jeff long
candidate for secretary

I believe there are many issues on campus that are important regarding all students.  First and foremost I think that Lobbying at the State and Federal level for higher education legislation is one of the best ways that we can see significant changes take place for students.  Secondly, I think text books prices in their current state are astronomical; on average each student spends roughly 800-1100$ on textbooks each year, the current gross margin for text books is 23%, and text book prices continue to increase at double the rate of inflation.  By lobbying our state and federal representatives to support higher education legislation we all as students will benefit. 

However, I realize a lot of change also starts right here on our own campus which means working with administrators and the UIS bookstore to make sure students are getting affordable text books at reasonable prices.  Another issue that I am interested in is students’ rights.  I know that our current President Ashley Rook has already laid the ground work for this campaign and I think that starting it this year and continuing to inform students of their rights during the Fall of 2009 and Spring of 2010 is a great idea. 

Along those same lines, SGA this year met with University administrators to discuss medical amnesty for students.  A lot of Universities have adopted this policy in order to lower the rate of underage drinking incidents that result in alcohol poisoning.  In no way does this policy support underage drinking, rather it encourages students who are aware that another student has had too much to drink to call for help instead of leaving the student to fend for themselves.