University physics professor George Gollin announced his intent to run for Congress Tuesday afternoon at the Champaign County Fair. Gollin will seek the Democratic nomination to run for the 13th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Republican Rodney Davis.

“Washington has plenty of lawyers, I’m a teacher and a scientist,” Gollin said in his campaign announcement. “Certainly law is an honorable profession, but as a scientist, I was trained to discover the facts, and act on them. Lawyers, on the other hand, are trained to argue about the facts. I think we have enough argument in Washington already, and need more facts.”

To broaden on his reasons of running, Gollin said that he got involved in higher education policy back in 2003 when he learned of “diploma mills,” which are criminal organizations that sell fake degrees. He had started to help with federal legislation on this, and when this bill reached the senate, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) had “tanked” most of the legislation.

“This was meant to stop people (from) selling fake medical degrees across state lines, so I was very distressed with that,” Gollin said. “Once the bill got out of a position where I was no longer able to influence it, politics and dirty money got in the way.”

Gollin said that there were other energy policies that went in a similar manner when Congress got involved, and he felt it was time to get involved in the legislative process directly.

“It’s wanting to do public service to make my horizons a little bit broader,” he said.

Gollin said he has lots of policy interests, and he feels that the most pressing issue to work on right now is job creation, more specifically in encouraging people to complete college degrees to help open up the workforce. 

Although degree mills is a pressing issue, if elected, Gollin said that he would focus on more important issues.

“We know how to kill off the whole diploma mill industry, it’s just a matter of political will,” Gollin said. “In two years, it will be gone.”

Starting in the spring, Gollin said that he will be taking a unpaid leave from teaching and research. He said he will continue the unpaid leave until he “either loses an election or retires from Congress.” Gollin said that, with the University being a state institution, the administration emphasizes public service to faculty and are therefore very supportive of his campaign.

Gollin said he first got involved with degree mills when he called up a “degree ad” that he was constantly receiving and got a sales pitch on fake degrees. He then did more research on diploma mills and found out that they would go as far as selling degrees to terrorists, which he said makes it a hazard.

“Some very bad people in Spokane saw that I had published a report about them,” Gollin said. “They came after me which led to fight and threats. It was pretty scary, but I got the Department of Justice interested, and the authorities brought me in as an analyst.” 

He said that this eventually led to the arrest of those who had came after him in Spokane. The publicity had attracted representatives, which led to the writing of the legislation. 

This led to Gollin writing a book, “Dream of Serpents,” that he recently finished and is hoping to get published.

Whether Gollin’s election would be beneficial to the University and students, he said that he believed having an educator as a politician would be beneficial for all educational institutions. He also plans to address the spike in costs of attending college. 

“The whole issue on how expensive it is to go to college is something that really needs pressure to be brought to bear on those who set the administrative structure of universities,” Gollin said.

Gollin said that as someone who has worked for the University since 1989, he is well aware of any issues that students are having, which includes the trouble of students registering to vote. “I understand that my first obligation is to be a public servant, to understand the needs of people in the district, and try to defend and protect their interest and their well-being,” he said.

With the primaries in March, Gollin said that he and his campaign are already planning campaign events that emphasize learning more about District 13 and its residents.

“It’s important for someone in office, or running for office, to really learn about the district,” Gollin said. “So what I really want to start soon is to begin a listening tour. I want to go around and have people talk to me about their concerns.” 

Gollin concluded saying that in politics, it’s best to be optimistic. 

“In my experience, it’s best to be positive and optimistic, because that is actually the way things work,” he said. “There are real problems in our governance, and it seems like nothing can change, but in my experience, there are surprises in how events unfold.” 

Kat can be reached at [email protected]. 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this incorrectly stated George Gollin will take a paid leave. He will take an unpaid leave. The Daily Illini regrets this error.