I would like to thank Paul Schmitt, Jerry Vachaparambil, Logan Ponce, Tim Nuccio, Antonio Quinones, Roberto Martell, and Jim Phillips for their appearances and speeches at the rally today.
This is the speech I gave at the Student Rights Rally today at noon in front of Swanlund Administration Center.
Good Afternoon Illini!
I want to introduce myself, but before I do I’d like to thank you all for coming out and rallying for student rights! My name is Gina Jenero and I’m a sophomore in LAS; I’m also a candidate for Champaign County Board. I’m here today because I believe in the rights of students. I’m a student who knows how important having a strong, clear voice for students is -at all levels. That’s why we need to have fair representation in our community that’s why I’m running to represent you in district 8 on the Champaign County Board.
In January of this year, Students for Chief Illiniwek did the campus and the student body a favor by revealing the communications of administrators who are working on behalf of their political agenda- and not on the behalf of you and me. Their attempts to curtail the free expression of students they disagree with are shameful and it highlights how important it is for students to be engaged and involved with government and administration–whether it’s here at the University of Illinois, in the City of Champaign, or even the County Board, to protect the rights and interests of students and to ensure our fair representation, we must get involved!
When I decided to run for Champaign County board, I looked at counties throughout the state to see if there were any good ideas we could adopt. I noticed that Dupage County puts every dime of county spending online- so if they spend money on Coffee at Starbucks or anything else- the taxpayers and everyone else would get to see it! I used to write for the Daily Illini and I’m sure that kind of transparency would only empower local media to make sure that our government stays accountable.
I know that each and every one of you who is here today cares about our community and our rights as students–that’s why you’re here. However, with 40,000 students on this campus, those of us here today cannot stand up for students alone–we need help! I ask that each of you reach out to your friends and tell them about what’s going on here at the Urbana Campus. Tell them there are those who spend your student fee money, not on making this campus more tolerant and open, but more closed-minded to ideas that the administrators don’t support. Tell them that they need to vote so they can have a voice in the community!
Is it right that your money pays for anti-Chief tee shirts?
Does anyone think that the U of I budget is so tight that there can’t be any cuts made? Chancellor Herman once said that the University of California has 6 times the number of students but less administrators…Why are we paying for all these offices when we could amalgamate potential redundancies and duplication of duties?
While these are just issues that we deal with on campus, I hope to keep a watchful eye on the Champaign County Board for the issues that will effect you. I vow to you to hold the line on sales taxes in Champaign County. High sales tax rates are extremely hurtful to students who are so very crucial to our local economy. I vow to work for a more open and honest districting process so that students are better represented on the county board and so that more students will be encouraged to participate in elections as voters and candidates. I’ll compare our county with counties throughout the nation and try to bring good ideas back home. But more important than these pledges, I especially vow to always have an open door and an open mind. My goal is to be a county board member who represents students before her own ideology and with your help, I’ll be able to meet that goal.
Thank you for your time!
