SIU-Carbondale Chancellor Austin Lane paused in the middle of Wednesday's Day of Giving to highlight some of the reasons he believes Saluki nation is so generous.
As Lane spoke at Morris Library around 3 p.m., over $2 million had been donated.
The Chancellor said this indicates donors believe the University will be good stewards of their money.
“People want to invest when they see things happening. When they see success, whether it’s from recruitment, enrollment, retention, athletics, you name it. When they see the success, people tend to want to connect in with that.”
Some of SIU-Carbondale's recent successes highlighted by Lane include an increase enrollment in both the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters, plus a $10 million gift to the SIU School of Law and a $6 million gift for a new Welcome Center on campus.
Lane also announced the school is ready to join a select number of institutions with the highest performance in key areas associated with Research and Development.
Lane said, in 2025, SIU-Carbondale is on pace to become a Research 1 Institution, becoming just the third such school in Illinois.
He said this will put the University on a whole new level.
“There’s not anyone south of us that you’re going to be able to find with that designation. You’d have to go to the University of Memphis to find another R1, or you’d have to go over to Nashville to find one. Or, in Kentucky, you’d have to go to Louisville or the University of Kentucky. So those are the institutions now that we should be compared to instead of maybe some that we’ve been compared to in the past.”
Lane said Research 1 Institutions are defined as those that have $50 million in research expenditures and grant 70 research doctorates.
He said this will help SIU-Carbondale recruit high quality students and faculty.
You can track the Day of Giving donations by clicking here.
