The ask a Student Senate member segment is a bi-weekly question-and-answer article with a Student Senator on various topics. Eric Wilber, a senior political science and philosophy major, has been involved in the Student Government Student Action Team since his freshman year. Wilber was elected as the executive vice president to the Student Senate last year and also serves as the chair of the Student Action Team.

Please explain the purpose of the Student Action Team. What does it do?

Well, the Student Action Team is really the Student Government that gets involved in real-world politics. I’ve got two basic agendas. Number one: voter registration on campus, and number two, lobbying state government for student issues.

So, what are some of the issues that the Student Action Team has tackled in the past?

In the past, we’ve always been tackling budget funding. That’s really the major one since I’ve been here and even before. Last year, we rallied around a steam plant bill, SB-2009, which allowed us to build the Renewable Energy Center. We had a great lobby day last year with that, and this year, we’ve taken up the MAP grant funding.

How does Student Action Team go about making sure those voices are heard? How are these issues presented?

We’ve done letter-writing campaigns, last year with the steam plant, we got 2,000 letters signed and sent over to the state government. For the MAP grant, we got 1,200 letters. We send out e-mails, we have calling days, we had one this past Monday and Tuesday, and then the biggest way we go is we go and lobby, like we did today go out and actually talk to legislators directly, one-on-one. Those are the main ways that we go about it.

What have you personally done through the Student Action Team? Please explain your involvement and your experience.

Well, freshman year,, I was just a member. My sophomore year, I was vice chair, and then the past two years, I’ve been the chair, and I have headed up all this stuff. I’ve been to I’d say five or six different lobby days, met with a countless number of legislators, and I’ve met the governor and talked to him several times about various issues.

The current governor?

Yes, the current governor. The former governor didn’t care about students and was rarely in Springfield at all. We hardly ever saw him. I’ve been heading this up for the last two years so I’ve been basically in charge of it.

So, what are you specifically going to do through the Student Action Team this year?

This year, number one, the MAP grant, that was the biggest thing, then voter registration.

A lot of people don’t realize that the voter registration deadline for the February primary is actually during Christmas break, so if they want to be able to register down here and vote here at the Union or somewhere in Charleston on that day, they have to stop in to register and vote this semester, so that’s going to be the rest of our semester.

Then, in the spring, we’re going to try to do voter education for the primary tell about the candidates and stuff in a non-partisan way, and then, in the spring, we get to lobby for the budget again because that has to be balanced by May 31, so it’s definitely a cycle.

Why do you guys bring issues to the state government? Why do you care, and why should students care?

Because state government directly affects them. Every building on this campus is a state building, every faculty member is a state employee, and so, if the state decides not to fund Eastern fully, then that directly affects them.

If you looked at the revenues of the past several years, it used to be that we were a state-funded institution, where we got our large majority of our funding from the state of Illinois. Over time, that kind of started to go the other way, and now, we’re only a state-supported institution.

The students actually pay more than the state gives, so that means the tuition is raised for new students, that means fees are raised every year because the state decided not to fund it as much as previous years. I think over the past decade, we’ve been cut at least 10 percent from where we were, so it’s pretty bad.

That’s really why, because it directly affects everyone. If you don’t have enough state money, you’re not going to be able to draw the highest-caliber faculty, so then you’re not going to be able to learn as much. You’re going to have buildings that are falling apart.

You’re not going to be able to get grants from the state like the MAP grant, so it directly affects each and every student here on campus and I think that a lot of people don’t even realize that.

For students who do care, how can they get involved in the Student Action Team?

We meet in the Bridge Lounge every Monday at 7 p.m. and basically discuss all the issues that I just talked about. They can e-mail me, there’s a Student Action Team website that we’re currently redoing that’s off of Student Government.

Basically, if they want, they can get in contact with me and they can get involved in any way that they want.

Erica Whelan can be reached at 581-7492

or elwheldan@eiu.edu.

Homecoming has come and gone and some people may be left with a bittersweet feeling about it.

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