When I (Shane Nowak) first ran for the Board of Trustees in 2017, one of my main goals was more transparency for the public at Elgin Community College. After I was elected and sworn in, I, along with former Trustee Jeffery Meyer, pushed for the board to videotape our board meetings and publish them on YouTube.
The administration and some members of the board pushed back. Trustee John Duffy commented that "he was afraid that people will use the video to check out comments in the future," which is the whole point of holding your elected officials accountable. The administration’s concern was that storing these videos would require a lot of data, but once the videos are uploaded to YouTube, YouTube handles all of that data, not ECC.
Trustee Meyer and I convinced the board to move forward, but the videos would have to be on their own separate channel instead of being uploaded onto the main Elgin Community College YouTube channel.
Since I lost my re-election this past April by a very narrow margin, the board was left with no conservative voice. Having served for six years, I still want to know what is going on.
Sadly, but not shockingly, the videos have all been taken down. The worst part is they still have the YouTube channel up, as shown by the screenshot posted below.
If you want the board to restore ALL of the videos, then let them know by emailing them here at boardoftrustees@elgin.edu.
