Wednesday’s protest by the College Republicans of state Representative Naomi Jakobsson (D-Urbana), as well as Speaker Madigan and Governor Blagojevich, was one of the most dishonest and hypocritical acts I have ever seen. Apparently, the College Republicans are upset over House Bill 2671, which sets the budgets for all state universities. I find it interesting how a group of people can be upset over a piece of legislation they clearly have not read. I say this in response to the comments in the DI article on 10/23 entitled, “Republicans protest state budget cuts, Jakobsson,” where members of the College Republicans expressed their disappointment that Representative Jakobsson voted for HB 2671, which, in their minds, somehow takes money away from the University and gives it to Chicago State University. This could not be more further from the truth. While all state agencies had to take a budget cut due to the $5 billion deficit left by the previous Republican administration, the University only took a 4.9 percent cut, while CSU saw a decrease of 27.1 percent in funding. Furthermore, of all the state universities, the University experienced the smallest budget cut due to Representative Jakobsson’s work.

Also, in the above cited article, the executive director of the College Republicans is quoted saying Representative Jakobsson should “stand up for the University of Illinois.” Representative Jakobsson has done this; the University asked her to support HB 2761. Moreover, state senator Rick Winkel (R-Champaign), who also represents the University, voted for this bill. However, the College Republicans didn’t protest him. This represents not only extreme partisan politics, but hypocrisy as well. The fact that the College Republicans are protesting the people and not the bill clearly demonstrates they don’t have the best interests of the University at hand, and are only concerned with partisan politics.