Southwestern Illinois College will open up its offices the next two Saturdays, in addition to regular daily hours, to help students enroll for the fall semester.

Students can register, see an academic adviser, get financial aid assistance, pay tuition and fees, shop at the bookstore, get an identification card made and veterans service department workers will also be available.

This Saturday and Aug. 22, the Belleville, Granite City and Red Bud campus offices will be open from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. The East St. Louis Louis Community College Center will be open from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. and the Scott Air Force Base Center from 8 a.m. to noon.

Monday through Thursday, students can enroll from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and until 4 p.m. Fridays.

Students also can register online at estorm.swic.edu. For more information about enrollment services, call 618-235-2700.

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Janet Holt, executive director of Southern Illinois University’s Illinois Education Research Council, has been named as coordinator of the Illinois P-20 Council, a statewide initiative established to bring together state agencies, educational institutions, community groups and others help people improve their education from birth to adulthood.

The “P” stands for Preschool and the 20 stands for grade 20.

Elizabeth Purvis, Illinois secretary of education and P-20 chair, named Holt to coordinate the 30-member council, of which Southern Illinois University System President Randy Dunn is also a member.

The goals of the Illinois P-20 Council are critical, challenging but attainable according to Holt.

“In Illinois, only 43 percent of people have an associate’s degree or higher,” Holt said. “As reported by the Georgetown Center for Education, the workforce will need approximately 70 percent of all adults to have some post-secondary training by 2020. The economy requires more of a skilled workforce because of the technological and specialized nature of jobs today.”

The state P-20 Council supports the state goal that 60 percent of Illinois adults should achieve a high quality degree or credential by 2025.

“Illinois is not the only state working to enhance the education of its residents,” Holt said. “The P-20 Councils exist across the country. The Illinois P-20 Council is one of several in the country bringing various educational, community and industry expertise together to accomplish initiatives that often span the educational sectors.”

The first order of business for IERC is to research other P-20 models in the country,” Holt said.

“We will look at what others are doing and, what if anything, to adopt,” Holt said. “We will also be looking at the inequities of school funding in Illinois.”

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The Lindenwood University-Belleville Psychology Department has received a $10,000 grant from the Monticello College Foundation to support research projects for women.

This grant will support two female undergraduate student psychology research projects at the university’s Belleville campus.

The research will be conducted in a new psychology research lab expected to open during the fall semester.

The two research projects will utilize electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate two distinct focus areas. One study will focus on forensic psychology as it relates to eyewitness testimony, and the second research study will focus on cognitive psychology, investigating the impacts of music on neural efficiency.

Trisha Prunty, associate professor in psychology, said the funding will benefit psychology students greatly.

“There is a high probability that these research projects will be publishable,” Prunty said. “Student research, at this level, will provide students the unique opportunity to submit to conferences.”