour line to get them registered and get them into the place where they vote,” Dougherty said.

According to the Jackson County unofficial results, 24% of registered voters went to the polls. Voter turnout in Williamson County was 25%, according to the county’s unofficial results.

Digital Editor Peyton Cook can be reached at pcook@dailyegyptian.com, or on Instagram at @cookmeavisual

SIU head football coach Nick Hill gets contract extension

ELI HOOVER ehoover@dailyegyptian.com

Saluki head football coach Nick Hill has signed an extension to continue in his position, SIU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tim Leonard said Tuesday during the weekly Inside Saluki Athletics update. Hill’s contract had been set to expire in December 2026.

“We want to win a national championship with Nick Hill at the helm, and we believe we can do that,” Leonard said on the show. “Coach Hill brings passion and energy to our program, and we are investing in football at a level that reflects that commitment.”

Leonard did not originally say how long the extension would last or how much Hill would be getting paid, but SIU athletics announced on their website later that afternoon that it is a four-year extension, making Hill the head coach through the 2029 season.

“I’m excited and humbled for the opportunity to be head coach here,” Hill said via the release.

“From day one getting the job until today, it’s been a dream come true. I come to work every single day with a vision to lead this program and I feel confident in doing so.”

Hill left no doubt that SIU is where he feels most at home.

“I still have a passion for this place,” he said. “This is where I want to be, this is where my family wants to be. We’re in that constant pursuit to bring championships here to Saluki Football.”

Reporting from The UnderDawg revealed that the base salary is $350,000 per year, up $55,000 from his $295,000 base salary for the 2025 season.

Hill wrapped up his 12th season on the SIU football coaching staff in November, having spent the last 10 years as head coach. Hill spent two years as the quarterbacks coach and cooffensive coordinator before taking over as the head coach in 2016.

Hill, a Du Quoin native, was also the starting quarterback his last two years as a player for the Salukis, leading them to a win over Big Ten school Indiana in 2006 and an FCS national semifinal finish in 2007.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Sports Reporter Eli Hoover can be found at ehoover@dailyegyptian.com or on Instagram @hoovermakesart

Hill’s head coaching record is 55-61 overall and 32-46 in the Missouri Valley Conference over those 10 years.

Saluki softball drops 2 games in hard-fought series against Redbirds

AARON CARNAHAN acarnahan@dailyegyptian.com

It was a matchup of winning streaks in Normal, Illinois on Friday, March 20 as Saluki softball entered a three-game series riding a seven-game winning streak and a perfect 5-0 record in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Redbirds came in on a three-game winning streak and a 5-11 record in the MVC.

March 20: ISU 4, SIU 0

The Saluki offense came in scoring 45 runs over the previous five games. Game 1 on Friday was a different story for the offense. The Salukis mustered just four hits in the game and failed to score a run in the contest. Scoring opportunities were few and far between, with only two Saluki baserunners left stranded out on the basepaths.

Junior outfielder Maleah Blomenkamp led the way for the SIU offense. Blomenkamp went 2-3 in the game with two singles. The two other Saluki hits came off the bats of sophomore outfielder Sage Grann and centerfielder Mikaela Coburn. Southern Illinois was without an extra base hit and didn’t take a single base on balls against Redbird pitching. The Dawgs only struck out one time at the plate as a team. The ball was being put in play, but SIU contact was converted into

outs as Illinois State didn’t commit an error in Game 1.

Freshman pitcher Hailey Lucas started in the circle for Southern Illinois. Lucas threw six innings allowing four runs, two of which two were earned. A throwing error in the bottom of the third allowed a Redbird baserunner to score and an RBI on a groundout later that same inning gave ISU a 2-0 advantage over SIU.

Lucas managed to miss a lot of Redbird bats and finished the game with seven strikeouts. Illinois State extended the edge to 3-0 the following inning with a solo home run to left field. One more insurance run for the Redbirds came off an RBI single up the middle and ISU defeated the Salukis by a final score of 4-0.

Southern Illinois’ longest win streak of the season came to an end and the Redbirds stretched their win streak to four wins in a row.

March 20: SIU 9, ISU 0

Saluki pitching was lights out in game two. Freshman pitcher Brooklyn Danielson took the circle to start for SIU. Danielson pitched five innings of scoreless softball, only allowing one hit and striking out six ISU hitters throwing an extremely efficient 52 pitches in the contest. With this scoreless outing,

Danielson moves to a perfect 5-0 on the season.

The Saluki offense came alive in the second inning. Junior Amanda Knutson started off the scoring with an RBI double to left center to score Coburn. One more run was scored in the top of the second on a sac fly from freshman Jordan Stewart that scored Knutson. Stewart picked up her fifth RBI of the year and put SIU in front by a score of 2-0 after two innings.

Southern Illinois rode the momentum into the top of the third and scored four runs in the inning.

Catcher Sydney Potter started the inning by launching a moonshot to left field that left the ballpark in a hurry. Potter leads the Salukis in home runs and RBIs and after that dinger, Potter now has 13 home runs and 33 RBIs on the 2026 campaign.

Stewart knocked in her second RBI off the game with an RBI single to left field. Blomenkamp kept the line moving with an RBI single of her own. Junior Emily Williams, who was just named D1 softball’s midmajor player of the week, brought the score to 6-0 Dawgs with an RBI sac fly to bring home Knutson.

The Salukis kept their foot on the gas and scored two more runs the following inning. Senior Charley Pursley crushed a screamer of a home

run to dead center. The solo shot was Pursley’s first long ball of the season. Knutson hit a sac fly to bring her season total RBIs to 15. In the top of the fifth, Grann doubled to right field to score Blomenkamp and take a commanding 9-0 advantage for the Dawgs. A nine-run lead was enough to qualify for the run rule and the Salukis won Game 2 in five innings.

March 21: ISU 5, SIU 4

A thrilling third game between the Salukis and Redbirds saw five lead changes and the game was eventually decided in the seventh inning.

The Redbirds got on the board first, with an RBI single up the middle to score a run. The Salukis starting pitcher was junior Emily Delgado. Delgado pitched four innings to start off the game before later reentering the game in the seventh inning. She allowed three hits and one run in those first four innings of work.

The Salukis came back to knot the game up at 1-1 thanks to a Knutson RBI single to left field that scored Coburn. The game would stay tied through the fifth inning until sophomore Hayden Kurtz launched a solo home run over the left field fence to take a 2-1 advantage for SIU. Kurtz’s long ball was her third of the season.

The Redbirds retook the lead in the bottom half of the sixth, an RBI

single down the left field line tied the game at 2-2. A walk with the bases loaded allowed another run to come across home plate and ISU led SIU 3-2 with an innings left to play.

Danielson had relieved Delgado in the fifth inning and through two innings of work allowed three hits and two runs, both of which were earned. In the seventh inning a clutch swing from Williams sent a ball high and deep out of the ballpark.

Williams’ two-run blast put the Salukis right back on top with a score of 4-3. Delgado reentered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, however she failed to record an out and the Redbirds were able to push two more runs across and win the game in walkoff fashion. The back-and-forth battle came to an end with a final score of 5-4 in favor of Illinois State.

This loss dropped the Salukis to 6-2 in the MVC and 17-11 overall. The Redbirds improved to 17-9 on the season and 7-2 in the MVC.

The Salukis return home to Charlotte West Stadium for a threegame series on March 27 and 28, with a doubleheader Friday, March 27 and a single game on March 28.

Sports Reporter Aaron Carnahan can be reached at acarnahan@dailyegyptian.com

Big Muddy Film Festival stomps into Carbondale for the 48th year

PEYTON COOK

pcook@dailyegyptian.com

The 48th annual Big Muddy Film Festival began on March 19, and wrapped up on Saturday, March 21, 2026. The festival featured 72 films that spread across three different days. Seven awards were featured and designed by the Southern Illinois Metalsmiths society.

The event was organized by doctoral student in Mass Communication and Media Arts Dajonea Robinson, whose parents drove up from Arkansas to see the festival.

Mike Covell, a retired SIU professor who started the festival in 1979, was in attendance and has come to the event every year since then. Covell said he looks forward to it every year.

Screenwriter and SIU alum Carl Ellsworth, who judged the weekend’s films, hosted a workshop on March 19, where he talked about his professional journey.

In his early years, he wrote a script for a Halloween episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” that got him fired from the show shortly after.

R.J. Stewart, who helped develop “Zena: Warrior Princess” read his “Buffy” script and hired him for the show. “That’s essentially what helped me get into the doors,” Ellsworth said.

Animator Jonni Pepper, who worked on an episode of “Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake Season 2” was a juror for the festival and taught an interactive workshop on March 20. In his workshop, students got to work together to draw a mom and dad, create a conversation and bring the two together to create an animation.

The festival crew start their planning by choosing a good date to have the festival, then looking at what a prescreening would look like.

“Each of us go through and watch every single film,” senior and crew member Juno Heidbreder said. “We each either give it like a red box or a green box, depending on if we liked it or if we didn’t. Then, based off of everyone’s responses to those films, we kind of decide what we want in the festival.”

While most of the festival feature films by filmmakers, they have a category called Saluki Shorts specifically meant for students.

Student Diazha Berry, who directed “A Place Called Here” created the film for class. The film is “the product of us building a tool, so I shot this film on my cell phone through a thread counter. So just playing a little bit with perception of images,” Berry said.

Many students of all years got to display their work Friday night.

Southern Illinois University TRIO Project Upward Bound Project

2026 Summer Program Positions

“I hope to see everyone out for year 49 and most importantly year 50,” Robinson said.

The festival awarded seven filmmakers awards:

• Mike Covell Award: “Lake House” by Jared Treece

• The John Michaels Social Justice Award: “Teaching America” by Anurima

The Project Upward Bound (PUB) Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is an educational assistance program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to assist qualifying high school students in developing the skills and motivation necessary for successful completion of post-secondary education or training. Services are provided to participants throughout the academic year and during six weeks in the summer

Summer Teaching Positions Available Foreign Language (Spanish or Japanese)

Architecture Engineering

Teachers will provide instruction Monday-Friday for 5 weeks, including pre/post test assessment Teachers will provide skill-based curriculum using core standards and real life situations Law Business Med-Prep

Residential Staff

Counselors Overnight Monitors

Counselors will live in dormitories with students monitoring and coordinating student activities

Counselors receive room/board, meals, and 6 week living allowance This is not an hourly wage

Minimum Qualifications

Teachers: Bachelor 's Degree, teaching experience

Counselors: Junior college standing, leadership skills

Overnight Monitor: Must remain alert and awake to monitor students from 10pm-6am

To ensure full consideration, materials must be submitted by May 8th.

Questions?

Email Ms. Dominick at erica dominick@siu.edu or call (618) 453-3354

Visit projectupwardbound@siu.edu to apply!

Bhargava

• The Cade Bursell River Award: “Free to Grow” by Jesse Andrew Clark

• The Best Animation Film Award: “Filkool” by Maral Forouzesh and Naser Rezaeiyan

• The Best Documentary Film Award: “Making Ice Cream” by Danyelle M Greene

ICE CONTINUED FROM 4

them have to go through this.”

Along with Lovell, members of his church community and neighborhood have spoken highly of Perez Ramirez, echoing sentiments from his daughters which describe him as “friendly” and “loveable.”

“He’s a really friendly person,” Fernanda said. “He’ll talk to anyone, even if he doesn’t know them. We joke that he knows everyone in Carbondale.”

“He’s really lovable,” Julissa added. “We’ve never really heard anyone complain about him. People always say, ‘I love your dad, he’s so sweet.’”

Lovell said that if she ever needed anything done in her yard, Perez Ramirez and his workers would make it happen.

“He contributes to the community. He is a Godfearing man. That they would even bother with such a man … it’s just … I’m flabbergasted,” Lovell said. “Everyone deserves second chances. He built himself a business. Me being a senior in my 70s — he was a Godsend to me. I just can’t imagine starting my year off without him here.”

‘Everything right now is just overwhelming’

Perez Ramirez is currently in the Ste. Genevieve Detention County Center in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri — the same place that the six men who were apprehended by ICE in Du Quoin were taken earlier this year.

On Sunday, Fernanda and her sister Julissa went to visit their father, arriving two hours before visitation hours began, because visitation is on a “first come, first serve basis,” according to detainees in the facility.

Perez Ramirez’s daughters said that, despite his detention, their father is still in good spirits, that he’s already making friends, and that to him, there is a reason for everything — even this.

According to Fernanda, her father told her that he’s spending most of his time in Ste. Genevieve talking to others, just as he had been doing in Carbondale for her entire life.

“He’s like, ‘Well, I think I’m here because I’m here to talk to them, because they have no one to talk to,” Fernanda said. “He’s always uplifting other people

• The Best Experimental Film Award: “My Shadow” by Astra Silver Burke

• The Best Narrative Award: Choy: “The Making of” by Maxwell Johnson

Digital Editor Peyton Cook can be reached at pcook@dailyegyptian.com, or on Instagram at @cookmeavisual.

before himself. He always thinks of others first.”

While their father makes friends awaiting his imminent deportation back to Mexico, Fernanda and Julissa will continue trying to navigate a world without him while living in a home that they say is noticeably quieter than usual.

“It’s really quiet,” Julissa said. “Whenever he was at home, he was always making jokes. He’s always laughing. Now, everyone is so depressed. It feels like we’re not even at home. It just feels like it’s just another day, and we’re going to be worrying about that day.” Lovell said that she feels for the daughters and hopes that they’re able to carry on with their lives as best they can.

“I just cannot believe that ICE is being allowed to move around in southern Illinois,” Lovell said. “I just cannot believe it. I really think that they have started corralling people who have been a contributing asset to our community.”

In the week that followed their father’s arrest, both Fernanda and Julissa struggled at school and work. Fernanda said she had a panic attack, and Julissa said that going to class was impossible.

“I was trying to handle everything, and it just all hit me,” Fernanda said. “This is affecting my schoolwork,” Julissa added. “I’m missing classes, and I don’t know how I’m going to keep up. I worked really hard for my scholarship, and I don’t want to lose it, but everything right now is just overwhelming.”

Perez Ramirez’s family is seeking legal counsel in hopes that an immigration lawyer would be able to, at the very least, figure out a way for them to see their father once more before he is deported back to Mexico.

“I wasn’t able to say goodbye to my dad that day,” Julissa said. “That’s something that’s been on my mind ever since.”

Fernanda said she wants the community to know that her father is a good man.

“He isn’t a danger to the community,” she said. “He made mistakes, all those years ago, but I think he’s already repaid those mistakes.”

ACROSS

1- Time in the tub

5- USC’s crosstown rival

9- Walk casually

14- Wood choppers

15- Informal leader

16- Fortuneteller’s deck

17- Location of the source of 38-Across

19- Images on a smartphone

20- Cattle genus

21- Evergreen tree

22- Purple-flowered shrub

24- Brunch favorite

26- 38-Across runs along the western border of this state for only about 50 miles

29- Greek mountain

30- Prejudice

31- Paddle cousin

32- Organized sports groups

35- Immune system lymphocytes

38- The biggest (but not longest) “flow-er” in the US

40- Tommy Lee Jones’ role in “Men in Black”

42- Walking around money in Paris

43- Nickname for two Spice

Girls

44- Rural enterprise

46- Ye ___ shoppe

50- 38-Across runs along the western border of this state for over 580 miles

53- Ground forces

55- Clues to what’s cooking

56- Early 24/7 news outlet

57- Explosive letters

58- Basic lawn care machine

60- Location of the mouth of 38-Across

63- Concepts

64- December 24 and 31

65- Taking care of the

problem

66- Confuse

67- Enclosure for a snail mail invitation, briefly 68- Wall St. institution

DOWN

1- Treelike grass

2- Principles 3- Grammar book topic 4- Cable channel for buyers

5- Favorite’s loss

6- Loud, black bird 7- “___ My People Go”

8- Spring bloomer of the South

9- Leaning a bit

10- Island near Hong Kong that was formerly a Portuguese colony

11- Green veggie with florets

12- Actor Chaney (senior or junior)

13- UFO passengers

18- Sight organ

23- Behind bars, slangily

25- Classic language

26- Lips

27- ___-El (Superman)

28- They have 12 mos.

30- Metric obesity meas.

33- N’___-ce pas?

34- Solicit

36- US Navy E-7

37- ___ salts

38- Got somewhat more relaxed

39- Addition result

40- French friend

41- Become clear, in a way

45- Supermarket sections

47- Tedious recital

48- ___ the Menace (comic strip)

49- Fancy property

51- High standard

52- Like Odin and Thor

53- Biscotti flavorer

54- Some clinic workers (abbr.)

56- Pool sticks

58- “Mamma ___!”

59- Unusual

61- Eggs in labs

62- Charged particle

Weekly Event Calendar

Your guide to upcoming local events over the next 7 days!

27 25 26 WED THURS FRI 29 SUN 28 SAT MON 31 TUE

Want

Email