Community Survey

 If you want to complete the community survey and aid Zo Agency with its research developing comprehensive marketing plan, here you go.  I think we have done this a couple of times before.  Not sure why the town does not reach out to a perfectly good Univeristy and have them do the reserach instead of hiring an agency though.

SIU President Moving to Springfield

 Looks as if the president of the SIU system is moving to Springfield.  Not sure how this will allow him to keep a close eye on either or both campuses. Plus now the system, which I thought was cash strapped already, will now have to foot the bill for his accommodations in Springfield and I bet he is not looking to rent a suite at a Courtyard by Marriot .

New SIU President

The SIU BOT will vote to confirm Daniel Mahony as the next President of the university, likely tomorrow. Prior to this he served as president at South Carolina's Winthrop University from 2015 until stepping down to take the SIU position. From his Linked In profile:

Dr. Daniel F. Mahony became Winthrop University's 11th president on July 1, 2015. In his first year Dr. Mahony called fo a campus-wide effort to develop a strategy that would build on Winthrop’s past successes, including its strong reputation, focus on students, and its willingness to adapt to the changing realities of public higher education.

One Scalp Collected

Looks as if SIU President Randy Dunn will step down next week, collect a $200,000+ severance package and get hired as a visiting professor at SIUE next January. Plans are to hire retired SIU School of Medicine dean Kevin Dorsey as interim President

Dunn on Administrative Leave

SIU's BOD announced today that SIU President Randy Dunn has been placed on administrative leave and the BOD is looking for an interim President to take his place for the immediate future. Apparently the trustees received some additional information in the past week regarding Dunn that caused them to take this action which appears to have caught Dunn by surprise.  Since I bet Dunn is going on a paid leave of absence, SIU will have to pay salaries for both him and the selected interim at a time with the university is not exactly flush with money.

Gigabit Project

In case you saw the story in today's Southern  about the upcoming Gigabit project, there is a kickoff ceremony at 3 p.m. today at the Carbondale Main Street offices. Apparently, when completed, internet speeds in Carbondale will be 50 times faster than now, meaning that you will be able to download porn at lightning fast rates.  The article says that Frontier is the lead company for the project, in partnership with SIU and the city so am not sure if that means you will have to be a Frontier customer to take advantage of it.

It also appears that Carbondale's WiFi will get an upgrade, which would certainly benefit downtown as well. The city has some wireless access around the town square but it is generally hit or miss.

Chief of Staff Cole?

Heard from a reader of the blog who is in a position to know these things that new SIU president Randy Dunn wants to name former Carbondale mayor Brad Cole as his chief of staff.

Dunn can probably expect negative feedback on this as Cole served on the search committee that forwarded his name, along with 4 others, to the SIU Board of Trustees for the final decision. After, 12.88 million people in the state and you select one of the group that put you forward for the job?

Got this information second hand and will certainly be interesting if it pans out. It may not as I understand there is a lot of push back on it.