{"id":3315,"date":"2023-08-09T22:04:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T22:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3315"},"modified":"2023-08-14T16:19:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:19:06","slug":"flight-connects-siu-to-chicago-alumni-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=3315","title":{"rendered":"Flight connects SIU to Chicago alumni, students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image
The passengers for the inaugural flight include Jeff Harmon, SIU chief communications and marketing officer; Wendell Williams, associate chancellor of enrollment management; SIU Chancellor Austin A. Lane; Sheryl A. Tucker, SIU provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, Illinois State Sen. Dale Fowler and Contour Airlines CEO Matt Chaifetz. Photo by University Communications.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bright and early on the first day of August, the distance between Chicago and Southern Illinois got a little shorter.<\/p>\n

That morning, Chancellor Austin Lane, state Sen. Dale Fowler, and others from SIU and the region boarded the first Contour Airlines flight from Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois to O\u2019Hare International Airport in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an area we recruit. Our students that are from Southern Illinois are able now to get to Chicago,\u201d Lane said before the flight on Aug. 1. \u201cThis is a game changer for the university as we continue to grow the enrollment.\u201d<\/p>\n

These daily flights can take up to 30 passengers from Marion to Chicago in about an hour, cutting travel time by about 80 percent compared to driving to the Windy City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are around 45,000 SIU alumni around the Chicago area. This makes it much easier for us to engage with them, and it makes it more likely that they will come visit SIU,\u201d said Matt Kupec, vice chancellor for development and alumni relations and CEO of the SIU Foundation.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the SIU Foundation has hosted multiple outreach events in and around Chicago, including the Saluki Takeover Tour last fall and Saluki Ball, a fundraising event this spring.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Saluki Takeover Tour in Chicago takes place from Wednesday, Sept. 6, through Saturday, Sept. 9. The cornerstone event will be the Chancellor\u2019s Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant. The takeover will conclude with an alumni tailgate and Saluki Football game against Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. To register for these events and many others, visit siuf.org\/chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSIU is making its presence felt in Chicago, and the response to these events has been overwhelmingly positive,\u201d Kupec said. \u201cThese flights are a catalyst for more engagement with Salukis in Chicago and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the Chicago-to-Southern Illinois route, O\u2019Hare has connecting flights across the country and around the globe. With about 250,000 alumni located all over the world, it has never been easier for alumni abroad to visit their alma mater.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you get on one of these flights, you\u2019re going to see Salukis,\u201d Kupec said. \u201cBetween university representatives and general alumni, they\u2019re going to be full of maroon shirts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets start as low as $59 per flight and can be purchased at contourairlines.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bright and early on the first day of August, the distance between Chicago and Southern Illinois got a little shorter. That morning, Chancellor Austin Lane, state Sen. Dale Fowler, and others from SIU and the region boarded the first Contour Airlines flight from Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois to O\u2019Hare International Airport in Chicago. \u201cIt’s … Continue reading Flight connects SIU to Chicago alumni, students<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-higher-education","category-illinois-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3320,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3315\/revisions\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}