The Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee chose Eastern’s Katie Cox to serve as the student voting member on the IBHE.

The IBHE-SAC met on March 24 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills to elect its 2002-2003 executive officers.

About 40 to 50 students were at the meeting, Cox, the lone person running for the position. “We had a meeting the night before elections, and the next day one student from each present university voted.”

Cox, a senior political science major at Eastern, will take her seat on the board July 1, replacing University of Illinois graduate student John Thompson, who did not seek re-election.

As student voting member of the IBHE Student Advisory Committee, Cox will have full voting privileges on the board.

In an e-mail, Cox said she will raise issues to the board such as making colleges more accessible and affordable to students and raising the quality of learning and teaching in the kindergarten through 12th grade public school system by creating stronger teachers.

“We cannot fully reach our goals without improvements in, and the cooperation of, the K-12 public school system. Students are increasingly coming into institutions of higher education underprepared, and we are increasingly aware of the fact that we are sending underprepared teachers back into those same classrooms in which they came.

“Some of these issues must be solved at the campus level, but some will require a change in philosophy on the part of the state,” she said.

Cox is currently a student member of the Council on University Planning and Budget and chair of the Student Action Committee. She also serves on the presidential search committee.

Previously, Cox was student body president during fall 2000-2001, vice president for public affairs in spring 2000, and senate member for fall 1999 and spring 2000.

Other officers elected at the meeting were: Ryan Purdy of Eastern was elected as the alternate student member; Jeff Twardowski of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville was elected to serve as chair; A.J. Harshbarger Jr. of Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey was elected as vice chair; and Nikko Verba of the University of Illinois at Springfield was chosen as secretary.