I stood with the Graduate Employees’ Organization as speaker upon speaker beleaguered the University administration on not granting tuition waivers or salary increases for graduate students.

If you were not at the Undergraduate Library at noon, you missed campus leaders rallying for the rights and living wages for all graduate students at the University. Almost all spoke of solidarity — solidarity between all students in the University, be they undergraduate or graduate. Others criticized the administration for their double standard, raising salaries for others but not even meeting the estimated yearly expenses for graduate students. There were references made back to 2009, when the GEO went on strike and secured tuition waivers for graduate students for a time. As I watched, I wondered whether this rally was akin to the many protests in the late ’60s and early ’70s on this campus.

This past summer, through old Daily Illini articles, I experienced the student power movement from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. Back then, students had it much worse than us. The United States was in the midst of the Vietnam War, and selective service was in effect. Many of our Illini were enlisted for a war many of them did not want to fight.

Domestically, the civil rights movement was at its peak. Project 500, an effort to secure equality for all students at the University, was under way, with reluctance from the administration. Chancellor Jack Peltason and Dean of Students Stanton Millet, both new, garnered significant criticism from the students.

Yet in a time of darkness, beacons of fire awoke. The Graduate Student Association officially formed in 1967, led by leaders such as Bruce Morrison and John Ronsvalle. The Undergraduate Student Association rose from the ashes of the Student Senate to join in assisting students through coordination of protests, concerts and bargaining with the administration. Students received representation in the U-C Senate in 1970 and, three years after, representation on the board of trustees. I’m sure all of us are thankful for their efforts in maintaining student rights and their work in shared governance.

I was connecting the past with the present as I marched with the GEO toward the Henry Administration Building. On Monday, student senators unanimously passed an anti-retaliation resolution against graduate students in the U-C Senate. Right now, our student trustee, David Pileski, is deliberating with the board of trustees on University matters. I do not know if Morrison or Ronsvalle will ever read this, but they have our sincerest thanks, and hopefully they are proud of us.

Shao Guo,

vice president internal and historian of the Illinois Student Senate