Wendler is a loser and why is the SI publishing this crap?

I don't know if you caught Uncle Walt's latest POS column in the Southern? He is claiming that faculty are the most important thing at the university. OK, I agree, the people are more important than buildings. The problem I have with what he wrote, is that he was head of SIUC for 6 years and when he had power, he never, never, never followed the idea, that the faculty were important. Wendler's master plan was to put all free money into buildings. He would still have his old job, if he had acted like people were more important than buildings.

I guess we can call Wendler a "Born again Manager?" To bad he didn't believe this, before he was kicked to the curb for incompetence. What a loser.

We knew the Southern Illinoisan people weren't too smart, and I guess allowing self serving crap like this into the paper proves it?

End of the road for Poshard? Not if he can help it!

I was in town last week and enjoyed the press coverage on Poshard - post plagiarism scandal. The question you should be asking, is he done as a mover and shaker at SIU?

The continued excellence we are seeing from Poshard is the addition, by subtraction, at SIUC. Wendler, Lenzi and Mass Comm Dean's exits were excellent examples of leadership. Recently we have found out the Dean of Engineering (world cruse in the middle of the school year? Wink) and Ed Burger (from the Alumni Assoc.) are history too. Fantastic, two more losers gone. If he keeps going, the losers in the SIUC administration could be under 90% of the total, in the next 10 years.

Poshard's biggest challenge is to get Edwardsville to stay in the system and who can blame them? SIUE isn't nearly as screwed up as SIUC. If I was at SIUE, I would be trying to distance myself from the SIU system too.

In short, it looks like Poshard is still driving his programs. Things are getting better at SIU. The plagiarism scandal may do him in yet, but it looks like it has passed for now. Noting better than having your board in your pocket, when the crap hits the fan.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 WHEN

Sent to me by a friend. Hope everyone is doing well.

1. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

12. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

13. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

14. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

Taxes in Carbondale? The bone heads are at work.

I'm catching the bone headed comments from Carbondale about Brad's sales tax increase and giving $20M to SIU's football stadium, thought I would throw in my 2 cents from far afield.

There seem to be 3 issues here -
Should Carbondale raise taxes
Should the tax increase be from sales taxes or property taxes
Should Carbondale give that money to SIU for a football stadium

I think the general idea for raising taxes in Carbondale should be no, unless there is a good reason.

Sales taxes are the new method of sharing the pain with people who use the city's services, without paying for them. This is clearly the winner in the best practices in other cities. The people who are claiming that raising property taxes would be better are bone heads. Sure there is a chance that the entire American/Western Civilization will fall apart and people will stop buying things, but that chance is fairly small. Carbondale is just beginning to see the results of not having the highest property taxes around, with the return of families moving back into town. It would be stupid to raise property taxes now. The argument that Henry Fisher and the like are getting fat on the property tax cut is stupid too.

In the real bone headed things to do, Brad's proposing to give $20M to SIU for a football stadium is just plain dumb. Maybe it is the right thing to do, but we sure can't understand why from the information given.

So, stupid to raise taxes for any reason, stupid to suggest property tax increase and stupid to fund a football stadium. Seems like a clean sweep of stupid on this issue. But maybe some commenter's could raise the stupid level even higher?

From the Left Coast, your loyal subject reporting.

Where will you be in 20 years?

I was talking to a person I really liked the other day and asked them if they had their goals written down. They asked me what I was talking about. I'm sure you all know that if you write your goals down, you are much more likely to accomplish them.

We all have dreams . . . We all want to believe deep down in our souls that we have a special gift, that we can make a difference, that we can touch others in a special way, and that we can make the world a better place.

So begins Tony Robbins in "Awaken the Giant Within," his best selling book. If you haven't read it yet...

I learned a question worth asking when giving a guess lecture for a student group a few years ago. I asked them, given a choice of becoming really good at video games, not world class mind you, just very good, or starting a company and making $20M, which would you choose? Then I asked them, what are they doing to make that dream come true? The real answer for most students is nothing.

One of the sad things about living in Carbondale, is so many people are planning to be worse off in 20 years then they are today. So many people's lives were capped when they reached their last college graduation. Few are striving to be great, few are striving at all. We know the janitors, working civil service at SIU, have given up. They aren't learning, they aren't striving, they are filling their slot, until they retire and then they are going to die. Ask them if they want to live to 100 and they say, "what for?" OK for them, but I don't want to be that way. Do you?

It is sad to see SIU's administrators, not working hard to become better managers, hiding behind layers of secretaries, ducking out the back and not working hard. It is sad to see SIU's professors not doing research, not pushing for new knowledge, not working to become better teachers. It is sad to see SIU's students not working to learn the knowledge offered up in their classes and from their professors, and instead worrying about their video games, cell phones, beer bongs, $7/hour jobs and paying for their personalized license plates. SIU is a place that needs an overhaul, it needs to become an organization of striver's again. I can see some movement on the very top, but so many people will have to be fired to make it come true, I don't see it happening.

I have been here for six years, trying to do service for my hometown. Some things turn out well and some didn't. I have 5 or 6 friends I'm leaving behind, that I'm not sure I will be able to replace. I have hundreds of acquiescences, that are great people too. But, I don't want to be here, in a town where a majority think being smart and having no life goals is a good choice. Mediocrity is such a bad life choice. If you have to choose between having a great potential and a PhD or having less potential and making more of it, always choose to work harder.

The questions I leave you with now, where will you be in 20 years? Shouldn't you be doing more, both for yourself and your society?

Carbondale City Coucil acts for more worthless meetings

When dealing with the most well regulated, supervised, taxed, and followed issue in the city, our city council, decided that religious groups, drunks, heath inspectors, tax collectors, state officials, liquor company sales people, and normal clients weren't enough. Carbondale needs several layers of worthless meetings, before it can do, what the state laws says it must. On the other hand, aren't there more important issues for Carbondale to be working on?

I was impressed that Joel got a pine cone up his rear and actually did something. Now, wouldn't be good if he did something positive for the city, instead of championing a continuation of worthless city bureaucracy?

Just imagine if the people on the Liquor Advisory Committee and the City Council spent the time wasted talking about liquor issues and did something worthwhile with that time? We could get into what a pain it is for the business owners to have to educate 15 people on what they are doing, instead of 1 (like everywhere else), but we all know that Carbondale is supposed to be the hardest place to do business in Illinois. I was thinking neighborhood watch or picking up trash would both be a better use of City Council time?

SIU's future just got brighter? DE goes around the bend

I was going to write a little something, but had to make fun of Kyle and Joel first. Came across this editorial in the DE and had to comment. Athletic Directors don't make the sun come out at a university, they are more like a cherry on a milk shake (you still have a milk shake if the cherry isn't very good). Who cares if Mario stays or goes? He is a nice guy, he maybe good at his job, but we will not know that for 10 years, but he has very little to do with anything going on at SIU right now.

I know compared to approval of $14M more for Morris Library, this is good news, says the DE, "although the BOT has approved the new budget, the University has not found a source for the money." I liked their "There is a light at the end of Morris tunnel," passage too. I guess, approving money, you already spent, but don't have, is now light at the end of the tunnel?

I get the idea that when the BOT meets, the circus is back in town. The DE editorial staff seems to be the kids in the front row, believing the clown's magic tricks.

Underaged students scheming to get beer - News flash!

Fresh off the presses, it appears that some underaged students from SIU are planning to go to a bar and try to get beer! Apparently, they found out there was a party and they think that they can crash it and get a beer without being carded. The reason this is worth of note, this is the first time that underaged SIU students have ever tried to be served in a Carbondale bar. Informed sources say that the party organizers will be publicly chastised, if the bar allows underaged drinking (or even if they don't).

Big SI news? More Illinois corruption

Anyone else think it is interesting when you start to look at the big news in Illinois this summer and it is all based on corruption in the state government. Electrical rates, budget, selling the lottery, big subsidies for Chicago mass transit, anti-smoking laws not being signed (to give the casinos a chance to buy some votes), etc, etc.

Here is Southern Illinois, our big news is the new baseball team in Marion. Of course, that deal is all about political payoffs, state paybacks to campaign contributors, and honest business people having to complete with a state backed competitor. If you take a step back, it should turn your stomach.

I have heard the rationalization, we got ours, they do stuff like this in Chicago all the time, and I don't think about it. But in the end, when you support the Miner's, you are giving your approval to a fellow who gave $1M+ to the Gov. and other Dems. in campaign funds. The money is from tort lawsuits from the Metro East area, then funneled in to campaign funds, then given back with interest in grants. Without the campaign contributions, it would just be lucky pork barrel, but I guess no one gets that lucky.

Illinois, the "Land of Corruption" strikes again. Another day, another dirty deal. The next day, the people of Illinois just forget or realize that this level of dirt is normal here.

A few thoughts

Kyle responded to the last post, he says he heard from a guy, that a girl heard from another girl, that if you voted for Brad, that maybe there were free drinks at the victory party. The fellow Kyle was talking to assumed that meant there would be underaged drinking. Kyle didn't follow up and find out what really happened. Kyle is also claiming that he only started this rumor after election night, but I have was hearing it for months. Kyle has written the rumor into the comments to this blog, at least twice before the election was held. So Kyle is lying and/or stupid (I guess if he doesn't know he is lying, he is stupid?). Tracing it back to the source isn't hard, the finger points to "Mr. Dirty Tricks" himself, Tom Redmond. Kyle, you are an idiot, but maybe you will grow out of it? Tom, if this is true, you really need to get a life. Try working a compaign on merit, instead of Nixon dirty tricks. The citizens of Carbondale are pretty smart, even if they are pretty lazy, and are hard to fool with BS.

The new College of Education dean was hired, his key work is "Schooling for Good Rebels: Socialist Education for Children in the United States." Good grief, he did a book on the education for 10,000 students between 1900 and 1920? The short description doesn't say, did it work? Did the students go on and do something with their lives? Lots of pithy thoughts, but I hope the new Dean can find the backbone to raise standards to a reasonable level in the college. The days of handing out degrees (in particular graduate degrees) like their are 6 packs of beer, should be ended.

My daughter just completed her freshman year of high school. She has been home schooled and played in the CCHS Band in Fall (made all District, but freshmen can't make all state band). She received her first recruiting information from U of I today. We can assume that SIU will never, never send her anything, can't we? Lots of work to do for SIU, I wonder if they will ever get it right?

I'm packing my shop on to pallets and getting ready to move. Ironically, I was called for jury duty on the days we are moving. I have a couple of goodbye things in me, so expect a couple more items here in the next 10 or 14 days.

Hope you are having a great Summer.

Kyle Raccio and Anonymous have been called as liars

One of the problems with having a blog or commenting under your real name is that when you are wrong or lying, people can call you on it. In the last couple of days, I received some comments that are worth pulling out and shining a light on.

From my pointer to Dave's Date the Mayor work, I received this comment from the Democratic religious zealot, Kyle Raccio,

You have to admit buying beers for underage women isn't very mayorly. Nor is it legal.

Last night another comment came in from a different anonymous source

1) I've occasionally heard the comment "anonymous" describes. Wanting to secure facts, I often ask, "Have you seen it? Have you actually witnessed it?" The usual reply goes something like this, "well, no...but a friend said that..."

AND

2) In what way is it wrong for a 35 year old, single guy to go to a bar on his time-off? You know, I've actually witnessed other members of his own species practicing the same behavior. Some of them have even been older than 35! Can you believe that?! How dare they? It turns out it's a common thing among them.

This rings true to me. I have gone and looked for the source of this rumor myself and I can't find anyone who is even one generation removed from it (a person who has talked to a person who actually saw it). I have concluded that Brad's buying drinks for underaged women is an urban legend and nothing more.

Since Kyle does know or should know that this underaged drinking thing, is just a campaign to slander a public figure, I'm going to go on record and call Kyle a liar. I have already called him a fool several times, so make it a liar and a fool.

It is time for Kyle and Anonymous to go back to their caves and reemerge with a positive mindset. The mayor's race is over, and the voters have clearly spoken. Even a year of campaigning, a famous man's political heir, hundreds of lies, pounding on ever door in town multiple times, thousands of street signs, dirty tricks and back bitting, doesn't change the fundamental truths of Carbondale's performance in the last 4 years. There is nothing new here, just another of Sheila's supporters pedaling lies and rumors, instead of trying to improve the city.

Good bye Kyle, I hope you grow up someday.

Big Date happens in the Marry the Mayor contest

Check out Dave's blog for all the action.

NCAA hates bloggers

The NCAA has a new rule, no blogging from the stands. Guess they are worried about their TV money. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

Nightlife - Wissmann's open letter to SIU's new Chancellor

Go pick up this week's Nightlife and read Chris Wissmann's open letter to SIU's Fernando Trevino. I thought his analysis of the "storm of Argersinger's firing" was interesting. I have wondered, is it the damage done by the firing or is it the management culture that allowed her firing to take place, that is worse?

What I suggest to our new Chancellor is that he take this opportunity to realize that he needs to replace most of the management at SIUC. You can't do it on day 1, but realize that a majority of department chairmen need to be replaced. Several of the Chancellor's direct reports need to go sooner. A new management culture needs to be put in place. Please go read "Good to Great" and "Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great," then start to follow what Collins suggests. A new management culture needs to be put in place at SIU and only by changing out the management will this be achieved.

I think Chris is correct, that Trevino is lucky that there is a light on the horizon with Poshard running SIU. If he makes just a few correct moves, he will get SIU back on the way up and become a local hero. Great success can be achieved. Of course, he could follow the Wendler path, and alienate the staff and fail too.

Good work Chris. As long as you are picking up the "Nightlife," read the ads and support their advertisers.

--- Thanks to our anonymous commenter, I added the link to the article above ----

Dave breaks out - finally shows the video from Marry the Mayor contest

The video had me cracking up and Dave revealed that Brad has finally ended his affair with a married woman.

Great work Dave.

The Beer Philosopher goes ecommerce

Our buddy Shawn the Beer Philosopher has opened an ecommerce site based on his "lovin the beer" blog. I don't drink, but I hear that the Beer Philosopher is in the forefront of beer based volunteerism and quality control, from people in the know.

Check out his items and see if there is something you really need for a loved one or yourself. Here is an example of a must have item, for those of you who can identify the head on the shirt. I thought it was Paul Allen at first, but realized it was someone else.

NYC, Corvallis, Panera - what do they have that Carbondale doesn't?

The Mrs. and I were on the West Coast a couple of weeks ago and were in Corvallis, OR on a Friday night. Corvallis still has an old fashioned downtown, having kept the big boxes and malls out of town mostly (no sale tax in Oregon, so no tax loss for the city. The new Home Depot is packed though.), that is away from the university and off the state highway. The downtown was packed with people. They were riding bikes, walking, eating on tables outside the restaurants, having a beer. The mix of people seemed to be about 70% adults and 30% college students. It was a pleasant scene.

I was asking myself, why Carbondale isn't like this? A friend of mine has been telling me for years, that what Carbondale needs is tables on the sidewalks, to generate a reason to walk around. Give the downtown a feeling, like you should be there and not at the mall.

I was at Panera the other day and realized that they have the right idea. They have enough parking nearby, tables to sit outside if the weather is nice, no smoking inside, and a menu that isn't just the same boring stuff I can cook at home. Going to Panera is like walking down 2nd Street in Corvallis, except Corvallis has 20 places like Panera, all in a few blocks.

I have already written about the unfortunate placement of Carbondale's main business districts on the state highways, often mixed with small lots, railroad tracks and student housing. It turns out that the state laws governing what you can do on the sidewalks near a state highway, doesn't allow most Carbondale businesses to take over the sidewalks. For that matter, who wants to eat a nice dinner, 10 feet from large numbers of trucks going by at 40 MPH?

Glenn Poshard's master plan for SIU had an idea for taking over Popular St. in years past, between 13 and SIU for a new shopping district. This seems like a really nice idea, get a place to do business that isn't on the main drag and build a street scene for walkers and pleasant commerce.

I see an opportunity to do a nice mixed use shopping and living area, on the old high school sport fields that has been in the news lately. The owners of that property, have intelligently bought a couple of abandoned buildings on Hwy 13, and now have access to 8 acres of R-8 zoned land from the main drag. My suggestion is that they build a nice strip mall on that land in front, with outdoor seating, a latte shop, an ice cream (gelato would be better) shop, a place that sells a Cuban sandwich and other fancy fare, a nice bar and a few other places with class. Build a second floor (or even third) on that building for condos or rentals, then build the back with a neighborhood of closely packed houses. Just imagine, that could be nice. To do it right, there would need to be a zoning change, capturing some of the residential land and converting it into business, but it would be nice for everyone if it was done well.

My suggestion is that the citizens of Carbondale start to decide how they want the city to look and working changing their city for the better. I know the zoning rules just took the world as it was in 1974 and don't allow anything to change, but maybe it is time to reexamine zoning in Carbondale in the modern world? Everyone else is doing it, why not Carbondale too? This is too important to trust to random luck.

If this hits the fan, I'll be down eating a slice and having a gelato on 2nd Street in Corvallis. Maybe after a few years, I might even know someone while I do it?

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Have Carbondale and SIU hit bottom? SIU vs. Ford

A friend of mine, recently told me that he feels that both Carbondale and SIU have hit bottom. In other words, they will only go up from here.

When thinking about Carbondale, clearly things are better then they were 4 years ago. Not perfect, but better. Hopefully, Carbondale will look back and see the absolute bottom of the long and slow slide to meritocracy, as the day before Brad Cole took office. I don't know if the city will continue to improve, but clearly Brad has added some much needed discipline to the city government. The results show everyday.

I was reading about Ford's new CEO yesterday in Business Week and was thinking how much his task resembles Poshard's task at SIU. In the article they are going over the new CEO's review of the Ford Focus,

When Mulally was reviewing the company's 2008 product line last September, for example, he was told that Ford loses close to $3,000 every time a customer buys a Focus compact, according to one executive. "Why haven't you figured out a way to make a profit?" he asked. Executives explained that Ford needed the high sales volume to maintain the company's CAFE, or corporate average fuel economy, rating and that the plant that makes the car is a high-cost UAW factory in Michigan. "That's not what I asked," he shot back. "I want to know why no one figured out a way to build this car at a profit, whether it has to be built in Michigan or China or India, if that's what it takes." Nobody had a good answer.

This sounds just like the way the bureaucracy at SIU tries to defend their problems. Is CAFE at Ford, equal to minority recruitment at SIU? Sometimes, just because you have always done things a certain way, isn't good enough.

Another selection from the BW article,

Just eight months into the job, Mulally is working hard to change institutional work habits that took years to develop. He wants managers to think more about customers than their own careers. He has made it a top priority to encourage his team to admit mistakes, to share more information, and to cooperate across divisions. He's holding everybody's feet to the fire with tough operational oversight and harsh warnings about Ford's predicament. "We have been going out of business for 40 years," Mulally told a group of 100 information technology staffers at a "town meeting" in February. He has repeated the message to every employee group that he has addressed.

I really think that SIU needs to look at the phase from this section carefully, "We have been going out of business for 40 years." Have all the mechanisms of SIU's bureaucracy been built on layers of a downward spiral like at Ford? Has SIU been going out of business since the end of the Morris Golden Age?

I don't know if SIU has turned around, but I can see Glenn Poshard, trying to make the right moves, to get it going the right direction. I can also see he is fighting the layers of incompetence and sloth that make up SIU's management layers and workers.

The good news for Ford is that it will go out of business very soon, if they don't fix things. The good news for SIU is that it will die a slow and painful death if they don't fix things. As we see SIU's enrollment and revenues go down, when will the people working at SIU realize they are facing a crisis? At Ford,

After losing $12.7 billion last year, it had to endure the indignity of pledging its factories, headquarters, and the rights to the iconic blue oval logo to the banks and bondholders just to get enough money to finance its turnaround plan. Those were all tough steps. But these are tough times for the U.S. auto industry.

You wonder, when it will hit SIU, it is fighting for its continued existence? Will it be the first layoff of tenured faculty? Clearly, the layoffs of massive numbers of instructors this Summer hasn't even make the local papers, so it can't be very important. Kind of reminds me of the old poem,

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left

to speak up for me.

Where I think that SIU has the best President they could have right now, I don't think this has to be the bottom, things can get much worse. Hopefully, this is the bottom and things will get better from here, but turning around Carbondale is a much smaller task. When you are saying your prayers at night, you might include a word for Glenn Poshard on his quest, your job might be riding on it.

I'm almost done here in Carbondale, but I thought I would leave you with this happy thought. If you work at SIU, it can get worse. It might be time to start to care and take part in the solution.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

GOP support for Cole draws criticism? Those staffers were smart

I got a kick out of Caleb Hale's piece on the front page of today's SI. He listed the people that staffed Brad's office as Jayme Siemer from the Illinois State GOP and Paul Sorenson, who took leave from Dennis Hastert's office to come work for Brad. I don't know if you had a chance to talk with them, but the two GOP staffers were really smart. It was impressive, how good they seemed.

The article goes on and says that Brad got support and no one else did in the local races in April. Two ideas to consider, if the Dem's had succeeded in running a sub-par candidate and supporting them with their statewide officials (as they tried to do for Sheila), wouldn't that become their strategy in key local races? Seems like a good thing for the Pubs to stop early, if they could. Second, is this a statement about how much work Brad does outside of Carbondale for the GOP, more then any other factor? If you do a lot of work for an organization, shouldn't you expect the support of that organization, when you need it?

I really liked the headline too, "fellow Republican" who works for a "think tank" that criticizes Republicans for a living? Important to know what side that Bunny Bread is buttered on, before you decide what an article means.

Isn't it great that Carbondale is important enough to attract statewide interests in our elections? Maybe not?

How NASA screwed up and then applying it to SIU

There is a great little article in Wired Magazine this month about "How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways To Fix It)" by Gregg Easterbrook. What I really like about the article is the little lists of what NASA's objectives should be and what they really are. The article says -

Here is a set of rational priorities for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in descending order of importance: (1) Conduct research, particularly environmental research, on Earth, the sun, and Venus, the most Earth-like planet. (2) Locate asteroids and comets that might strike Earth, and devise a practical means of deflecting them. (3) Increase humanity's store of knowledge by studying the distant universe. (4) Figure out a way to replace today's chemical rockets with a much cheaper way to reach Earth orbit.

Then -

Here are NASA's apparent current priorities: (1) Maintain a pointless space station. (2) Build a pointless Motel 6 on the moon. (3) Increase humanity's store of knowledge by studying the distant universe. (4) Keep money flowing to favored aerospace contractors and congressional districts.

I think this is an interesting way to look at SIUC too.

A set of rational priorities for SIUC might be 1) Graduate excellent students that will contribute to society in a positive way. 2) Generate original research at the quality and quantity of a world class research university. 3) Recruit more and excellent students through the use of direct recruitment and PR. 4) Preserve the quality of facilities on campus, for future generations.

What SIUC's real priorities seem to be 1) Use upper management positions to create and maintain powerful empires. 2) Build expensive buildings that don't have much to do with the mission of the university. 3) Pander to students by pressuring teachers to give away unearned grades. 4) Preserve management stability, even it is bad for the university in the short, medium and long term.

This is just off the top of my head. Anyone have a better list of the objectives SIU should pursue or the real objectives of the last 10 years?

Aren't the professors who speak up more valuable?

Every once in a while, someone comments here or writes a letter to the editor of the paper, that states that professors should shut up and do as they are told. Personally, I wish that more professors would stop hiding in their offices and care enough to speak up.

The question for the day, are professors who speak up about the problems more valuable? Should they shut up and hide in their offices? Which has worked better so far?

"Good to Great" and the social sector

I have written about "Good To Great" in this blog many times and have been surprised that no one has complained about applying business concepts to SIU (much) or the rest of the "public/social sector." Turns out that Collins has written a best selling extension to "Good to Great," called "Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great."

I know that this is far beyond most professor's learning "interests" and that SIU administrators are so busy exercising their "power" to learn anything new, but maybe learning something over the summer about how to keep your employer from crash and burning would be a good idea?

Don't you guys learn anything? It is about management!

Twice I have systematically thrown the professors of SIUC under the bus, for university wide management decisions, that they have very little control over. The first time I did it was to prove the point that management was really important, and killing SIUC. Then you could talk about stupid management decisions and everyone is on the same page.

I was just busy slamming the faculty and staff again and no one pointed out all the problems were management decisions, that the employees were just carrying out what their management was asking them to do. What is wrong with you people? Don't you learn?

This is about management boys and girls. When management gives raises based on giving better grades and sends out memos on retention, GPA goes up. When there is no reward for working harder, work ethic goes down. Etc.

Management doesn't have complete control, but they can take a good situation and turn it into a bad one fairly easily. If you learn nothing else this year, learn respect for the power of management.

Hot SIU rumors

Word on the street is that everyone who directly reports to the SIUC Chancellor has been asked to submit a resignation letter. I guess the big shots are going to interview for their jobs again. It would be a good start, to put several of those guys on the curb.

Fall enrollment is projected to be off 5%, according to a well place source. Kind of scary.

The budget cuts in the departments are translating to lecturing staff being let go. Since they teach 4 classes each semester, there will be a whole lot of sections being canceled in the Fall. Because of union contracts and other agreements, only the dedicated teaching staff can be cut, everyone else is protected.

Pretty juicy for intersessional gossip.

A little about Marion

Someone commented a while back that I was to focused on Carbondale, so I thought I might comment a little on Marion.

Have you been to Marion recently? There are houses going up all over the place! The town is growing like a weed and everyone feels good about themselves. The school system is below average and the city is unzoned. Code enforcement is light, but the town has a pro-business mayor and a strong, long-term economic development plan. The people are nice and they have an outdoor pool.

Marion is an economic development success story. They have figured out how to make themselves the service leader for visitors traveling on Highway 57 in the region, so there is a thriving restaurant and hotel industry. In addition, Marion has been able to attract a few businesses, including the big win of Aisan Manufacturing.

When you think about Marion's success, you have to think about Aisan. They are up to about 1000 employees in Marion and the experts say you get around 4 to 5 service jobs for every manufacturing job. All together Aisan's impact looks to be about 4,000 to 6,000 total jobs in the area. That is a whole lot of growth for a little city like Marion.

The bad news is Marion has done tax giveaways to everyone, so the city doesn't have a strong infrastructure, they have refused to sign up for Rend Lake water until recently (but I guess their water problems are behind them now?), the city is unzoned (so businesses are parked on residential streets in a hodge podge way. There have always been rumors that the Marion services are weak, fire and sewer being mentioned first.

Stable leadership, pro-business city government, near the highway, lucky to land a big manufacturer, is the Marion story right now. Hopefully, they will get a handle on any problems going forward. Marion is a Southern Illinois success story and the city government should be congratulated on their good work.

Japanese Steak house in Carbondale?

Looks like we are about to have a Japanese Steak house in town. On Giant City Road, in the new strip mall with Moe's Mexican, we are going to get a steak house. They were putting in huge vents, so I assume they will be cooking at the tables. There was a for hire sign up in the last couple of weeks, so we should be seeing an opening any day now. Bet it will be pricey.

I hope they have enough money to survive until Fall.

Diversity at SIU - maybe their focus is on the wrong kind?

I was asked recently, why I was friends with a someone. I have to admit, that this friend and I don't really have that much in common. I'm a computer geek and he is a professor. He is well read in many areas, I'm only well read in computer business, science fiction and technology. But we both work out, both have kids at home, both have smart wives, and are both driven to succeed. In the end, the reason I'm friends with him, is that I respect his path through life and he has something to teach me. I don't think we have ever talked where he hasn't shown me a new way to look at something, that I didn't see before. I don't always agree, but I always learn. Hopefully, he sees some benefit to being my friend. It turns out that I have lots of friends like this, smart but different then I am.

When I look at SIU's diversity programs, they seem to center on bring black students and black professors into SIU. This is OK with me, but I'm not sure that it does what my friendship with the professors does for me, with is teach SIU something that it doesn't already know.

I found this interesting statistic that 50%+ of federal government hires are black and have been for sometime. If you think about this, doesn't the federal government directly compete with universities for the smartest black graduates? The same people who could go and suffer for 3 or 8 years to get a PhD, can go into the federal government with a masters degree (or even a bachelors) and have a better job. The same is true for Fortune 500, they are working hard to harvest as many good black students as possible. I wonder, if this is why there are less black PhD's then there should be? Are good black students being given much better opportunities in government and business then they are shown in academia? I can tell you we see practically no black people in startups on the West Coast in my years there, I wonder what they are doing instead?

But, even if you can get a large number of diverse professors (my apologies to our many foreign born and darker skinned professors, for some reason you don't count. You don't have the political clout I guess), they really don't offer that much diversity, they are just peas of the same professor pod. Maybe it is time to think about really diversifying SIU?

You guessed it, maybe it is time to figure out how SIU can reach outside of academia and get some new ideas from other areas of our society? Maybe SIU should bring in some teaching ideas from the high schools? Maybe SIU should demand the professors get out of their silos and talk to professors in different disciplines (one of the continuing themes of comments in this space from professors, is they know nothing about what his happening outside of their departments) inside and outside of SIU? Maybe SIU should start reaching out into the communities of Southern Illinois and start trying to understand and help outside of the moat? Maybe SIU should find some business people to give money and let those business people have a lot of control over something, just to see what SIU can learn? Maybe the employees of SIU should read some management books ("Good to Great" anyone? I know that Glenn Poshard has read it)?

Now before you get your panties in a bunch and start to comment in ignorance, what do the best universities in the USA do? All of these things, is what they do. Granted, the employees of SIU would have to stretch to do this and that is exactly why many choose to work at SIU, so they never had to stretch.

SIU seems to be doing fine recruiting black students, but could do better. Since SIU has many brown skinned professors and there are no black professors to hire, maybe it is time to turn the diversity program from skin color to something productive? Maybe it is time to learn something new or do something new, from outside the academic environment?

We know the SIU management will never do it and many professors would fight it, but it would greatly improve the university.

Your comments are welcome.

Little more about Mass Comm and the former Dean

Some of my friends from out of town, who have kids looking at colleges, have contacted me in the last few years and told me their child is thinking about attending SIUC in Mass Comm. Apparently, the college is one of the top 5 in the country in several areas. It looks like Mass Comm has a national reputation and positive results to back it up. That is interesting isn't it?

If you were SIU's management and wanted to drive away a bunch of professors, then rebuild a college, wouldn't it be better to start somewhere that isn't highly ranked nationally (top 5 according to a couple of out of town friends)? I was thinking, I would have started anywhere else (except for the Voc Tech programs, they seem to be doing well).

I was wondering, how the defenders of the recently departed dean, feel about throwing all the balls up in the air, in one of SIU's two well ranked colleges. When you look at the big picture, why attack there? Surely there are colleges that need to be kicked in the rear and it seems like Mass Comm didn't?

Mass Comm Dean Gone

Is that the boot of Glenn Poshard making that "toughest decision" easier?

Anyone tell Florida Atlantic what a gem they are getting?

Oregon cuts Universities "to the bone"

From the Cronie of HiEd (read it before the 27th if you don't have a password).

I suspect that Oregon is previewing SIU's future as well. Society can't figure out why it should fund public universities all across the country and is going to leave the funding to the students and others that get a direct benefit.

When we apply this to SIU, I suspect that SIU could/should layoff about 25% of all employees and retire about half with new people and have a much better result. College professors have the best jobs in America according to a nation survey and have been number 1 or 2 for many years. Tenure and union contracts protect many people should be fired. Retirement is for life and includes full health care. Everyone can see this story fairly clearly.

When I moved back to Carbondale six years ago, a friend told me that this was going to happen. He told me that the state legislature knew how fat the universities were and were going to stop increasing their money until they got it together. That is exactly what has happened. The USA is a wonderfully efficient machine. We all know that the results from the universities aren't good enough. The universities have become places that pander to the employees and don't serve the society well enough. The free money is going away, until things change.

A signal that enough money has been removed from the university system might be when professors don't have one of the top 10 best jobs anymore?

Wasting time arguing with professors - what is SIU's mission?

Experiment to see if we can get comments going on this thread. Repeat of May 18th post. Works here, have at it -

I'm going along on one of my Joel stinks thread and I'm having someone who claims anonymously (Scott) to be a Poly Sci professor arguing with me. His argument is that he just disagrees, no logic, no details, just he disagrees. All of a sudden, I realize I'm debating with someone who is part of the vocal minority in Carbondale (500 votes less in the last mayor's election) and who's place in our society is being marginalized by the bad attributes their behavior attracts. In addition, he is playing the silly liberal art professor debate game. What a waste of time.

Let's go over once again, why people who have to survive on this side of the moat, shouldn't be discussing much of anything with professors. Through hiring practices and tradition SIU has accumulated a majority of management and professors, who are killing the university. They earned their PhD's, got a research job and now they are tracked in for a set financial compensation for the rest of their lives. Change is their enemy, prices might go up faster then their raises, someone else might do research and undermine them, economic success of the town could be changes in real estate pricing, traffic or restaurant mix. In economic terms, almost all changes in town, will cause a neutral or negative economic effect on them.

The test scores of the local elementary system are below the mean (and far below if you are on the free lunch program), but the professors aren't doing much of anything about it. The professors of 30 years ago were pounding the table for better education and the school system was one of the best in the state. So, we know their interest in their feeder systems isn't there. Professors were so different in Carbondale in 1970 and so much better. Might be a lesson there?

Many of our Professors identify with "the little man," like our friend Kyle the progressive. Of course, there are no jobs for any of the little people in Carbondale outside of the confines of SIU. One of the rational thoughts about "the little man" is that they aren't capable of creating their own jobs, they need help from someone. Because of our lack of jobs, our most capable and ambitious young people leave the area. But, why make a pro-business city government that might create an environment that might create good jobs? The professors have theirs and it might promote change, which can be only bad for them. Let them eat cake.

Social services for the poor and disadvantaged? Not the professor's problem, the business people have funded our new local initiatives to help the poor. Boys and Girl's Club and Woman's Center remodel have been the two big campaigns in the last few years. Professor giving is essentially zero. Professor volunteerism is essentially zero. Like the elementary schools, it is someone else's problem. Sounds like social leadership to me. Let them eat cake.

Change is my friend, the more Carbondale changes, the better I will do economically. More jobs means more success. Better schools, lead to better workers. Less abused and under educated children, more smart people to create wealth. If there is opportunity, I have the time and money to exploit it. My future isn't locked in, I have no idea what my economic horizon is (if I'm careful, things look good no matter what). I have spent the last 6 years trying to help. Giving large amounts of money. Spending lots of time working on changing Carbondale for the better. It is the only way to help the little man, build companies that will provide them with a well paid job and benefits.

Our anonymous poster Scott, Joel and Sheila are all enemies of change in Carbondale, as are most SIU people. It is in the economic interests of SIU employees to throw tacks under the wheels of economic progress in Southern Illinois. It is a waste of time to discuss economic things with most of them, only their own best interests are truly considered. Thank goodness they are only a solid minority or there would be no hope.

Maybe it is time for SIU to change their objectives? Maybe if the health of Southern Illinois were considered as part of SIU's mission things would be different? This is exactly the way that Delyte Morris framed SIU mission and we have seen Glenn Poshard starting to try to move the mission of SIU back to the historical mission of being a resource for Southern Illinois. No one who works at SIU remembers the Morris years and the success of SIU now, but the people were better, the feeling was better and the results were better.

What happens if professor salaries become tied to the economic success of Carbondale, Southern Illinois or Illinois? The tax payers have no real interest in funding universities in their current self satisfied missions to nowhere. Maybe it is time for public universities to serve society in a trackable way? Would it change SIU if the local business community could get behind higher funding? Would it change SIU to have a mission to service society first, instead of serving the employees?

I guess what we know that it is silly for a Southern Illinois business person to have a discussion about local politics with a professor. Their interests are opposed and in the end, there isn't really much middle ground. Maybe Scott's anonymous argument is the right approach, no thoughts, no logic, no wasting time. He is arguing for his economic interests and they are opposed to mine. Why bother doing details?

Joel is a bad city council member and Lance and Haynes are equally bad. All of them aren't really prepared or active, the question becomes which one votes in your economic interests. Joel is a creature of SIU and Lance and Haynes are creatures of business. I like the way that Lance and Steven vote and don't like the way the Joel votes. When Joel is up for reelection, I hope the same silent majority vote him out, that just voted Brad in.

Maybe someday, SIU's employee's positive economic results will be tied to Carbondale's positive results. The professors of the "Great Depression" era, made this happen, by working for the common good. It is a shame that those professors are dead or retired now, they were much better for Carbondale then the crop we have now.

This is about management decisions. SIU has chosen to reward professors for not working in the community. In the Morris years, you got job credit for working the community. I asked Wendler about this 5 years ago and got blown off. He told me he had no power to change anything, I should talk to the faculty union. I knew then he would fail, he wasn't a leader.

Carbondale and SIU's future together is so much worse than I thought it might be 6 years ago. SIU might succeed and Carbondale might succeed, but unless Poshard can change the culture at SIU, it will be separately. It would be much easier to work together, but that is the way it is. For a number of years, I have referred to SIU as being behind "the moat." It is really true, it is a fortress, standing apart from the community around it.

Thanks to Scott for doing his comments yesterday and making me realize that writing to him was a waste of my time. This is much more interesting.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Why has no one commented on my May 18th entry?

I received a comment in a May 19th entry today, asking why no one has commented on my Wasting time arguing with professors - what is SIU's mission? entry. Maybe everyone is just on vacation over the weekend, but I really thought the entry was insightful and was surprised that no one wanted to comment.

In the May 19th follow up entry, someone commented, "Are you trying to get even with your dad or something?" But that isn't even a paragraph, against my essay of ideas. Kind of standard anonymous cruft. For the record, my Dad isn't very happy with the direction of SIU (how about that for an understatement?).

Anyone think that SIU employees aren't motivated by the compensation plan that management has setup for them, far more then doing the right things for society? Go read it again, it is good stuff.

It could be that the entry is so true, that nobody wants to comment?

How University of Florida became a big player in tech startups

Article in Business Week that you should read. I have written in this space before that SIU needs to have someone drop a $1B into the system and the only place to get it, is from patents. Now Business Week details how University of Florida has become a player in the patent game. SIUC needs to pursue this path.

There is a sidebar in the magazine that lists three ideas to summarize -

• Rethink the Purpose of Research
• Enlist Outsiders
• Bring in Capital

I have found that interaction with SIU isn't worth my time and SIU has managed to drive away several people, in the last couple of years that I know of, that wanted to help with this exact thing.

It would take real management vision to even begin down this path and I know that SIU doesn't have it now. But maybe the new Chancellor and Poshard will try to make this happen?

Useful website and geek/musician

It is interesting how you find things on the internet. I found Jonathan Coulton first and was reading about him and found Eventful.com on his site. Check the video, Office Space meets WoW.

Eventful.come seems to want to list every event in the world in one place. Wonder how they do their data collection?

Big Party on tonight! Good neighbor giving notice?

I like this flier that was left in the mailboxes of all the houses for several blocks around the party house. They couldn't get a sound permit, so they are just doing it anyway! Great thinking, being "respectful" and letting the "neighborhood know."

Anyone think the band will be a string quartet and not a rock band? How many minutes after the band cuts in, will it take for the police to shut it down? I'm betting less than 20. How about you? Once you don't get the sound permit, doesn't that tell you something about how welcome you will be?

Anyone going to the party? Sounds like fun, but not for the neighbors for several surrounding blocks.

Are SIU professors better off if the enrollment goes down?

After writing the last bit about SIU and Carbondale interactions, I realized that I hadn't gone far enough. In addition to it being in current SIU employees best interests to have Carbondale do poorly economically, it is also better for the current SIU employees if the enrollment goes down. After all, less students means less mess, less interruptions in your office, less papers to grade and more time to do anything else but deal with students.

You could argue that this will be bad for the future SIU employees and that is certainly true. But the current employees of SIU aren't going to be paid more or get more then the one job they have now, no matter what.

It might be time for SIU's management to change things so there is a reward for SIU doing better. In the real world, if an organization does poorly, people are fired, raises aren't given, outside managers brought in or at least a whole lot of yelling. At SIU, the same people who are failing continue to get paid and ignored.

It is a sad story about poor management, isn't it?

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Wasting time arguing with professors - what is SIU's mission?

I'm going along on one of my Joel stinks thread and I'm having someone who claims anonymously (Scott) to be a Poly Sci professor arguing with me. His argument is that he just disagrees, no logic, no details, just he disagrees. All of a sudden, I realize I'm debating with someone who is part of the vocal minority in Carbondale (500 votes less in the last mayor's election) and who's place in our society is being marginalized by the bad attributes their behavior attracts. In addition, he is playing the silly liberal art professor debate game. What a waste of time.

Let's go over once again, why people who have to survive on this side of the moat, shouldn't be discussing much of anything with professors. Through hiring practices and tradition SIU has accumulated a majority of management and professors, who are killing the university. They earned their PhD's, got a research job and now they are tracked in for a set financial compensation for the rest of their lives. Change is their enemy, prices might go up faster then their raises, someone else might do research and undermine them, economic success of the town could be changes in real estate pricing, traffic or restaurant mix. In economic terms, almost all changes in town, will cause a neutral or negative economic effect on them.

The test scores of the local elementary system are below the mean (and far below if you are on the free lunch program), but the professors aren't doing much of anything about it. The professors of 30 years ago were pounding the table for better education and the school system was one of the best in the state. So, we know their interest in their feeder systems isn't there. Professors were so different in Carbondale in 1970 and so much better. Might be a lesson there?

Many of our Professors identify with "the little man," like our friend Kyle the progressive. Of course, there are no jobs for any of the little people in Carbondale outside of the confines of SIU. One of the rational thoughts about "the little man" is that they aren't capable of creating their own jobs, they need help from someone. Because of our lack of jobs, our most capable and ambitious young people leave the area. But, why make a pro-business city government that might create an environment that might create good jobs? The professors have theirs and it might promote change, which can be only bad for them. Let them eat cake.

Social services for the poor and disadvantaged? Not the professor's problem, the business people have funded our new local initiatives to help the poor. Boys and Girl's Club and Woman's Center remodel have been the two big campaigns in the last few years. Professor giving is essentially zero. Professor volunteerism is essentially zero. Like the elementary schools, it is someone else's problem. Sounds like social leadership to me. Let them eat cake.

Change is my friend, the more Carbondale changes, the better I will do economically. More jobs means more success. Better schools, lead to better workers. Less abused and under educated children, more smart people to create wealth. If there is opportunity, I have the time and money to exploit it. My future isn't locked in, I have no idea what my economic horizon is (if I'm careful, things look good no matter what). I have spent the last 6 years trying to help. Giving large amounts of money. Spending lots of time working on changing Carbondale for the better. It is the only way to help the little man, build companies that will provide them with a well paid job and benefits.

Our anonymous poster Scott, Joel and Sheila are all enemies of change in Carbondale, as are most SIU people. It is in the economic interests of SIU employees to throw tacks under the wheels of economic progress in Southern Illinois. It is a waste of time to discuss economic things with most of them, only their own best interests are truly considered. Thank goodness they are only a solid minority or there would be no hope.

Maybe it is time for SIU to change their objectives? Maybe if the health of Southern Illinois were considered as part of SIU's mission things would be different? This is exactly the way that Delyte Morris framed SIU mission and we have seen Glenn Poshard starting to try to move the mission of SIU back to the historical mission of being a resource for Southern Illinois. No one who works at SIU remembers the Morris years and the success of SIU now, but the people were better, the feeling was better and the results were better.

What happens if professor salaries become tied to the economic success of Carbondale, Southern Illinois or Illinois? The tax payers have no real interest in funding universities in their current self satisfied missions to nowhere. Maybe it is time for public universities to serve society in a trackable way? Would it change SIU if the local business community could get behind higher funding? Would it change SIU to have a mission to service society first, instead of serving the employees?

I guess what we know that it is silly for a Southern Illinois business person to have a discussion about local politics with a professor. Their interests are opposed and in the end, there isn't really much middle ground. Maybe Scott's anonymous argument is the right approach, no thoughts, no logic, no wasting time. He is arguing for his economic interests and they are opposed to mine. Why bother doing details?

Joel is a bad city council member and Lance and Haynes are equally bad. All of them aren't really prepared or active, the question becomes which one votes in your economic interests. Joel is a creature of SIU and Lance and Haynes are creatures of business. I like the way that Lance and Steven vote and don't like the way the Joel votes. When Joel is up for reelection, I hope the same silent majority vote him out, that just voted Brad in.

Maybe someday, SIU's employee's positive economic results will be tied to Carbondale's positive results. The professors of the "Great Depression" era, made this happen, by working for the common good. It is a shame that those professors are dead or retired now, they were much better for Carbondale then the crop we have now.

This is about management decisions. SIU has chosen to reward professors for not working in the community. In the Morris years, you got job credit for working the community. I asked Wendler about this 5 years ago and got blown off. He told me he had no power to change anything, I should talk to the faculty union. I knew then he would fail, he wasn't a leader.

Carbondale and SIU's future together is so much worse than I thought it might be 6 years ago. SIU might succeed and Carbondale might succeed, but unless Poshard can change the culture at SIU, it will be separately. It would be much easier to work together, but that is the way it is. For a number of years, I have referred to SIU as being behind "the moat." It is really true, it is a fortress, standing apart from the community around it.

Thanks to Scott for doing his comments yesterday and making me realize that writing to him was a waste of my time. This is much more interesting.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Career Guidance for This Century

I was reading Guy Kawasaki's blog and came across this Career Guidance advice from Penelope Trunk.

Question 7 if the SIU special. Don't go to graduate school, go get a job. I also like question 10 (like Guy), the first job doesn't count.

Arbor District scores knockout of old CCHS fields

The Arbor District PAC has taken successful aim at getting the old CCHS fields building demolished, grass cut and homeless squatting problem abated. I'm sure it would have happened sooner of later, but it is nice to get it done now. Just a few phone calls and the city swung into action.

Once again, it goes to show how much influence a small group of organized people can have in our little city. It also shows that Carbondale is a well staffed city government, that needs citizen input to find problems.

Do you think the owners of that property really plan to develop a small shopping center there? They own two decrepit properties that would make a great entry to that area from W. Main and there is enough land to do something interesting back there.

Good work Arbor District (again). Keep up the pressure to make Carbondale a better place.

Why pick on Joel? Is there a point?

I received this comment from someone -

You may not agree with Joel but he works at many community events and donates to many community organizations.

I think he is the worst performing city council member and I'm publicly challenging him to do better. He can easily do better, by doing better. I don't care if he volunteers or gives money, I want him to be a better city council member.

There is a theory that you should limit your giving and volunteering to only one charity, when you work at many, you are doing it to make you feel better about yourself (taken from that "More Sex is Safer Sex" book I have written about before). Clearly, Joel's greatest impact would be to spend all of his volunteer hours working on city business (as Brad does). Pickup up trash or stumping for Sheila time, would be far better used by Joel figuring out how to make Carbondale better. In his time in office, Joel has proposed nothing to make the city better.

I have talked to Joel, he doesn't have a clue about what a city government does or should do. The guy needs a training class or to read up on why the citizens of cities agree to pay taxes and what they expect in return. The stuff he says is amazing! Not that this is unusual for people who work in non-profits and universities their whole careers, they think that money just grows on trees and the world owes them something.

Joel consistently votes based on his personal feelings about other people, instead of on what is better for the city. Now when you are in Junior High School this is OK, but it isn't OK for grown men who have promised to serve the city.

Once Joel starts to behave like an adult, I will go and pick on the next worst city council member and ask for improvement. I don't care if he is a good guy or a nice guy or a smart guy. I care that he goes and performs at a high level for the city and he isn't doing it. I hope that taking a stick to Joel will motivate him to perform much better then he as been.

This is the power of this nasty blog. Pointing out what is clearly wrong and at least discussing it. Out in the real world, people actually analyze performance and give feedback. It isn't nasty, it is what is normal.

Dave promised to quit, but he didn't

Dave promised to quit blogging, but he seem to have more to say over at the New Carbondale Dispatch. Check out Dave's fight to revitalize "The Levy" area and open a Gray Hound station.

Very soon, Dave will be the only blogger left in town. That can't be can it. Dave will be the only one, who anyone has heard of, who is commenting about Carbondale? That seem unlikely too. Well, he will be the only one with a blog and bus station at the same time.

Joel Fritzler moving out of town?

We already know, the word on the street is that Sheila is moving to Paul's old house in Makanda (there is a deep commitment to the city, if I ever heard of one), but did you hear about Joel's promise to move?

Seems Joel was going door to door for Sheila down in the Arbor District before the election. He was so sure that Sheila was going to win that he pulled an Alec Baldwin and promised to move to Murphysboro if Sheila lost. I'm thinking this was just an empty promise and he isn't really moving. Anyone seen a "for sale" sign on Joel's front yard recently?

There is a little lesson here about politics in a small town. If you are going to be in the city government, stay fairly neutral. You are going to be in there working with the people you oppose everyday, if they happen to win.

Illinois - pay to play state?

For two of the three hot issues (power rollback, no smoking, and more taxes) before our state government, look to be held up because our screwed up form of state government allows state officials to be paid off somewhat legally (if not ethically). When you add that only 5 people count in the state government, you have a really messed up, pay to play system.

The power rate rollback is being blocked by Emil Jones alone these days (any questions about why our form of government is screwed up?). Turns out that "Jones's stepson John Sterling has provided computer software services sine 2004 to Exelon, the parent company of ComEd," according to a little blurb in this week's "Carbondale Times" State Roundup section. The article goes on to say, "Jones insisted Thursday he knew nothing of the contract." Right, sounds great Emil.

The non-smoking bill passed through both state houses easily and is now in our "fine" governor's desk to be signed. Looks like the tobacco, bar and restaurant lobbies are putting a full court press on the Gov. to veto the bill at the last hour. Might be time for your "Smoke Free Carbondale" folks to start writing letters and giving the bill that last little push.

Haven't heard anything about the new business tax bill, except if it passes, no one in state government currently is getting any money from business, ever again. But that seems like a more honest reasoning then dirty politics, on that one.

I know this is the way things are always done is Illinois, but doesn't it strike you as wrong anyway?

Excellence - Saluki Swim team and lessons for SIU

Now that the children have left town for the summer, I thought it might be a good time to discuss the problems at SIU.

My oldest child has been on the Saluki Swim Team for all 6 years we have lived in Carbondale. The team is doing great and is running 100% full. I was talking to Bill Price (the head coach) about how they do it. Bill says that the team really picked up, once he upped the requirements. My observations about Bill's program is if you don't show up, you get cut or have your club status demoted. You can only get on the team, at one of three workouts each year and are placed in the right group for you skill level. There is no entry in the program at mid-season. The coaching is careful and scientific. A local success story, that we just don't hear about. Imagine, by raising requirements and expectations, you get more swimmers and better results!

I'm sure that many of us feel that SIUC needs to apply this lesson and raise the requirements at the university. I have written about Math entry exams, students not taking notes, rewarding professors for giving away grades in the past, would reversing these kinds of problems turn SIU's enrollment problems around?

Why are we are all so accepting of SIU's mediocre results? Is it possible to change the results for the better, if Poshard were to get on board? Should this be the focus of the search for a new chancellor? I know many professors are dying to have standards go up, what is stopping you?

Your comments are welcome.

Nice article on Brad in SI today

Check it out or audio instead (doesn't work right now because the link is 404, but maybe they will fix it).

Warehouse Shoes and Castle Perilous Move

Warehouse Shoes has opened for business in Campus Shopping Center. It is in the old Thunderbird Travel spot and more recently was Brad Cole's campaign headquarters (right next to B & L Photo and just down the way from Quatro's). Word is the store is owned by Troy Hudson's Mother. Just saw the balloons and grand opening sign yesterday.

Castle Perilous is moving from its longtime home on "the Island," to a building at 207 W. Main on June 1st. This will give CP more room and better parking. I'm sure the old home of WTAO and more recently a software company will be a nice spot for a game store.

Good luck to both. It is nice to see Carbondale's store fronts continue to be in high demand.

Best computer slide shows

Worth a look, these are good. Notice the big text and pictures.

A Solar Electric business model that makes sense?

I ran across this website for Citizenre, don't know if it for real or not. Their business model is to install solar panels on your roof and charge you nothing up front. Then charge you for the electricity generated and guarantee you electrical rates at today's prices for 25 years.

I haven't seen this before, but it seems like the best way for the average person to do solar electric.

Wonder if Bob Pauls has time to comment before moving?

Southern at 150 is dead, long live Southern at 150!

To no great surprise, Southern at 150 is dead, except where it isn't. In the newspapers yesterday we saw a Chancellor candidate (in the SI, sorry I forget to harvest the link) and Poshard saying that the top 75 was a stupid goal (or words to that effect).

We knew that there was lots of like in Southern at 150, except for the overall thrust of the plan couldn't possibly work. Sounds like they are going to throw away a whole bunch of the nonsense that make the whole plan seem corrupt and keep most of the good parts.

More reasonable moves from Poshard. Maybe there is a reason to hope that SIU management is getting their act together?

Illinois is a real fixer upper

From the Peoria Journal Star.

If Illinois were a house, it would be the sorriest on the block.

Ouch! Worth a read.

Funny joke - Smart Soldier

From a friend -
SMART SOLDIER!!!

A combat decorated soldier was talking to Chelsea Clinton and she asked
him what he feared most.

He said there were only 3 things he was afraid of --

"Osama, Obama, and Yo Mama
The good news for the Democrats, none of the Republican candidates are even worthy of a joke yet.

Anyone else have a good joke for us?

Rumor has it that SIUC is sucking money out of the teaching units for next year

I have it on good authority that several departments are looking at 2% to 5% reductions in budgets for next year. Visiting assistants are being shown the door and open tenure positions might not be filled.

Since SIUC's revenue per student is way up, does this track with reality? Are they paying for Morris Library and saving for the new football stadium with the extra money? Does it hurt SIU going forward? Maybe it is only a couple of departments?

Anyone got the real story yet? I was in Vegas last week and didn't see any administrators at the tables losing the money, so that is good news.

Just looked at the Morris Library construction, they are out of their minds!

I was doing a kid music thing and my 3 year old got restless, so we went for a walk. I caught my first look at the current state of Morris Library and realized that Wendler was fired too late. Was there a group circle jerk among Wendler and the architects to decide to waste so much money and destroy an SIU landmark (check the webcam of the project)?

For those of you out of the loop (as I was), the project has left the first floor intact, but the rest of the build is down to steel girders and nothing else. They have thrown away the entire outside look of the building and are redoing it as a modern building. If you hadn't been on campus for many years and couldn't follow the signs, you will no longer be able to find Morris Library.

Keeping the first floor open while you nuke the upper floors was really stupid. It would have been cheaper to build a new building for the library function and tear the whole building down, then what they have done. If you rip out every wall, every exterior surface, every floor, every shelf, every toilet and leave only the steel girders, do you still have the same building?

Deciding remove the brick facade of the building and replacing it with a new "exciting and modern" look, is a slap in the face of historical look of the campus and surely cost $5M to $10M extra. In 20 years, Morris Library will look like one of those buildings from the 1960's, very much out of date and of that time. Use Faner Hall as our worse case example of how bad things might get.

Now they are months late and millions and millions over budget. They are sucking the extra money out of the places that do the real work at the university, the teaching and research.

How can SIU continue to do such stupid things? Would you give these people your money to help build the next project?

What a shame.

Your comments are welcome.

Carbondale cleanup this week.

The Arbor District is raising the flag to cleanup Carbondale this week, to make a good impression for the coming SIU graduation. Here is the quote from the email I received

Next Friday and Saturday, May 11 and 12, Carbondale will have an influx of several thousand people for SIUC’s graduation. Let’s make sure Carbondale looks its best. The Arbor District Neighborhood Association will clean from Walnut and Main between Oakland and University; Poplar and Oakland between Main and Mill and University between Main and Mill on Wednesday and Thursday.

We encourage all residents and businesses including landlords to spruce up around their properties. Let’s make Carbondale look its best!

There was a little piece about this on the front page of the SI today too.

I went and bought at power hedge trimer today and I'm working over the bushes on my properties to do my part.

Join us for a little cleanup, it is kind of fun.

Anyone have an idea of how to do a better job on the cleanup or want to tell us about their efforts?

Mike Bost and Peter on the Vegas Junket circuit

I notice as I left my trade show in Las Vegas and came back, that Mike Bost is in Vegas this weekend on a junket. It is interesting to note that this is a fight weekend and hotel rooms were running at $400 to $1000 per night on the strip. Maybe this whole deal was planned before the fight and Bost wasn't comped tickets to the fight (minimum of $400 per seat)?

The omelet chef in my hotel was Mexican and I asked him if he was going to the fight. Just lit him up into a smile and he told me he has to work Sunday morning, so didn't think he could. Told me he as going to do pay for view and record it too. Asked who he was supporting and he was for Oscar (no surprise there). Made his day, he might not get many omelet consumers who understand the Mexican culture of boxing.

Funny quote in the DE today - SIU's search

I am out of town, but a friend brought this to my attention. The DE has a piece on the latest Chancellor candidate. The funny part from the DE's article -

Ford said one of the main factors that attracted the committee to Gupta was his success at raising money.

While dean at the University of Washington from 1999 to 2004, Gupta more than tripled the money raised by the School of Business. The school raised roughly $20 million in the five fiscal years before his arrival, and about $62 million during Gupta's tenure, according to the school's Department of External Relations.

As many of you know, there is a little company in Seattle area called Microsoft and the stock options were running pretty good in the late 90's. The estimate is there are between 25,000 and 35,000 Microsoft stock option millionaires. Then you have the 2000 to 3000 high tech companies that were created in the 90's in the Seattle area, including mine.

It would be interesting to know why anyone thinks that you wouldn't have fund raising go up 100%+ at UW in that time frame. I wonder how the other colleges did in comparison.

We know already that he will not be able to double SIU giving and it is just silly to think he can.

From the search committee head Susan Ford -

"One of the concerns is always, 'Well, if you're in a business school in southern California, it may be easier to tap a variety of wealthy markets than sitting in southern Illinois,' but he has developed a series of connections and skills and abilities, and it's our sense that they will translate well here," she said.

You kind of wonder if the people doing the recruiting understand what is going on at SIU or if they are willing to throw out happy BS, even if it isn't true.

I have no idea if this candidate is any good, but why are SIU spoke persons putting quotes like this out for the press? Maybe the secret hiring of Glenn Poshard was better?

State will lose $30M on smoking ban? Isn't it still the right thing to do?

I got a kick out of this story from the SI today. It is off base.

Patrick Fleenor, chief economist at the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based educational group, said the state won't save money and will most certainly lose it.

It is hard to argue that the state will lose money on taxes in the short term, but the real question, is if society will make money over time. Will people be more productive, will the total costs be lower, will the revenue be higher because of the smoking ban. The estimate from the article has the state being off $30M next year on tobacco tax revenue.

I'm surprised that anyone is willing to argue that the state should be worried about such a small part of their income, without talking about how much money will be saved over time. How much do the illnesses caused by smoking cost anyway? If you don't have 60 people dieing of lung cancer, how much money does society save? If you were talking about 10% of the state budget, it is easier to justify worrying about short term consequences.

You can justify almost anything, if you count only the very shortest term costs. For example, you should never stop at traffic lights, because they just slow you down. But, the cost of not stopping it so high, most everyone has figured out, that stopping at a red light is in their best interest.

I don't like this article and I don't think the argument used to attack the statewide smoking ban is sound. You have to wonder if this "expert" really feels this way or if a reporter didn't dig into the position far enough.

Anyone brave enough to dig into our "expert's" Think Tank's website and see if the reporter blew it or if the expert is full of it?

On the road from Las Vegas

I am in Las Vegas helping one of my old buddies run a trade show booth. When I was reading the paper, Las Vegas is worried about how they only have a service industry for tourism and don't have manufacturing. It is just like Carbondale.

It has been 7 years since I have been to Vegas and the place is growing like a weed. The airport is jammed, the hotels are getting bigger and fancier and there are people everywhere.

More when I'm back in town.

Walking with Sam Goldman

My wife and I were walking across campus to make the last Southern Illinois Symphony concert and ran into Sam Goldman (when I went to search for a link to Sam, I found this as number 6 in the list. Good stuff from a year ago in this blog, 5 problems SIU has to fix). I have written nice things about Sam before, but I had never talked to him. He is even nicer in person then I had heard, a really impressive man.

Why can't all SIU BOT members be the quality of Sam Goldman? We must be able to do better then big campaign givers, can't we?

Your comments are always welcome.

SI covers Sheila exit from the city council

I'm sure that most of us know that Sheila has or will soon move out of Carbondale for her Father's old house beyond the city limits, but Caleb Hale's piece in today's SI has a couple of passages that deserve a comment.

Sheila claims she got into the race because Brad kicked $50 into a gift pool for George Ryan. I have been giving $50 or $100 or more for this sort of thing for many years. I can't decide if Sheila has just never had a real job or if she has never had a job where she had to excel. Maybe when you are a lawyer you are allowed to make up historic facts on the fly? This is standard office politics and it is hard to believe an adult has gotten this far without seeing it. From the bosses kid's Girl Scout cookies to Dance-a-thon money, to baby showers, we are all asked to give, to keep the political peace and butter people up.

The second item of interest was the part about running the TV ads. I don't watch TV, so I didn't see them, but when push came to shove she threw her grass roots approach right out the window? She says, "she's a little embarrassed of?" Yes, that is ironic.

Bet she is happy to have lost, there is lots of hard work for the mayor to do. What did she think Brad did over the last 4 years, make the easy calls? Maybe Sheila could take my place in a couple of months and get heavy into writing her blog? After 11 months of campaigning, she likely needs a rest.

A good postmortem on the mayor's race.

SIU marketing - who should pay?

I wrote about who should own the costs of trash cleanup and suggested it was the people who create the trash, who should bear the costs of cleanup. When you think about the world this way, why would the state give SIU more money? After all, haven't the universities decided that the students are the customers?

If the students are the customer, the state is pushing the costs to exactly the right people. If society is the customer (I think this is true) of the universities, then the tax payers should pay more and the students less. Maybe it is time for SIU to start serving the citizens of Illinois again? Clearly, having the students as customers isn't working very well.

Marketing messages are important, I think that SIU has messed this message up. How about you?

Trash cleanup in Carbondale - who should pay?

In the mayor's race, Sheila decided to attack Brad on his summer cleanup program. She had something to the argument, but it didn't ring true to most voters. Clearly, being against the summer cleanup program wasn't a winning strategy. I started to think about this, and I was talking to one of the Arbor District leaders (thanks Sandy) today at the Farmer's Market and thought I could do something interesting about trash cleanup now.

I have been reading Steven Landsburg's book "More Sex is Safer Sex" of late and it suggests an interesting way to look at this problem. The person who pays for the cleanup, should be the person who makes the mess. For example, imagine you have a piece of land and someone dumps a load of garbage on it. Who should pay to clean it up, the land owner or the person who dumped the garbage? I think we can all agree it is the dumper, instead of the dumpee, right?

I need to pickup the trash in the business buildings that I own every second or third day. After years of this pickup, the break down of the trash is bags or cups from fast food places (stuffed full of crap) (50% of the total), liquor bottles and cans (30%), pop and water bottles and cans (15%), and everything else (5%). I generate none of this garbage personally, I have a trash bag in my car, but I bear the cost of the cleanup.

Taking my non-scientific, but vetted over time, sample, it seems like the people who should pay to cleanup Carbondale are the users of takeout fast food and consumers of bottles and cans doesn't it? When did it become the land owners fault that other people tossed trash onto their property? That isn't right.

I ran into Bob Pauls today and asked him about this. Bob says that some other communities are charging $.10 per bag of takeout fast food to pay for the cleanup. I know that in some economically enlighten places, they have a bottle and can deposit, which shifts the cleanup costs to the people who litter. It isn't very hard to see how to do it.

I am now going to suggest that Carbondale get in front of this problem by keeping the large scale cleanup program, but paying for it through a usage tax on the people who are generating the litter, the consumers of fast food takeout and bottle and cans. The cleanup program should run throughout the year, if there are funds and then the youth employment can continue for the good of all involved. Of course, landowners who generate trash in their own yards will still have to pay for the cleanup, but those rules are in place now.

What do you think, should we shift the cost of cleaning up the mess in Carbondale to the people who generate the mess? I think this is why Sheila missed the mark in her complaints about this program, she was complaining about the victims receiving benefits and that is a hard sell.

Your comments are welcome.

Six years of frustration are at an end - I'm moving

It wasn't a secret, but I'm finding out that grapevine isn't keeping everyone informed well enough. My family (including me) is moving to Corvallis, OR in July or August.

Why move from the center of the universe? There are two reasons, my wife loves the west and Carbondale is a dead end for my kind of business. When you stack those issues on top of my Father's retirement and my Grandmother's death, the things that kept us here aren't in place anymore.

I have written about this before, but to summarize the problems we have doing business development in Carbondale is fairly easy - there are no people with experience to hire or start companies (the total absence of 30 to 50 year olds is the key). Our employment base of new college grads doesn't work well for factory work, that isn't the kid's path, so that is a problem too.

For six years I worked hard to do business development in Southern Illinois. I have tried a variety of things, each of which was a failure. It is time to do something else.

Of course, your comments are welcome.

Goodbye John Dunn

The DE reports that he has a new job at WMU as the head dude. Good for you Dr. Dunn.

As the turnover of upper management continues. Hopefully, Poshard can build a team that will move things forward. I have a little list of some other people that might go too, but I'm sure you know my list and more names already.

Your comments are welcome.

Dave has gone "round the bend" on the Varsity

Dave has a piece over in his blog about the Varsity Theater today.

The problem is that time has passed the Varsity by. There is no parking, the new style of movie theater seating gives better views. The Varsity wasn't made for small, multiple shows (imagine filling a theater every weekend for just one movie!). The students don't walk anymore, so no business from that. The business model that allowed the Varsity to be built and thrive, doesn't exist anymore. Even if you spend the $1M to fix it up, you still are left with an old cinder block building with no parking.

The owners of that building have the absolute right to do nothing with the building, if they want to. They are paying taxes and no one is at risk. If you want to buy it, feel free to make a written offer. My guess is that $250k in cash will take it, but you will only know by making a written offer.

Why would you want to have the city harass honest citizens? You don't like they way a property owner is using something they own? To bad! That is the way that property rights work here in the USA and our strong property rights are a cornerstone of our country's success. We have proof that laws work that way in our own "American Tap" building.

I know it is well meaning, but who cares? You can't have it both ways, respect people's property rights. Use strong zoning laws and code enforcement, but mostly let people enjoy the use of their own property as much as possible.

As to Dave's call to "beautify or demolish", I wonder if we will have a vote to see if after his mural is painted, if it is beautiful enough. If not, get the D9 out there and take the building down? A slippery slope if I ever heard of one.

We know already that Brad and the city aren't going to mount an assault on the ownership of the Varsity. Do you want to spend thousands of dollars of the city's money to prove what we already know? You can't take someone's building, just because you want to.

Of course, your comments are welcome. Go give Dave some heck over on his blog too.