University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

We are Illinois Forward and we are campaigning to represent you in the Illinois Student Government. Our campaign is about ensuring that every students' basic needs are met and that everyone can succeed here.

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My name is Garrett Forrest, and I am running for Student Body President because I believe that there are tangible solutions to real student issues on campus. I have always had a passion for addressing food insecurity, whether that be through my church in my local community or through student government here at UIUC. I want to continue the efforts I have been working on with swipe out hunger to significantly reduce the amount of students on this campus who struggle to find their next meal. I have also been working to reducete remove the cost of textbooks for students, and believe that becoming student body president will allow me to fulfill this project. I have been in Student Government for two years now and have seen the huge impact the organization can have on students' lives, but believe that we can do even more by focusing our efforts on specific projects with specific action plans.

My name is Vindhya Kalipi, and I am running for Student Body Vice President because I want to become more involved in the solutions on campus. I am not currently in Student Government, but I believe this allows me to bring fresh perspective, and rather than thinking, "this is the way its always been done" I can bring the question of "why can't we do it this way?" I am very passionate about women's and LGBTQIA+ rights, healthcare, and safety, and believe these need more of a spotlight at UIUC. I also feel strongly about improving mental health resources at the university, ensuring that students have safe spaces and receive the quality assistance they need.

@IWantSimple  A big part of our process is about validation and details, but speed to market is also key. Make it simple!

@IWantSimple  A big part of our process is about validation and details, but speed to market is also key. Make it simple!

CAMPUS SAFETY

There is, indisputably, a massive problem on campus regarding safety, sexual assault, and violence. in order to make our community feel more safe, we would be working with the university’s administration to develop an app that allows users to call support lines and saferides, as well as discretely share their location with the authorities. we also plan to integrate basic sex education in with FYCARE and increase the availability of sexual health and safety resources, ensuring that everyone feels safe and comfortable with their bodies and health.

STUDENT WELLNESS

MENTAL HEALTH - In a school of 35,000+ students, it’s difficult for any of us to find quality mental health care anywhere on campus. this often results in us not asking for help at all. we propose the implementation of free virtual counseling and therapy covered by students’ insurance. we also will work to create more group therapy settings, combatting the problem of an understaffed mental health team as well as increasing available resources.

FOOD INSECURITY - There are many studies showing that between 30% and 40% of college students deal with food insecurity. We want to address this by working with a nonprofit called ‘Swipe Out Hunger.’ ‘Swipe Out Hunger’ has worked with over 400 universities to find unique solutions to address food insecurity in a practical way. Specifically, we want to explore the option of reallocating or donating unused meal swipes at the end of a week or when the meal swipes rollover so that students who are food insecure can apply for them to be loaded on their student IDs. This allows students to feel normal around their peers and addresses the issue without making people stick out. We are looking forward to delving deeper into this potential solution

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

There are many open source options for textbooks that have the same or better content to what is currently being provided through purchased textbooks through universities. That being said, it can be difficult to get professors to agree to using the free options because it requires some material reworking on their end. With this issue in mind, throughout this last year, I worked closely on the textbook initiative project with other senators which essentially uses some of the Student Government budget to create a financial incentive program to make it easier for professors to transition their material over to textbooks on open source resources. Throughout my term, I want to dedicate more time to finding partners in the university to help us make this a reality for all students, and continue to look for other creative solutions to supplement the incentive program.