Following up from a post of a few days ago, what is Carbondale's brand? Decades ago, it was as a railroad town, hence the overwide town square. For the last 60 or so years, the community's brand has been as the home of SIUC, which means the image of the community is strongly linked to how well SIUC is doing, although, save at the entrances to the city, it has been hard to tell it. For years, The Chamber of Commerce has been painting paw prints leading from the entrances of the city to the campus , but if you did not know that the university's mascot was a dog, you would have no idea why they are there. In the past year or so, the Saluki Pride Committee has arranged to have murals celebrating SIUC painted on buildings throughout the city, with a selfie station on the side of Big Chill, so that is a start.
In view of the fct that SIUC may be facing "difficulties" in the next few years concerning dilapidated buildings, deferred maintenance, a potential DOGE raid over its flaunting DEI, disillusioned students, and decreasing faculty that questions its recent Carnegie status, this does not seem a very good idea.
ReplyDeleteWell, without SIUC, what is Carbondale? We have a pretty good medical community and some light industry. Maybe the medical industry could serve as an economic base but from what I have read, much of southern Illinois economy rests on SIUC
ReplyDeleteThis is unfortunate as there are many problems with this institution so far including debt that may lead to future layoffs.
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