New SIU chancellor vows to end Halloween breaks

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- For the past five years, Southern Illinois University has shut down for the week around Halloween in an effort to quell hooliganism at campus-area bars and in the streets.

It hasn't worked.

Walter Wendler, who took over as chancellor in July, said that this year's break, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, will be the last.

"It's a matter of a few hundred idiots bent on violence impacting the schedule and calendar of everyone here at the university," Wendler said Monday. "I can't allow that. We have to find other ways."

Last fall, more than 160 people, about half of them SIU students, were arrested during three nights of violence.

City leaders decided to close downtown bars the weekends before and on Halloween. In March, then-chancellor John Jackson pushed through another weeklong break, hoping students would leave town and reduce the unruly crowds in the bars.

Wendler said he sees no reason to interrupt university operations at the end of October, especially when a weeklong break is traditional among most universities during Thanksgiving week.

"I've talked about this with many people in recent weeks, and while I agree with what former Chancellor Jackson did in authorizing the week off, I find that I wouldn't authorize something like that again," Wendler said.

Carbondale Mayor Neil Dillard said he supports whatever the school decides.

"I've known, and have heard from many people at the university, that closing around Halloween does put pressure on students, faculty, graduate students, everyone to have that kind of stoppage in the fall," the mayor said.