The Saluki Takeover Tour of Southern Illinois comes to a close Saturday evening with a celebration at Walker's Bluff.
Chancellor Austin Lane and his staff have visited over 20 high schools in 17 counties to show local students how much the University wants them to become Salukis.
He says Saturday's event will be a short, fun-filled program to put the takeover to bed.
"That's the capstone event at Walker's Bluff. Our families of our students that are future Salukis, our principals, superintendents, we have our B.E.E.R alumni group that's coming back. We've got our head basketball coach that's going to give some words. It's really kind of a final celebration to all of the tour that we've been on."
Lane says once SIU noticed there was going to be delays with financial aid, he and his staff started to plan an event like the takeover to yield more students and stay on track despite the financial aid situation.
"We're one of the first universities that's actually processing aid. So, our students are finding out, already last week, what their offer letters are going to be. That's helping these applications continue to increase. That's pushing us towards our goal that we want to be in fall is up again like we were last time."
Lane says another way to yield more students was to let school superintendents and principals know their students with a 2.75 GPA or better could automatically get admitted without filling out an application.
The event at Walker's Bluff on Saturday, May 4 is from 6-8 p.m.
