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.