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What better way to bring the family together than with a weekend filled with fun, Saluki style?  Saluki Family Weekend at SIUC is set for Oct. 23-25.  Events include free boat rides and recreational activities, a craft sale, a trivia night contest, tours, volleyball, movies, a harvest brunch, and of course, Saluki football and tailgating!  One lucky family will be the 2009 Family of the Year and claim game tickets, lodging, apparel and other prizes.  This is the last Saluki Family Weekend football at McAndrew Stadium and organizers hope to pack the stands with maroon faithful as the football team takes on the Youngstown State Penguins.  For more on Saluki Family Weekend, visit http://www.salukifamily.siu.edu/.

The state’s only baccalaureate radiology program is showcasing its new digs.  SIUC’s radiologic sciences program is hosting an open house during Saluki Family Weekend, featuring tours of the facilities that recently underwent a $300,000 improvement project.  The open house is 4-6 p.m. on Oct. 23.  Visitors can go to room 14 at the Applied Sciences and Arts building and from there program faculty and students will conduct tours.  The tours will highlight the remodeled classrooms and new equipment.  The transformation of rooms 11a, 11b, 11c, 12a and 14 is readily apparently.  The improvements include fresh paint and new carpeting, comfortable seating, overhead projection, computer and Internet access, document cameras and DVD players.  There are now two X-ray laboratories rather than one and each features the latest in diagnostic equipment.

Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn made a recent stop at SIUE as part of a whirlwind tour of college and university campuses throughout the state, as he brought his message of support for the Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP).  The Illinois Student Assistance Commission received only half its usual allocation for the MAP, which resulted in funding of MAP for the first semester of the 2009-2010 academic year, but not for the second semester.  To an audience of more than 200 people in the SIUE Morris University Center Goshen Lounge, Quinn cited the need to restore the funding during the upcoming veto sessions in Springfield.  MAP helps about 138,000 students annually in Illinois.  The mean taxable income of MAP recipients was just $23,558 last year.  More than three-quarters of these students had household incomes of less than $40,000 per year and just under half reported less than $20,000 in household income.  These students range in age from just out of high school to adults and dislocated workers returning to school to gain new skills, or to rebuild their lives.  The funding means a critical piece of financial support for about one in four undergraduate students on the SIUE campus who receive between $500 and roughly $2,500 per semester.

“Paul Simon: Compassion, Vision and Courage,” an exhibit highlighting the life and legacy of the late Sen. Paul Simon, will officially open on Sunday, Oct. 18, at SIUC’s Morris Library.  A special program at 2:30 p.m. in the John C. Guyon Auditorium will open the exhibit.  Both the presentation and exhibit showcase the life and work of a man who devoted his life to public service.  Exhibit visitors will get a compelling glimpse of Simon’s life and his impact and contributions to the region, the state and the country.  For more information about “Paul Simon: Compassion, Vision and Courage,” the papers of Paul Simon or the Special Collections Research Center and Morris Library, call (618)453-2516 or e-mail speccoll@lib.siu.edu.

The Breast Center at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, a program of SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU, has received a full three-year accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, a program administered by the American College of Surgeons.  SIU’s center is now one of 23 centers in the U.S. that has successfully completed a new rigorous evaluation and review process.  SIU’s Breast Center had 100 percent compliance on all 27 standards for the accreditation process used by NAPBC to measure the most efficient and effective care available for patients with breast disease.  The SIU Breast Center, which opened in 1988, emphasizes patient centered, research based, interdisciplinary care for those with breast cancer, including expedited treatment options provided by a team of medical specialists.  More information is available online at www.siumed.edu/breastcenter or by calling (217)545-7432 weekdays.

Elizabeth O’Malley Conzelman, who graduated earlier this year from SIUE with a bachelor of science in Anthropology, recently was named winner of the 2009 Illinois Archaeological Survey’s (IAS) Jeanette Stephens Paper Competition, the fifth consecutive year an SIUE Anthropology major has won the competition.  The awards were announced recently at the IAS Annual Meeting in late September in Springfield.  The IAS is a society of professional archaeologists, and other technical professionals, dedicated to identifying and preserving important archaeological resources throughout the state.  The conference and banquet were hosted by the Illinois State Museum.

Roberta J. Ogletree, professor of health education at SIUC, has won the Illinois Society for Public Health Education’s Donald B. Stone Outstanding Health Educator Service Award.  She will receive a certificate and a one-year membership Dec. 7 in Bloomington.  The award recognizes teachers who have enhanced the lives of others and who have contributed to their discipline.  Former student Eric S. Davidson, now associate director of Eastern Illinois University’s Health Service, nominated Ogletree for the award, describing her as a “superb educator.”  Earlier this year, Ogletree received the W. W. Patty Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.  Other honors include service awards from Eta Sigma Gamma and the American School Health Association.

The School of Art and Design at SIUC will host painter Amy Swartele for a three days of workshops with art students.  Swartele also will present a lecture free and open to the public beginning at 7 p.m. on Oct. 22.  The lecture is set for Room 101 in Lawson Hall on Lincoln Drive.  She will be on campus Oct. 21-23.  Swartele is a Belgian and American painter specializing in the surrealistic and expressionist traditions.  She spent her childhood in Belgium, Holland and England and pursued advanced education in the United States at Wesleyan University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Swartele’s work is in permanent collections in India and France and at the Gibson Gallery Museum of the State University of New York at Potsdam.  She is an associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she serves as head of the painting program.

The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) and the Illinois EPA are co-funding the $416,000 cost of a wind-powered generator and solar panels to supply the Environmental Resources Training Center (ERTC) at SIUE with renewable energy.  The ERTC, located just off New Poag Road on the north side of campus, specializes in providing technical training for water and wastewater operators and is part of the SIUE School of Engineering.  In April, the ERTC was notified that it would receive approximately half the funding for the project from the ICECF and, later in the year, the IEPA agreed to fund the remainder.  The engineering firms Oates Associates and Bric Partnership currently are writing specifications and plan to proceed soon with the project.  In addition to the wind-powered generator, some 150 photovoltaic (solar) panels will be assembled.  The expected completion date is spring.

SIUC welcomes jazzman Mulgrew Miller and his ensemble, Wingspan, to Shryock Auditorium Oct. 22.  The famed jazz pianist and ensemble take the stage at 7:30 p.m.  The concert is free to SIUC students with their student identification, and $10 for the general public.  Miller has more than three decades as a musician to his credit.  A Mississippi native, Miller grew up on blues, rhythm and blues and gospel, but also studied classical piano.  He formed his first musical ensemble while still in high school.  Miller went on to study jazz at Memphis State University.  Later, he learned from some of the best by working with some of the important jazz names of the time.  Miller formed the quintet Wingspan in the 1990s, but continues to perform solo and with other ensembles.  Tickets for this performance are available in advance at the ticket offices in the SIU Arena or in the Student Center as well as from the Shryock Auditorium box office.  Tickets are also available at the door beginning one hour before the performance.

The Sports Network announced Oct. 16 that Saluki senior running back Deji Karim has been added as a candidate for the Walter Payton Award.  The Payton Award, now in its 23rd year, is given to the most outstanding player in the Football Championship Subdivision.  Delaware quarterback Pat Devlin and Karim join 18 other players on the list.  Northern Iowa senior quarterback Pat Grace and Karim are the only players from the Missouri Valley Football Conference that are on the watch list.  Coming off a knee injury that cost him the 2008 season, Karim has established himself as one of the top runners in FCS.  Karim ranks first nationally in rushing (167 yards per game) and all-purpose yards (228) and is second in kickoff returns (35.1 average).

SIUE’s School of Business has been ranked as a Best 301 Business School in the 2010 edition of The Princeton Review, a New York based education services company.  Results are based on student surveys and institutional data from 2009.  The Princeton Review noted students surveyed indicated they were drawn to the SIUE School of Business because of its reputation and its accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)-International.  Students also said they were attracted to the School’s “convenient evening hours” and weekend classes “to better manage the work-life-school balance,” as well as the school’s affordability — the most affordable tuition in Metropolitan St. Louis.  The SIUE School of Business is among an elite 10 percent of business schools worldwide that have earned the prestigious seal of approval from the AACSB.  Only 30 percent of business schools in the United States are accredited by the organization.  The Princeton Review is known for its test-preparation courses, education services, and college and graduate school admission services.