Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 4, 2007 THE CAIRO PROJECT

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Cairo's Woes

BY CALEB HALE, THE SOUTHERN

For the last five years, students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale's School of Journalism have been chronicling the plight of those who live in the Alexander County town sitting at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers - Cairo.

"The Cairo Project" is the brainchild of photojournalism assistant instructor Phillip Greer, whose career as a photojournalist has taken him to work with such newspapers as the defunct Champaign-Urbana Courier, the Dayton Daily News in Ohio and a 24-year stint at The Chicago Tribune.

During his Tribune years, Greer became familiar with Cairo, its people and its well-documented troubles. When he joined the SIUC staff, he decided he would make it an assignment for his students to travel to Cairo and let the pictures they brought back tell the story of its people.

"They've documented everything from the hospital and the abandoned records to some of the more decrepit buildings. They've gone into the churches, eventually they were invited into people's homes. They've ridden along with the police and fire departments," Greer said.

In all, the project has amassed more than 5,000 photos currently stored on about 100 compact discs, he added. Each fall semester, new students add to the collection.

"It's been an eye-opener for the students, especially those who come from Chicago," Greer said. "When they go down there, they realize there aren't things like public transportation or a franchise in town, except the Dollar General Store."

Greer is extending the project beyond its traditional fall semester time frame to set up a Web site featuring the photos and stories, as well as preparing a book scheduled with SIU Press later this year.

Journalism school interim director William Freivogel has applied for a grant to pay for the multi-media project and is tapping the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for help in addressing Cairo's ongoing economic problems with state leaders.

"The goal is to find a home for all the good work our students have done on this community in a multi-discipline way," Freivogel said. "We'll also try to see if there are some sort of solutions and ideas to improve life there."

- SIUC Media and Communications Resources contributed to this report