Dear Colleagues,

September 2021 brought good news and recognition to SIUE. We learned that the entering first-year class this fall was the largest in six years, and the University enrolled more students in master’s and doctoral degree programs—3,043—than in any year since 1977. SIUE’s total enrollment increased by 1.2 percent to 13,010. For the eighth year in a row, SIUE received INSIGHT Into Diversity’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award. The HEED Award is the only award that recognizes outstanding diversity and inclusion efforts by colleges and universities.

Read Dean Leonard's full letter.

Jessica McCaskill, BA Communications ‘06

Jessica “CasKILLA” McCaskill made her professional boxing debut in 2015. In the lightweight division, she earned the No. 1 female ranking in the U.S. and third in the world. Based in Chicago, she was the first female to headline in the state of Illinois, making history.

Bill Land, BA Mass Communications ’73

Land is the TV play-by-play voice of the San Antonio Spurs, where he has spent 18 years and earned three NBA titles. His announcing career spans 17 sports, from basketball and baseball to water polo and power tumbling.

Read the article.

Poetry seemingly spoken by the dead sparked interest in Jason Stacy, PhD, professor in the CAS’ Department of History. Stacy recently published his fourth book, entitled Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town.

“As part of this story, I tell the history of Edgar Lee Masters’ book Spoon River Anthology (1915), which was a collection of poetic epitaphs set in a fictional Illinois town called Spoon River,” mentioned Stacy. “Each of Masters’ epitaphs was written in the voice of a deceased citizen of Spoon River. These ghosts tell their stories and appeal to the reader with the hopes and tragedies of their lives. Along the way, they gossip about each other, celebrate each other and weave together a community of everyday pettiness, fortitude and hope.”

Read the article. 

A passion of Michael E. Yancey, CAS alumnus, which was to support and encourage young people, will continue. This legacy is being made possible because of his family’s contribution of $25,000 to establish the Michael E. Yancey Sphinx-man Scholarship, a diversity-focused endowment. 

In memory and honor of Michael, the fund will award an annual $1,000 scholarship to a sophomore with preferences given to Black and Native American applicants, according to Khalid Yancey, Michael’s brother. Michael earned his bachelor’s in mass communications in 1993 from SIUE, was a pioneer in helping launch SIUE’s Alumni Ambassador Program and was a prominent member in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., after pledging during his student days at SIUE. 

Read the article.

A series of virtual events featuring nationally-recognized Native American scholars will advance research and education in indigenous knowledge and sustainability in the region during the upcoming collaborative conference, “Indigenous Knowledge & Sustainability – Food,” being held Wednesday-Sunday, Oct. 6-10.

The conference is sponsored by programs at multiple regional institutions, including SIUE’s Native American Studies Program, Center for Spirituality & Sustainability, College of Arts and Sciences, and Office of Research and Projects; the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL); The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis; the Saint Louis Zoo; and Missouri Botanical Garden.

Read more.

Segue is a 30 minute radio program airing on WSIE 88.7 The Sound on Sundays at 9 a.m. and is hosted by Kevin Leonard, PhD, CAS dean, as well as Chancellor Randy Pembrook, PhD. This show features interviews showcasing campus and community leaders and discussions about issues and ideas on the SIUE campus and within the College of Arts and Sciences.

Some recent guests include: 

• Segue celebrated its 500th episode
• Ekaterina Gorislavsky, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies
• Adriana Martinez, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Geography and Geographic Information Sciences, and Environmental Sciences

Listen live at siue.edu/wsie. 
Listen to past episodes at siue.edu/segue.

Do you have any neat projects, important research, department updates, and/or student news/awards/projects? If so and you'd like the story to be featured in a future publication, CAS news, and/or social media, please submit it via email for consideration: cascommunications@siue.edu