Editor’s note: Molly Parker is a southern Illinois-based journalist and instructor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. This is a first-person column that includes commentary and analysis.

A student walks through the Faner Hall breezeway late in the evening April 9, 2025 at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. LYLEE GIBBS The federal government has revoked the visas ...

CARBONDALE, Ill. — I grew up off a gravel road near a town of 60 people, a place where cows outnumber people. Southern Illinois University, just 40 miles north, opened up my world.

Makanda, a short drive from the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale, features a boardwalk of shops by local artists. Artists sell jewelry, gemstones, sage for burning, paintings ...