EXECUTIVE VISION STUDENT GOVERNMENT OF LOYOLA CHICAGO
ACCESSIBILITY As higher education institutions continue to increase their tuitions, they become less and less accessible to large swaths of potential students. Loyola has embarked on a dangerous path by increasing tuition every year since 2012. In order to increase accessibility and relieve the financial burden on students, we propose: • •
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The President’s Office of Loyola University Chicago create a work team of students, faculty, and staff to create a strategic plan to reduce tuition through innovative ways The Student Government of Loyola Chicago (SGLC) allocate three thousand dollars of its Executive Discretionary Fund to three one-thousand dollar scholarships for involved students in need SGLC host an advocacy day in Springfield, IL to advocate for the Illinois State MAP Grant SGLC work with administration to make the MAGIS Scholarship fund a permanent aid program
COMMUNITY Loyola’s Lakeshore Campus is situated in both the Rogers Park and Edgewater communities. Since Father Michael Garanzini’s S.J., President and CEO, arrival to campus Loyola’s Office of Capital Planning has embarked on an ambitious development strategy. Consequently, the university has greatly altered the architectural makeup of East Rogers Park and Edgewater. We are grateful for our university’s beautiful campus, but we feel that not everyone has benefited from its construction, specifically our community neighbors. To ensure all parties have an effective voice in the development of our host communities, we propose: •
Loyola’s Office of Capital Planning work with host community members to form a community benefits agreement
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY In 2014 the Sierra Club ranked Loyola as the “Fourth Greenest University” in the United States. We are proud of Loyola’s environmental sustainability accomplishments. For our university to continually make strides in the face of climate change, we propose: • •
SGLC work with the Student Environmental Alliance and Aramark to heavily promote the Kill the Cup campaign in order for our cup consumption to be reduced The Presidents Office of Loyola University Chicago create an annual audit system to review the consumption of university departments and divisions o The audit system would allow Loyola to benchmark itself and work towards a continual reduction in consumption
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INVESTMENTS In the past few years, Loyola students have proposed multiple initiatives regarding our university’s investments. However, there is no formal body that exists to address concerns regarding our university’s investments. To address this and increase students’ voices in our university’s investment policy, Michael and Mariana propose: •
The President’s Office of Loyola University Chicago create a permanent committee composed of students, faculty, staff, and Loyola’s Chief Investment Officer to continually assess our investments with a social justice lens
STUDENT VOICE Decisions are continually made at this university with little input from students. Consequently, students bear the consequences of decisions they were never given the opportunity to raise their concerns about. In order to fix this problem and ensure students’ voices are effective on this campus, we propose: • • •
Student Representatives on the Board of Trustees gain voting rights The President & CEO of Loyola University Chicago, Father Garanzini S.J. host two open coffee events a semester to allow students to directly engage with him The SGLC Executive Committee expand to include an Organizing Team in order to galvanize and mobilize students to express themselves in impactful ways
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS Loyola’s two hundred and fifty plus Registered Student Organizations (RSO) must file budget requests to receive funding for their events. Every funding cycle RSOs request thousands of dollars from the Student Activity Fund. Much of their requested money goes towards rented audio equipment. In order to allow RSOs the ability to spend more on other items for their events, we propose: •
The Office of Student Activities & Greek Affairs purchase two full sets of speaker equipment in order to allow RSOs the ability to request more money for other event items
WORKERS’ RIGHTS Loyola contracts with multiple services to maintain the upkeep of our university. However, not all of the workers for our contracted services are paid a living, decent wage. As a Jesuit Catholic University, we believe that Loyola has an obligation to pay all of its workers, both contracted and university employed, a decent wage. Thus, we propose: •
Loyola adopts the Jesuit Justice Employment policy to pay its contracted workers a living wage
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