Southern Illinois University in the news again for the wrong reasons

The Daily Egyptian, Southern Illinois University's student newspaper, found out it had a hoax-ster on it's hands this week.

This story is still gaining momentum. AP reports:

Kodee Kennings' story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University's student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages.
But there was no Kodee Kennings, and the elaborate hoax exposed Friday left The Daily Egyptian embarrassed.

"Certainly for us it's a sad day," said Eric Fidler, Daily Egyptian faculty adviser for the past year. "Some good can come from this, but it doesn't help our reputation. All we can do is be upfront with what happened and what we know."

A 2004 SIU graduate who posed as Kodee's guardian says she and a former Daily Egyptian editor concocted the story to help his career. He denies that and says he was duped, too.
A 10-year-old girl who posed as Kodee in public appearances and a man who pretended to be her father say they were unwitting participants in the scam and believed they were acting in a film.

The tale began to unravel last week when the Daily Egyptian heard that the soldier had been killed in Iraq and subsequent investigations by the student newspaper and the Chicago Tribune exposed that he did not exist.

Earlier this year at Southern Illinois University, a popular professor was the target of a leftist witch-hunt. The professor, Jonathan Bean, is the only conservative on the faculty of the SIU History Department.

Common sense won out, and the lefties backed off.

Then last month, the SIU chapter of the Christian Legal Society filed suit in federal court to be reinstated at Southern as a sanctioned school organization. A student who never attended a Christian Legal Society event complained to the college's administration because members of the CLS are asked to follow Christian beliefs.

This membership requirement violated SIU's affirmative action policy, the educrats there discovered.

No student was ever denied membership into the Christian Legal Society for not following adhering to Christian beliefs, it's important to note.

There's been a lot of talk in the media and the blogosphere about college team nicknames and mascots. Southern Illinois University's teams are called the Salukis, an ancient breed of dog from Eqypt.

But perhaps SIU's nickname should be changed to the Moonbats?