“The Halloween celebration in Carbondale has given up the ghost,” and since Southern Illinois University President John Guyon made this proclamation, students have been wondering what the effects will be.

The Carbondale City Council Sept. 5 repealed “Halloween Fair Days” ordinances, which allowed campus block parties and extended hours at community taverns during Halloween weekend.

One effect SIU party ban might be increased crowds at the University of Illinois, said Paul Berg, Champaign-Urbana assistant city manager. At U of I, a block on campus property is closed off during the weekend before Halloween. Beer vendors and live bands are allowed in this area.

Berg said it will be hard to judge if SIU’s cancellation will have an effect because Homecoming at U of I is the same weekend, so large crowds are expected anyway.

A group of flyers were reportedly being passed around at U of I during the week of Oct. 9 which encouraged people to visit SIU for Halloween weekend.

Some of the flyers might have had a picture of Guyon and a caption which said students should still come to Carbondale during the weekend before Halloween, a U of I source says.

Mike Ramsey city editor of the Daily Illini, U of I’s newspaper, said he has not seen the flyer but has heard of its message and is “highly suspect” of its existence.

“If people are looking for a good time, it will still be here,” said Dom Magnoni, a SIU student. Magnoni is staying at SIU for Halloween weekend and said students are still planning on having parties at houses, apartments and other student populated areas.

Magnoni said some people expect Carbondale to be chaotic because no streets will be blocked to contain crowds, as the case has been in past years. He said increased police presence should control any crowd in the downtown area.

The junior said cancelling the street party was a “pretty good idea” because violence had been a problem before and most people partying at SIU during Halloween weekend were not SIU students.

U of I junior Chris Perkins said in the past two years, he has noticed a decline in attendance at U of I’s Halloween street festivities. “Maybe with the changes at Southern, more people will come here,” Perkins said.

The street party at U of I is two blocks from the sorority house of Mary Fran Ransick, a junior. Ransick says it is “not worth it to have that big of a party,” because some crowd members act recklessly. Ransick and most of her friends are staying at U of I because homecoming is the same weekend and there are “a lot of other things going on beside street parties.”

Because street parties were cancelled on campus, SIU sophomore Currin Shipley said he expects crowds for off-campus parties. Shipley said the residence hall guest policy still will be enforced. The guest policy allows one guest for each bed.