Illinois Student Senate

I hope you enjoy the ISS blog. Brian Pierce had the idea of starting it last year and he’s hoping this year it will really take off.

You’ll also notice our blog links to several other local blogs, the two I visit most regularly are Illini Pundit and The Next Frontier. Illini Pundit is a conservative blog with several commentators with considerable expertise on local issues. The New Frontier is updated regularly by Kiyoshi Martinez and Vincent Lee, Kiyoshi is a past Editor in Chief of the Daily Illini, Vincent is a former ISS Communications Director, former DI Opinions Editor, and the current Daily Illini Editor in Chief.

This semester Billy Joe Mills, Brian Pierce and I all had the opportunity to write for the DI. We started blogs to post our columns and add occasionally other content. From time to time Brian and Billy write on campus issues. Here is a column by Brian, our former Academic Affairs Committee Chair, on instructor evaluations. Also, here is a column by Billy Joe focusing on “self segregation."

As a guest columnist, I was required to mostly write on campus/ student issues. If you read any of my columns, please read Saving Illinois. You might find some of my other columns somewhat helpful if you're interested in: textbook prices, the need for a police review board, student discipline reform, the strategic plan, the "crisis of courage," or a general review the Student Senate's progress from last term.

The current capital budget for the U of I includes $51 million for the renovation of Lincoln Hall. It is very unlikely the republican party will allow these funds to make it into the final budget. Meanwhile, our administration is pushing through a $250/ semester fee to get a handle on our current $800 million backlog on deferred maintenance.

Renovating old buildings is significantly more expensive than building a new, state of the art, building. Some estimates suggest we could replace Lincoln Hall for 1/4 the cost of renovation. Sadly, Lincoln Hall is historically protected, and renovation is our only option.

I'm forced to ask myself, W.W.M.D.D.. What would Mayor Daley do if he were our Chancellor? Instead of pissing away $35 million dollars, Chancellor Herman should secretly find the funds to have someone drive a bulldozer through Lincoln Hall. The next day have a press conference talking about how horrible the damage is and how tragic it is that we'll have to tear the hall down. Pull off all the awesome historical panels from the outside and remove the "lucky” President Lincoln statue (judging by the employment prospects of LAS students I'm not sure the statue is worth salvaging). Give the professors time to clean out their offices, and burn the rest of Lincoln Hall to the ground. Burn it to the ground. To the ground. Sorry, I got a little too into that.

Sadly, although some say Chancellor Herman is a "badass," he's no Mayor Daley, so we'll either never renovate Lincoln Hall or we will waste over 30 million dollars, dollars that are likely to come almost entirely from student fees.

Billy Joe Mills and I discussed making 2 amendments to the current USPD proposal. The first is supported by both the chair of ed pol and the chair of the committee on conduct governance. The second they generally seemed to agree with us on, and the chair of CCG might vote for it (the chair of ed pol is not a voting senator).

No matter how you feel about the resolution, I urge you to at least vote for these amendments, b/c they substantially improve the resolution.

Other members of ISS might also offer resolutions to narrow the scope of the broader resolution. (Hassen & Ruzic)

I'd like to debate the issue on our blog instead of clogging each others email inboxes, so have at it.

Motion A

Motion to amend Professor Roszkowski’s Resolution to Eliminate Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day to include the following at the end of the original resolution:

Be it further resolved, the Chancellor shall establish a commission including students, faculty and staff to make recommendations to the Chancellor to advance the aforementioned goals. Such steps shall particularly focus on eliminating academic disturbances and promoting campus safety by taking appropriate measures consistent with all existing laws, regulations and the Student Code, including Section 3-603(b)(4).

Motion B

Motion to amend Professor Roszkowski’s Resolution to Eliminate Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day to include the following at the end of the original/ or the amended resolution:

Be it further resolved, to the extent he is able to do so, the Chancellor should ensure that the University Police Department continues current law enforcement practices for underage drinking, instead of processing underage drinking in a manner requiring students to lose their drivers license. Students ordinarily do not lose their drivers license for underage drinking and they should not lose their drivers licenses just because they are caught drinking underage on a particular day.

-Josh

From yesterday's News Gazette:

"Business administration Professor Mark Roszkowski has filed a resolution with the campus Senate calling for the UI to take action to end Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. The resolution, to be voted on Monday, says the event promotes binge drinking and disruptive behavior, reduces class attendance, disrupts classes and "seriously undermines the educational mission of the university."

In an e-mail, Roszkowski listed specific suggestions he plans to discuss with Herman:

– formally requesting that campus-area bar owners not promote the event.

– requesting that faculty schedule exams or mandatory activities on the day of the event.

– asking the Champaign mayor use his emergency powers as liquor commissioner to prevent bars from opening early on class days, restrict the operating hours of any bar refusing to honor the request to not promote the event and prohibit keg sales within a few days of the event."

Professor Mark Roszkowski is fairly extreme on drinking issues, he is allowed to Chair the Committee on Conduct Governance (CCG) where he pushes this agenda. If he wants to schedule mandatory events during "unofficial" so be it, but he shouldn't be making these "requests" of other faculty members. He should have more respect for the autonomy of his peers.

If he wants to craft a new sanction making disrupting a class after drinking a special offense, perhaps that is reasonable. He could advocate making classroom disruption an aggravating factor when kids are drinking underage, or even being drunk an aggravating factor for classroom disruption. Instead he uses classroom disruption as a pretense for his paternalism. He thinks as a university professor he has a mandate to dictate what kind of promotions bars can and cannot have.

Professor Roszkowski tries to continually tweak the student code in ways to make things worse for students. I sit on the CCG, but do to class conflicts I'm often unable to attend, so I cant give every example of these actions, but here is one I found particularly disturbing. I remember a recent meeting where he suggested shortening the span of time a student has to file a capricious grading complaint. I believe it is now 6 weeks after the start of the next semester, he called that unconscionably long. His change was shot down. If a instructor is guilty of capricious grading and the student is able to prove it a full year later they should be entitled to relief.

The University might well need to do something about unofficial, that doesn't mean we should do just anything.

Even more troubling is the following from yesterdays NG:

"The university also is looking at student suggestions, which said fines, the loss of a driver's license or community service would be effective deterrents to certain behavior.

Of the nearly 100 citations issued at Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, almost half went to UI students. Acting Dean of Students Ruth McCauley sent letters to those students, stating future violations of liquor laws will result in charges under state statutes rather than city ordinances.

What that means, Riley said, is they will pay a larger fine and risk losing their drivers' licenses if they are under age 21. Of the 49 UI students issued citations, 31 were underage drinkers. Copies of the letter also were sent to the parents of students under age 21."

The state law that underage drinkers (even if they aren’t driving) can lose their license b/c of a drinking ticket is an example of MADD run amuck over the better judgment of the state legislature. It is so counter-intuitive, no one thinks that underage drinking alone will cost them their drivers license. It also seems like the underage drinkers who pay the drinking ticket do not have their ticket forwarded to the Sec of State to have the license revocation take place, but those who fight the drinking ticket (good luck) and lose, have their licenses taken away.

The city is already exploiting students by lowering the bar age so they can raise substantial drinking ticket revenue - 290 in Champaign. Enforcement is so sparse that students will still roll the dice and drink underage, it's too much of a part of our campus culture to presume that will change overnight. Taking students drivers licenses wont solve anything.

Did you notice Ruth McCauley also said students parents are being notified? Presumably if students are over 18 but under 21 they should be treated as adults. I could understand parental notification for students who aren't yet 18. Students were under the impression that parental notification was only used in extreme cases. I'm under the impression parental contact after underage drinking IS NOT the norm. It's likely this is being arbitrarily applied just so they can look tough on unofficial.

originally posted on my personal blog
also there is a thread on this issue at Illini Pundit

Do You Need a Ride to Vote?

Ride the Voter Van!

The Illinois primary election is on Tuesday, March 21 when many students will be away on Spring Break. Illinois now allows voters to vote early from February 27 - March 16.

-Illinois Student Senate and Volunteer Illini Projects will offer FREE Rides to the Champaign County Clerk's office on March 13, 14, and 15. The Champaign County Clerk's office is located at 1776 E. Washington, Urbana, IL.

-The Voter Vans will depart from the front of the Illini Union at 12:10PM, 1:10PM, 2:10PM, 3:10PM, and 4:10PM on those dates.

-Voters may show up at the Union, but are asked to RSVP here!


Instructions: Please comment below with your netid and the day and time that you'd like to ride the voter van. (If you don't want an e-mail reminder, please put NO E-Mail next to your netid)

If you don't want to RSVP on the blog, please e-mail Jen Walling at jwalling@uiuc.edu with the day and time you'd like to go vote!

Also, if you'd like to vote at some other time or can give rides to the county clerk's office, please comment below!

***Remember to bring acceptable forms of identification***

Acceptable forms of identification

-An absentee/early applicant's identity must be verified by presentation of an IL driver's license, IL ID card, or another government issued ID containing the applicant's photograph.

-If the person is a first time voter required to show ID, the acceptable forms of ID include: a current and valid photo ID, a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or othergovernment document that shows name and address.

-A voter registration card is not acceptable identification.

Please see www.champaigncountyclerk.com for more info on the primary election, including viewing your ballot and checking your voter registration.

Hi Everyone,

I'm posting this because Josh told me to.

Gail Schnitzer and I had a meeting with County Clerk Mark Shelden to discuss various student voting issues. We thought it went really well!

First, we're going to work with him to send out the usual primary election mass mail and we'll include in this mass mail our efforts to take students to vote early.

Second, we can do a deputy registrar class on campus in April. I'll let folks know when we work the details out, but it'd be great to have deputy registrars available at move in during the fall and at other events to make voting simpler for students.

Third, Mark Shelden agreed to try to look into getting locked boxes for voter registration forms in the dorms if we can get him permission to do so from housing.

Fourth, he gave us info on how we can get money from HAVA to support student non-partisan poll assistants. Apparently there are students in Peoria utilizing this money right now.

Lastly, he agreed to look into getting the technology ready for an early voting terminal for campus, but can't promise that he'll be able to do it in November or for this election.

Also, if anyone is interested in helping with our effort to take people to vote early, please come to our next meeting on Wed. March 1 at 9 in the ISS office. We will be taking people to the polls in the VIP vans on March 13, 14, and 15.

And, don't forget to vote! The primary election is March 21 (during Spring Break). If you're not registered or registered at the wrong address, you can still register up until March 7 if you go to the County Clerk's office. You'll have to vote when you register though.
You can vote early from Feb. 27 - March 16!
The County Clerk's office is at 1776 E. Washington in Urbana.
Visit www.champaigncountyclerk.com for more info on what ID to bring.

-Jen Walling
Graduate College
Co-Chair ISS Student Voter Registration Committee

My last column was on the state of the Student Senate, I posted the column on my personal blog. I think we've done a great job together this year. Thanks for all your hard work! The post is here.

ISS has created categories for 5 faculty awards and the nomination process is now open. If you know an instructor who deserves an award, nominate him or her here.

I posted some thoughts on student leadership on my personal blog, this will run as a column in the DI tomorrow. The column is titled A Crisis of Courage. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Love
Josh

I think we actually did this a while ago, but now that Professor Sehitoglu of the ME department has come in and talked to us, I thought it would be a good time for people to discuss what they think about the proposed TAM merger. Share your opinion!

And to let people know what's going on, Academic Affairs (which is chaired and run in its entirety by Melissa Kennedy, I just happen to know a great deal about it) will be voting in its meeting on Monday on whether it wants to recommend the merger or not, and that will then be presented to the full ISS the following Wednesday coupled with a full report presenting both sides.

On behalf of the entire Student Life Committee, Joseph Danavi
and I would like to express our intentions to dedicate this
semester's work solely to the transformation of McKinley as
a seven day clinical service. We have met with Dr. Palinkas
and the McKinley Student Advisory Committee several times
after initiating this idea because we believe a 7-day
clinical service will not only contribute to campus safety
and accessibility, but lower health costs of those students
who are forced to visit a hospital on the weekends. In
addition, a 7-day clinical service supports President
White's intentions to make the University of Illinois a
profound university with full services, pushing U of I into the
competitive Top 10 bracket. The SLC will work tirelessly to
make this 7-day clinical service dream a reality, and asks
for the support of the entire Illinois Student Senate.

Thanks,

Katie Hamilton and Joseph V. Danavi

Tonight, the Illinois Student Senate in conjunction with the ACLU will be holding its first-ever cardcrawl. Both ISS and ACLU members will be visiting several campus bars such as Legends, Brothers, and Kams. They will distribute cards, which outline appropriate actions for students not to take when approached by a police officer. It is important to get the word out to students on what rights they do have as well as what actions are inappropriate.

Last month, ISS and the ACLU with the help of University housing were able to distribute door hangers, which outlined student rights to every University dorm room. I think that both of these efforts will help inform students of what rights they do have as well as legal resources they have available to them. For example, it is my opinion that many students on campus do not know that police officers cannot enter someone's room without seeing something in plain sight or without a warrant. Hopefully, through this effort students will be better informed of their rights and options they have if ever arrested.

Lastly, I applaud the entire Student Rights Committee and ACLU for their efforts in starting this effort and hopefully will be something future U of I student governments can continue.

-Ariel


The Front


The Back

This afternoon members of the Student Senate will be recommending several reforms to the current system of student discipline. Several aspects of the discipline process raise serious questions about the fairness of these proceedings.

One curiosity about the culture of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) is they maintain that student discipline is not an adversarial process. Although the university has an interest in counseling students and educating students through the disciplinary proceedings, the interests of an accused student are fundamentally different from those of the university.

An accused student wants to avoid punishment, or receive the least severe possible punishment, and in extreme situations the student may just want to avoid being kicked out of school. The university is most concerned with protecting and preserving the campus community as a community of scholars. To some extent implicit in this aim is an interest in helping the accused student, but that interest is certainly secondary to their broader mission.

By repeatedly denying that student discipline is by its very nature an adversarial relationship, those administering the process are obscuring the truth. The discipline officers may repeatedly say they are acting primarily as a “counselor” or as an “educator,” but they are also keeping a record of everything the student tells to either sentence the student or to issue a report to a committee that will decide the student’s fate. Denying the adversarial nature of the process will naturally lead students to be more candid, but it is outright deception that works against the interests of the student.

Several aspects of the actual procedures call into serious question whether or not our discipline procedures are fair. Under the current discipline procedures an accused student does not have a right to question adverse witnesses. This is every bit as fundamental to due process as the right to present a favorable witness. Denying question of adverse witnesses might make the process appear less adversarial, but it does so at the expense of making the process less fair.

In some cases, students were presented with the evidence against them less than fifteen minutes before their hearing. The administration owes students a reasonable amount of time to prepare a defense. We are asking the administration to guarantee accused students receive the full case against them, including all evidence, at least five business days prior to their hearing.

One of the most troubling aspects of the discipline system is how few cases even make it to a hearing. The staggering majority of cases are handled through a process that is very similar to a plea bargain. Students are offered a particular sanction they are told is the “least severe probable punishment.” If they waive their right to the hearing, then the penalty will not get worse, but if they demand a hearing the penalty may be even likely to get worse. The administrator who runs the OCSR, the ironically named Dick Justice, denies this is like a plea bargain. Once more, denying its nature does not change its nature.

This waiver process is and is not like a plea bargain. It is like a plea bargain because students are threatened with the possibility of a more severe punishment if they do not waive their due process rights. It is not like a plea bargain because with plea bargains a prosecutor offers a sentence and a judge has oversight to make sure that sentence is fair and reasonable, in the student discipline context there is no case-specific independent oversight of the discipline officer officer. Here the judge is the prosecutor.

Fundamentally, student discipline is intended to educate students, not just punish them. This mission does not justify denying the adversarial nature of the process. Even if the administration has the best of intentions, students must be given robust protections to ensure they are treated fairly. Students should be afforded the best process the university can reasonably afford.

Published in the Daily Illini on January 30, 2006

*for more information on student discipline reform and other student rights issues, click here

Please post your goals for the Spring Semester under this thread.

According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office study, textbook prices have increased 186 percent in the last 20 years. Many authors are constantly pumping out new editions with few substantive changes. Meanwhile, publishers are bundling textbooks with supplements that often go unused. Being forced to buy bundled books is like ordering a coffee black and being told instead you're going to have a caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream and sprinkles. And by the way, instead of 60 cents it'll be $4.50.

At Illinois we are blessed with the opportunity to learn from some of the finest minds in the world. It isn’t surprising that we also have our share of textbook authors. Two authors in particular, Dr. Fred Gottheil and Dr. Steven Zumdahl, are widely criticized by students over the pricing of their textbooks.

Professor Fred Gottheil has won more teaching awards than any other professor on campus. However, he comes out with new editions of his economic textbooks every three years. I called Gottheil to ask him about the difference between his editions and he told me that he updates the data and rewrites special sections he calls “Perspectives.” I compared his third and fourth edition on macroeconomics and immediately noticed that all of the chapters began on the same pages in both volumes, almost all of the text remained the same and only a modest amount of data was updated. As for the “Perspectives,” only 13 of 65 were replaced.

The current edition of Gottheil’s textbook for microeconomics is over $90, and is bundled with student specific access codes, requiring students to purchase new books every year that they cannot sell back.

Gottheil is currently working on a fifth edition of his book to add information on globalization. Professor, if you’re reading this, please wait to produce a new edition until it is educationally necessary and consider saving your students some money by putting the new material online.

Chemistry Professor Steven Zumdahl makes Gottheil look like a champion of consumer rights. His “new” hardback chemistry text is labeled Spring 2006 and according to one sales associate, it includes a course guide and homework assignments that are torn out of the text. This text is still the sixth edition, the same as last year. He didn’t even bother updating it. The insidious little trick of including material that can only be used once instead of distributing those items in class or making them available online makes used books obsolete.

As if these practices weren’t predatory enough, Zumdahl is also bundling both a study guide and a solutions guide with the text. The chemistry students I’ve talked to have told me these supplements aren’t useful enough to justify buying them separately. You can’t buy just the book, and the bundle costs an outrageous $144.

Many of our faculty members are doing their part to help keep costs down for students. For example, Geoffrey Love required an older edition of the B.A. 310 text to save his 600 students money. When the publishing company ran out of older editions, he negotiated to lower prices on new editions. Numerous professors are making the substantial effort to prepare course packets instead of requiring numerous texts. If you have an instructor who is making an effort to keep costs down, please be sure to tell them you appreciate it.

Recently, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn proposed the “Fair Textbook Pricing and Access Act.” This would mandate the unbundling of textbooks, create a sales tax exemption and require publishers to provide libraries with free copies of textbooks. The Illinois Student Senate will be advocating in support of Quinn’s reform package. E-mail us at iss@uiuc.edu if you would like to lend a hand.

Until substantive reforms are passed, ask your professors if an older edition will suffice. Be sure to take advantage of Web sites like illinibookexchange.com or campusi.com. For now, these Web-sites are your only protection from finanicial exploitation at the bookstore register.

Published in the Daily Illini on January 20th, 2006.

Last Thursday Washington Post columnist and Champaign native, George Will commented on the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of Chief Illiniwek, a controversy that is heating up again because the Board of Trustees must soon decide whether or not to comply with the NCAA mandate to retire the Chief. Mr. Will rhetorically asks why the disapproval of a nickname should doom it.

While Mr. Will is correct that people do not have an entitlement to not be offended, the relevant question is whether or not it makes sense for one of the nation’s finest public institutions to continue using a nickname that so many find offensive. When a mascot’s main purpose is suppose to be uniting a campus, does it make sense to use a mascot so divisive that over 30% of the student body opposes it. George Will, like many other pro-Chief advocates, offers examples of mascots that are allowed by the NCAA such as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Florida State Seminoles. Although he claims the NCAA is arbitrarily censoring Illinois, Mr. Will overlooks an important distinction. Carol Spindel said it best when she pointed out that at Notre Dame if the Irish Catholics did not approve of “The Fighting Irish” as a mascot, the team name would be changed overnight. Similarly, with institutions like Florida State, the NCAA has approved of mascots and team names where the relevant tribe has approved.

The Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma are the decedents of the Illini Tribes. In April of 2001, the Peoria Tribe passed a tribal resolution asking the University of Illinois to stop using Chief Illiniwek as its mascot. Despite the passage of this tribal resolution, Mr. Will claims the tribe is too busy running a casino and golf course to care about the Chief Illiniwek. They do care. They have spoken up. However, the university has ignored their request for the last five years.

Regardless of your stance on the Chief, no one can deny that the controversy is a tremendous waste of resources. We have funded countless diversity and sensitivity studies, which almost all recommend retiring the Chief. Additionally, due to the controversy surrounding the mascot, the university has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on wholly unnecessary litigation. We continue to throw good money after bad wasting more administrative time and energy on a debate that will continue to divide and disrupt us until the mascot is ultimately retired.

Perhaps the only factor preventing the retirement of the mascot is the threat of reduced donor money. On its face this threat seems empty. People give to Illinois because of fond memories of college and because of an appreciation for the tremendous wealth of opportunities Illinois gave them, not because of a mascot. Other schools faced similar threats (Stanford, Dartmouth, and Marquette) and after a brief decline, giving soared to unprecedented levels. Since the NCAA is forcing the University to either retire the mascot or lose the opportunity to host any postseason tournaments or events, donations will continue because reasonable athletic boosters would see that retiring the Chief will only help Illinois athletics.

Mr. Will also overlooks the native students currently enrolled at the University of Illinois. A staggering majority of our Native American students oppose the continued use of the Chief. Sadly, those who speak up and voice their criticism are often taunted, threatened, and told “if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.” This kind of behavior is obviously inappropriate in a community of scholars. The Board of Trustees has the power to end this sort of treatment if they can summon the political courage to do so.

The ultimate question facing the Board of Trustees must be what course of action is best for the University of Illinois. The time has come for the Board to boldly answer that question, even if the answer is unpopular.

-Josh Rohrscheib

The Illinois Student Senate is out of session as winter break continues. The break has allowed many ISS members and ISS analysts to review a tumultuous year.

As the term of the first assembly of the Illinois Student Senate drew to a close, confrontations flared over the issue of Illinois Student Senate representation. Problems ensued after Vice-Presidents Jason Plummer and Daniel Nugent began creating press kits opposing two Allen Hall speakers. The press kit was full of fabricated quotes and misinformation. The Senate was up in arms against its leaders. Many Senators threatened to resign from elected office. Through a motion by Senator Derek Chan, the argument culminated in a vote of no confidence against VP External Daniel Nugent.

The term of the second assembly of the Illinois Student Senate started off with a bang. No one can forget the depraved insanity of Kalycia Treshana Watson’s accusations at the officer election. Her target was none other than current ISS co-President Ryan Ruzic. Her tirade included allegations of money-laundering, physical assault, alcoholism, public sex acts, and the fondling of little children. Ms. Watson did not bring forth one iota of evidence.

Scandal continued as a Frisbee assignation attempt was made on former Student Senator Adam Blahnik. The Frisbee narrowly missed the kill zone, but Senator Blahnik suffered a rather severe head wound. The would-be assassin was never captured, although experts suspect the act was ordered by the Rorcheib-Ruzic administration. Mr. Rorscheib commented, “I am not saying [President Ruzic and I] gave the executive order, but I am saying that if we had, it would be constitutionally permissible.” Mr. Blahnik has been living in exile since his expulsion from the Senate.

As the year dragged on, controversy continued. Arguments over senator disclosure and bounce balls nearly shut down operations. Analysts agree however, bridges have been rebuilt and wounds have healed.

Analysts also agree on one other issue, the biggest winner this year was the Committee on Student Rights and its chairs, Christopher Kantas and Hassen Al-Shawaf. The committee has gone above and beyond expectations in its first year of existence. The committee’s 20 page report to the ISS stands as a testament to its success.

Hassen Al-Shawaf
Graduate Senator