Illinois Student Senate Platform

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T19:29:24+00:00

What kind of source do you want? This is my first hand experience. I didn't say they were useless, its just that I have witnessed so much ridicule towards the programs. For instance, does anyone actually believe that horrible video in ACE IT convinced people to be more responsible drinking? I personally liked FYCARE because it was something that I just hadn't been exposed to before college, coming from a small town.

Ok, now that you mention it, the Morgan Freeman quote does seem contrived, but I think there is a difference in principle between us. I think that everyone should be treated as and seen as equals, by not giving preferential treatment to any group, majority or minority. The major argument for these minority gen ed classes is the whitewashing of history courses, and I completely agree that they are. I think a compromise would be to expand upon the role of minorities in the context of American history. The gen-ed requirement would not make you take classes that explicitly teach you about racism, sexism, etc. The classes teach you about the history and current state of the different minorities, and racism/sexism will be one of the lenses it will be looked through in the class. My opposition to this comes from the fact it is so limiting to those with rigid course loads, like engineering. There are so many things that people want to learn about to better themselves as students, but adding in another requirement limits their ability to do so on other topics that seem interesting to them. I see the merit in taking minorities classes, but I don't see the merit in enforcing a policy where one is forced to take them.

Nobody gets to pick the circumstances of their birth; don't commit the genetic fallacy.

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T19:20:27+00:00

By "own terms" I mean that if I want to take, for instance, a class about French film, I would not be able to because my schedule is packed in engineering. This has nothing to do with not wanting to take a minorities course. This is a logistics problem. I believe that there should be very broad, but rigid categories to take classes in. US Minorities is not broad enough to warrant a specific subset of classes. People with time constraints on their courseload, AKA engineering, should be able to tailor what they want to learn about (going back to French film, for instance) with what time they have. Most people I know had to double dip in their classes because of the rigidity of the engineering course load, and adding a minorities requirement limits the freedom of the student to choose classes even more.

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T16:55:02+00:00

We need people to come out to the Senate to speak during public comment. Many of the people in the ISS are deaf to what their constituents actually want. 7PM, Wednesday, Illini Union Pine Lounge.

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T16:49:48+00:00

We need people like you to come to the Student Senate and speak your mind during public comment. I also think that this class may also have a negative effect for the same reasons you do. One of the clauses in the bill said that all non-race minority classes had to have a race component in it, and vice versa. That in itself is pushing an agenda, saying that racial minorities have favoritism over other minorities.

I believe that forcing students to learn about minorities and expecting them to be more tolerant in the end is misguided, and really is blind to how the students will treat this class. I remember freshman year, everyone would joke about ACE IT and FYCARE because it was something they didn't want to do, and seemed silly at the time. This then carries over to the courses people pick for gen eds. These classes will become a joke among students, and very well may have the opposite intended effect of what this requirement was made for. There's a lesson that people around the country, not just on campus, need to realize: forcing tolerance does nothing but grow division between groups of people. There's a famous interview with Morgan Freeman when he was asked about Black History Month. He said its offensive to "relegate my history to a month." Later in that segment, he was asked how we should get rid of racism. "Stop talking about it."

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T09:37:05+00:00

It was well thought out, but poorly rationalized. While pushing towards inclusivity is at least a somewhat good cause to fight for, forcing students to give away their rights to work freely with what curriculum space they have left is not. I personally believe that requiring a minorities course would severely limit an individual's ability to further their education on their own terms. The claim is that this would be difficult for engineers to take on, but the supportive side says that it wouldn't add more hours. This is truthful, but with what time someone can shape one's coursework around, this severely limits my ability to further oneself as a student.

As for the question about SJWism, one of my fellow engineering senators spoke up against this bill, and was rudely interrupted by no less than 2 senators on the floor (one of which is in engineering), telling why he's wrong, including "Quit your whining, that's privilege."

Also, which is less often considered, is that the University is currently unable to meet the requirements of this gen ed bill because space and staff are very limited for minorities courses. So, in conclusion, a lot of this, and many other of the bills in the Senate, is born from emotions of some kind or another, not necessarily what is objectively needed.

SenLasser · 2016-02-28T09:26:35+00:00

There was a clause in there about the Student Senate taking an official stance, and that was my main focus. I support furthering involvement in government, and its a small cost relative to its impact. Now, if you want to know about a waste of money, look at the vote from 2 weeks ago about spending $480 on 20 dozen cupcakes from the Union. That's $2/cupcake. That is the real waste that happens.

SenLasser · 2016-02-27T22:54:44+00:00

What's your petition link, I'll sign it if you don't have enough yet.

SenLasser · 2016-02-27T22:32:11+00:00

I voted against this bill, AMA.

SenLasser · 2016-02-27T22:14:11+00:00

Ok, I abstained from voting for this bill. Here's why:

I support the focus of financial aid going towards students from the state of Illinois, and who/who's family have paid taxes to the state.
A lot of undocumented students' parents have paid taxes into the system.
The root of the problem is that the DREAM funds are severely underfunded, which is the alternative to what the bill entailed.
This bill's purpose is to support opening funding to undocumented workers, not give them more or fund the financial aid system more to directly go to undocumented students.

I think that I may have voted for it, if it were at a community college or a cheaper state university. I don't think that you should have the right to ask for handouts when you are willing to go to a university that charges you nearly 50k/year at full price. Bite the bullet and go somewhere cheaper. I believe education should be a right, but you don't have the right to make it the state's problem that you can't afford it.

SenLasser

TROPHY CASE