Rudy LaFave does not consider himself to be a campus celebrity. Yet, the senior in ACES is certainly an active member of the University as the president of the Illinois Student Council and president of Students for Environmental Concerns.
LaFave spoke on some successes he’s achieved halfway through his term as student body president. For example, ISC initiated a meal swipe donation program. Starting next fall, students with extra dining dollars can them to other students in need.
“We’ve been doing lots of tabling with the Counseling Center,” LaFave said. “We did one with MTD. A lot of the work there is to really spread the word about what our campus services can give the students. That’s probably one of the best things I can do in this position of relaying students’ concerns, wants and needs to the administration.”
ISC is also building groundwork with RSOs to represent students better, LaFave said. The organization recently gathered student feedback on the University’s new expressive activity policies through a survey. In August, sections of the Campus Administrative Manual on commercial activities, security compliance and protest activities were amended.
“I know a lot of students have come to both the student trustee and I expressing concerns (on the new policies),” LaFave said. “We’ll be looking to take this to the (UI) Senate to be able to better educate … students on this new issue that came up this past year.”
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During a SECS climate protest on Sept. 24, protestors asked the University to divest from fossil fuels, and LaFave violated some of these very expressive activity policies himself.
“I was charged with three different student code violations,” LaFave said. “You know, this was something that I had not even known a lot about myself.”
He emphasized with greater awareness of the protest policies, SECS would have organized the protest differently.
“We (SECS) want to be an organization here on campus … but we also have a long history of advocating for what we believe in and doing it fairly and non-violently,” LaFave said. “I think that moving forward, we will work with the University and make sure that we’re within bounds. We want to be able to do this right.”
LaFave is also part of a founding group that introduced House Bill 5268 in the Illinois General Assembly. If passed, it would require the Board of Trustees to mandate that the University of Illinois Foundation divest all its holdings of fossil fuels within one year.
Divestment from oil and gas not only helps the environment but could also increase the University’s investment returns, LaFave added.
“For the first time in history, there are real alternatives in every sector of our economy to these oil and gas giants,” LaFave said. “It’s unfortunate to hear that when the University is presented with evidence that removing our investments would return a higher amount, the University really doesn’t say anything.”
As his presidential term and his time at the University ends next semester, LaFave hopes others on campus will continue to facilitate change and create community.
“I spent a lot of time building …. solidarity,” LaFave said. “I hope fundamentally (those) connections don’t go away, both within ISC and the campus community, the activist spaces as a whole. I’d like people to be able to remember and continue that because I think, ultimately, that’s what makes us stronger — when we work together. I think that’s one of our best traits as people.”
