Recently in Western Illinois Category

For more on the continuing story of Amtrak's growing popularity in the wake of higher gas prices, we turn to today's Wall St. Journal, which says...

WASHINGTON -- The number of people riding Amtrak surged 13.9% in July from a year earlier, as high gas prices caused more commuters to rely on intercity rail.

...

In July, Amtrak said, only one of its services saw fewer riders compared with the previous year. Elsewhere, there were major gains, such as a 33% jump on the Capitol Corridor between San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.

Even on Amtrak's already heavily traveled Northeast Corridor line from Washington to Boston, passenger counts are up by nearly 8% over last year. Overall, Amtrak is on pace to serve a record 28 million passengers in its current fiscal year, up from the previous high of 25.8 million last year.

Amtrak's newfound popularity has made an impression in Congress, where lawmakers view the rail service as an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient approach to reducing gridlock and expanding transportation options.

The trains serving Macomb (the Illinois Zephyr and the Carl Sandburg) continue to sell out. The advice around here is to get your tickets well in advance.

Wow, so that was July! Summer goes by too quickly, and sometimes the blog suffers for it. I sat down tonight and looked at the pictures from the last few weeks (my wife documents pretty much everything the family does) and was struck by how busy we've been this summer without really going very far from home. So that's where I've been. Mostly home, but often not at the computer.

But I got lonesome for the blog, so here we go.

Case in point for the kinds of things we've been doing close to home (with a picture!) would be when John Palmer (a.k.a. EclectEcon) traveled to Monmouth, Illinois--which is just 20 miles or so from here. He plays French horn for the Goderich Laketown Band, which played a few concerts in our area. The reason for their picking Monmouth had to do with one of the members of the Monmouth municipal band being from Goderich originally and his setting up of an exchange of bands. The Monmouth band will visit Goderich sometime in the future.

It was wonderful to meet up with John. I attended two of his concerts and to the final one I brought the whole family. My son enjoyed their last number especially. It was a medley from the movie "Cars". Here are a couple of pics from the event.

I say it was a meeting of bloggers because not only did I meet John, but also a friend of his that happens to live in Monmouth, Rebekah, who lives in Monmouth and has a lot more pictures.

The band is doing a good job as goodwill ambassadors. My wife is already talking about taking a trip there.

This blog is mostly dedicated to economics, but it can be hard to resist an occasional digression into the world of sports. In that vein, a couple of things caught my eye today.

First, the WIU women's basketball team is waiting to see if they will be the #1 or #2 seed in the conference tournament. Their regular season is finished. They missed the opportunity to decide their own fate with a win this weekend. So now it's up to Southern Utah. (Incidentally, SUU is the academic home of David Tufte of the voluntaryXchange blog.) With a win over the other contender for the #1 seed, Oakland University, SUU could propel WIU into the top spot. If Oakland wins, they and WIU would have identical conference records, but Oakland swept the regular season series and would win the tiebreaker. Let's hope that SUU can pull off the upset.

The other women's basketball story getting my attention is the retirement of NDSU coach Amy Ruley (registration may be required for the article). Ruley has coached the Bison since 1979 and led the team to five Division II national championships--four of them consecutive from 1993 to 1996. Tonight will be her last regular season game. Bison basketball will just not seem the same for many fans of the game. Nearly 30 years at one school is an incredible run--that just doesn't happen anymore. She's a graduate of Purdue and has her master's degree from Western Illinois. (The latter I only found out recently after coming to WIU myself.) After coaching, she's expected to do some fundraising for NDSU athletics. As someone who grew up and went to college near Fargo in the '80s and '90s when she and the Bison were making their way to the pinnacle of D-II, I'd love to see her go out with a win. Go Bison!

This blog will proudly wear the colors of Northern Illinois University until Monday evening. Western Illinois University is also paying tribute on their web site with NIU colors. A vigil will be held at 3pm on Monday in the University Union.

Yes, I've been quiet the last few days. It has been final exam week, and on Wednesday it almost required a shovel to get down to the desktop. Things are better now, and I hope to be rejuvenated after the weekend. In the morning, I will be at the Commencement ceremony. As I often do, I will be leading the graduate students (MA Econ) across the stage and handing each of them their diploma cover as we smile for the camera (the actual diploma will be in the mail after grades are in).

Then, after the ceremony, we're going to St. Louis to see Wicked (for the 2nd time).

Have a good weekend!

Looking for good public schools? Find a smallish to medium sized city with a medium to large sized university. Our little (20,000 pop.) town fits that description. According to recent data, over 13% of adults 25 and over in our town have a graduate degree. (Only 10 non-metro area communities in the country scored a higher percentage.) A lots of them are Ph.D.s. And a lot of them are parents. Parents with Ph.D.s (at least those I know) tend to be actively involved and demand quality education for their kids.

So out of curiosity I was looking at school data (2005-2006) for Illinois and found that in 6th grade math, our school is right around the level of the top 100 in Illinois. (I was counting individual schools, not district averages.) Just a few places down from some of the suburban Chicago magnet schools, and on par with some other districts with stellar reputations. How many schools with 6th grade classes in Illinois? A lot. I didn't count as it's hard to separate the individual schools from district averages. But it's certainly more than 1000.

How about HS ACT ranking? I may have miscounted when trying to separate individual high schools from district averages, but it looks like Macomb is no lower than about a tie for 70th out of Illinois (public) high schools. (We beat out Urbana, Charleston, and Edwardsville... all university towns like we are...though they also were high on the list.) Evanston, IL (I hear they have a university there) was just 3 places above us. In downstate Illinois, Macomb is one of the top few. The list is, of course, top heavy with Chicago prep schools and high property value suburbs. (In case you're curious, our district's average ACT score was 22.2 which is somewhere above the 63rd percentile nationally.)

It is nice that such data is available on the web. I've had such good experiences with our school so far, I just wanted to see how we rank. I wanted confirmation for my suspicion (based on more evidence than just my current residence...I've seen it in other places I've lived) that small to medium sized towns with medium to large universities do well. And I wanted to confirm that the good experiences we've had so far are indicative of what we might see as our kids go through the system.

It is certainly possible that part of the explanation is that children of parents with graduate degrees (like households where one or both parents are university professors, doctors, lawyers, etc.) get a lot of early education at home so they start reading before kindergarten. But in our district math scores rise from 3rd grade to 6th grade, so the school is providing some value added. So maybe there are positive externalities to this kind of clustering.

Maybe having a lot of Ph.D.s in town is a substitute for a large property tax base in determining school performance?

The Road to the White House, a multi-day mock presidential election event is off to a tremendous start here at WIU. Tonight, students played the roles of primary and caucus voters from a selection of states. Other students played the roles of campaign workers trying to sway the voters. Broadcast students used it as a real-world training exercise and broadcast the proceedings on the college cable channel. Print journalism students were seen scribbling on notepads and taking photos. Our state senator was in attendance. Faculty supervised the ballot process, answered questions, and kept the process moving forward.

Students were given a taste of what it is like to vote in a primary or take part in a caucus. Having participated in the Iowa caucus once back in the day, I volunteered to coordinate a couple of the caucuses. What a rush! (That is not a phrase that I use often, and probably never have used on the blog to this point.) Before we started, the look on some students faces was one of apprehension and confusion. Many, if not most, have not participated in any "real" politics. Maybe some have voted in a state election, but not many in this bunch would have voted in 2004. Given that we are in a primary state, I doubt that many have caucused (though we do have many students from Iowa--some of whom I learned from conversations are planning to caucus in '08).

At the end of the session, I noticed a visible change in the facial expressions of those students. It was no longer apprehension and confusion, but a look of satisfaction. A look that said that this wasn't so bad after all, and maybe it was even interesting.

The best part of it is that this mock election event is spread out over a couple of weeks. The energy will continue to build. Many of the students are signed up to participate each night, giving it some real potential for creating a lasting impression.

Here's the main website for Road to the White House. You can read more about the events here and here.

The results of tonights polling of the students? On the Republican side, they like Giuliani. Romney was close behind, and Ron Paul was surprisingly strong. On the Democratic side, Obama was the clear favorite. Now of course, we are in Illinois, and there is obviously some home bias. It wasn't even close. This may be one area where the simulation is not quite in sync with reality. Obama clearly has the hearts of these students even as he has lost ground to Clinton in the larger population. Can he come back? I just saw a ballroom full of students who hope so. Whatever your political affiliation, it was quite a sight to see on our campus tonight.

At this time of year, it is not unusual for students coming to my office hours to remark about the view I have from my office. It is nice to be able to see the change in colors from one day to the next. And in the fall, the skies in the midwest are often a beautiful deep blue. My office faces west, so the sunsets are nice too.

Here are the two games that will be programmed into my DVR:

North Dakota State (#1 FCS Coaches Poll) at Minnesota (TV: Big Ten Network 11am CDT)

Northern Iowa (#2 FCS Coaches Poll) at Western Illinois (#17 FCS Coaches Poll) (TV: Fox Sports Midwest 6:30pm CDT)

Unfortunately another obligation tomorrow night will prevent me from attending the WIU game. The UNI vs WIU game features the only two teams unbeaten in conference play. In the Sports Network poll, NDSU is #2 and UNI #1.

Go Leathernecks!

UPDATE: NDSU and UNI both won. I recorded both and watched them later. It is truly unfortunate that NDSU is not yet eligible for post-season play after their transition to the FCS (formerly Division I-AA). In my opinion, the best two teams at this level are NDSU and UNI. Having seen both play, I'd give the edge to UNI, but not by much. Yes, the Bison did beat a Big Ten opponent (Minnesota), but Minnesota has been having so much trouble lately, I'm not sure what weight to put on that. It is a shame that NDSU and UNI will not play this year. Next year, however, they will be in the same conference.

Our playoff hopes are circling the drain after the loss to UNI, but next year our redshirt freshman QB will be a year older and a year wiser having played the #1 and #2 teams in the FCS.

Do not be surprised if UNI wins it all this year. Do not be surprised if the Bison win it all next year.

From University Relations:

MACOMB, IL -- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will present "Our Environmental Destiny" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3 in Western Hall on the Western Illinois University-Macomb campus as part of the University Theme "Global Challenges and Personal Responsibility – Environmental Sustainability" 2007-2008 Speaker Series. Kennedy's presentation is open free to the public.

I will be attending.

I learned today that one of our alumni is now Deputy Minister of Finance for Economy and Integration in Paraguay. One of my thesis students from this past year is in the Ministry of Finance in Mozambique. He and I are working on a paper together.

Both came here on a Fulbright Fellowship. Over the years, WIU has attracted many Fulbright students from around the world. They add to the intellectual vitality of the department, and it is rewarding to see them do well.

Tonight, WIU held its graduate commencement exercises. I believe we had about eight of our MA students walk across the stage to receive their hoods. At our commencement ceremonies (both grad and undergrad), graduates are seated by major subject area. This is the first place where I have been (as student or faculty) that does this, and I like it. Maybe I just noticed that I like it more because this group of grad students was such a close-knit bunch and such a pleasure to work with. I haven't had that much fun at a commencement ceremony in a long time. Lots of pictures. Lots of handshakes with family members of the grads. Lots of excited talk about jobs and Ph.D. programs.

This is why we do it.

It's just a shame that the ceremony was indoors because the weather was perfect.

At the Macomb airport, the current sustained winds are 32mph with gusts to 40mph. Peak gust today was 44mph. Batten down the hatches and man the pumps, it's a wild weather day in the midwest.

Things like this are good to hear. From the WIU Athletic Department:

Half of Western’s sport programs and 50 percent of the approximately 400 student-athletes earned grade point averages of at least 3.00 last semester. Thirty-one students recorded a perfect 4.00 GPA, leading to an overall student-athlete semester GPA of 2.83 - just below the overall University semester GPA of 2.87.

...

Western Illinois placed 58 student-athletes on the Fall 2006 Mid-Continent Academic All-Conference Team earlier this week, just one shy of Valparaiso which had a league-high 59 honorees. To be placed on the list, student-athletes must have a 3.00 or better GPA in the semester in which they compete. A total of 356 Mid-Con student-athletes from the sports of men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball were honored.

...

Athletically, Western Illinois is following its most successful year as more teams earned Mid-Con titles in 2005-06 than any of the past 10 years and more teams advanced to NCAA postseason tournaments than any year in Western’s Division I history.

Already this year, men’s soccer won the Mid-Con title, volleyball finished as the runner-up, and women’s soccer advanced to the title game of the Mid-Con Tournament. Baseball, men’s tennis and softball were ranked either first or second in the 2006 Mid-Con preseason polls.

Not to mention that the men's golf team was named one of the top 10 stories of the 2005-2006 season by Golfweek.

I've had a number of student athletes in my classes, and have nothing but good things to say. The college athletics system is far from perfect, but there are thousands of students across the country who play sports that don't get a lot of attention. They play simply for the love of the game. You won't see them on ESPN on Saturday afternoon, but you wouldn't know it from the effort they put forth. They tend to put forth the same effort in the classroom as well. Way to go!