Kirk Mottram and William Hatifield

The fight to pass the embattled student trustee bill continues as the Illinois Senate has undertaken the measure after gaining approval from the Executive Committee in a 8-0 vote Thursday.

House Bill 2364 sailed through the committee after it was given a 115-2 OK by House lawmakers in November, sending a message to Gov. Jim Edgar, who is responsible for an amendatory veto of the initial legislation.

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The bill was designed to give student trustees a binding vote on their respective boards while retaining the practice of campus elections.

Edgar rejected the bill with an amendatory veto July 31, citing the need for screening committees to replace the elections as the selection mechanism. Student leaders mounted an aggressive lobbying effort to persuade legislators to push for an override.

Instead of an override, two opposing bills were introduced. One mirrored all of Edgar’s changes, and the other retained student trustee elections. The House Higher Education Committee called the former and amended it to include the election provision. Following the committee vote the full house passed the new bill.

The legislation then stalled in the Senate Executive Committee and has been awaiting committee and full Senate approval since. The Senate will likely vote on the legislation in two or three weeks.

Though passing the committee unanimously, Patty Schuh, Senate Republican press secretary, warned that six people were missing from the committee. She said that the committee’s approval may not necessarily prompt Senate approval.

There are five Democrats on the committee, and only one present, so I’m not sure what the will of the rest of the committee was, she said. The seven Republicans voted for it after a considerable amount of questions, but there were still six missing.

She said the bill has had bipartisan support and should continue to have it. She said Sen. Stan Weaver, R-Urbana, sponsor of the bill, will continue to work vigorously to get the bill passed.

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Garrett Deakin, SIUC legislative liaison, said the bill should face little opposition.

It’s a very good sign that it’s likely to pass as there were no amendments or negative votes, he said.

Deakin said the University has no position on the impending legislation and will support whatever the General Assembly decides.

Student Trustee Pat Kelly, who has lobbied long and hard for the bill’s passage, said the bill will ultimately pass as long as students stay active.

Once the ball’s rolling, it should just keep on rolling. And, it’s rolling, he said.

Kelly recommended that students call senators in their district to lobby for the bill.

If the bill is passed Edgar can either sign and pass the bill, veto the bill or amendatorily veto the bill.

If it doesn’t pass, we’ll have to get the Students Rights Liberation Army and all the non-violent coordinating committees active on all the campuses and move to Def Con 3, Kelly said.