Lobby day seeks to increase student civic engagement

By Jason Satek - SGA/General Assignment Reporter

A two-day event seeking to increase student civic engagement began Sunday, April 10 th with a focus on lobbying techniques and training, and carried over for application on Monday the 11 th . The First Annual Illinois Campus Compact's Day at the Statehouse was hosted by University of Illinois-Springfield, with an eye towards making the voices of students heard by legislators considering the state budget.

A total of thirteen schools, made up of private and public institutions, brought around 90 attendees from across the state to “Raise their voice” and attempt to garner more financial support for higher education.

Eager students from many differing backgrounds were addressed on the first day by organizers and activists, each which brought personal experiences and techniques reinforcing the potential power of students bargaining through strength in numbers.

Malia Lazu, a grassroots voter activist who achieved a degree of public fame as the runner-up on the Showtime political reality series “American Candidate” lead off the day as Keynote Speaker. She praised the role of the young as “agitator”, able to air grievances and change government through civic action.

Lazu relayed her personal history, finding her calling in response to a snub regarding a permit to hold a rap concert by the mayor of Boston while she was in college. This event lead to the creation of Boston VOTE, an organization credited with a 30-40% increase in voter turnout and which has since expanded to Mass(achusetts) VOTE.

A panel of convened of local resources followed, containing among others, UIS students Liz Moran and Evan Wilson, and Associate Chancellor Ed Wojcicki. Wojcicki spoke in his administrative capacity as a lobbyist for the school, and to the possible appeal of non-professional lobbyists like students versus the more regular fare encountered by legislators.

Discussion amongst the attendees followed, each sharing personal details such as the difficulties and increased frequency of being a returning adult student (as opposed to being a “non-traditional” one) and the prohibitive debt being accumulated by others as they progressed academically.

A disagreement was debated on whether the purpose of higher education was either personal betterment or pursuit of better employment without a final determination being reached. The group then split into three groups to attend workshops conducted by Lazu and two other experienced organizers, seeking to impart successful strategies to be employed the next day.

The concept of Campus Compact began 20 years ago, with three university presidents (Stanford, Brown and College Park in Maryland) wanting to combat negative stereotypes of students, increase their national voice and provide a resource for organizations. Local branches followed their success, and Illinois joined 13 years ago, springing from the LIVE conference (Leadership in Voluntary Experience) of the early 1990's.

Kathy Engelken has seen the due-paying membership increase from 16 to 35 schools in her five years as Executive Director of Illinois Campus Compact. Beginning a series of Civic Engagement Forums around the state in June, she believes they are gaining momentum. “We find that students involved with the Raise Your Voice campaign continue to do it once they've started”.

Armed with their new training, the students assembled at the State Capitol Monday morning, meeting inside under the rotunda. Here they were rekindled by short speeches by Wilson, Engelken, UIS graduate student Josh Evans, Raise Your Voice Fellows, and ILCC coordinator Stephanie Sharpe.

Early exposure to legislators came in the form of a public welcome by Assistant Majority Leader Representative Lou Lange and the 23-year-old Representative from Peoria, Aaron Schock. Each man spoke encouragingly to the assembly, with Lange invoking the images of door-to-door policy advocacy and holding legislators accountable for their educational voting records, while Schock recounted his rise from School Board member via a write-in campaign at age 19 through his election a few months ago and addressed the complimentary place of youthful energy and determination to that of experience.

With that, the members of the First Annual Day at the Statehouse then dispersed with office listings and condensed biographies in hand, to meet their legislators as trained education advocates and constituents, hoping to make their voice heard.

Lobby day seeks to increase student civic engagement