When you step into the gallery of the Illinois Senate these days, you’ll likely
find some unexpected items: Coke bottles on the floor, a roll of toilet paper,
and maybe a few paperback novels or magazines.
“We eat out on the floor because it’s like an office,” explains Ryan Needham, a 19-year-old senate page and a graduate of Pleasant Plains High School.
Pages occupy the entrance to the Senate chambers, waiting to run errands for senators. “January through May is the busiest time of the year,” says Steve Ettinger, a 20-year-old psychology student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “You have to pick up senators from the airport, check them into hotels, and take them back to the airport.”
But when the legislature’s not in session, they’re on a less stressful schedule.
“It’s pretty boring during the summer,” says Ettinger, who’s worked as a page since his junior year at Springfield High School. “During the school year there’s a lot more to do.”
On any given weekday, visitors to the state capitol will find the pages manning the phones. “Today I had to go to the Secretary of the Senate’s office and answer phones,” Ettinger says. “We have mail runs at 10:30, 1:30, and 3:30.
“We collect mail from 33 offices, some of which goes to the Stratton Building, the Howlett Building, and all over the city. It’s really a lot of random things.”
“We are jacks of all trades,” says Anita Robinson, the 36-year-old Sergeant at Arms for the Illinois Senate who oversees the pages. They earn about $8.50 an hour. Ettinger is a Democrat page; Needham works for the Republicans.
Despite the “random” tasks that need to get done, many pages look forward to the summer months.
“During session you have to wear a button-down shirt with khakis,” Ettinger says. “All pages wear a blue blazer. But during the summer, jeans are acceptable.”
Even with the lack of work, most of the pages find ways to keep themselves busy. During down times, they entertain themselves. “On an average day, I probably actually run errands three out of the seven hours we work,” Ettinger says. “We have nothing to do but sit here and talk, so you almost have to get friendly and make friends with the other pages here.”
Each page has his own idea of fun.
“We read a lot,” says Ettinger. “People bring in CD players or books. We bring in magazines. We do anything to keep busy, or we’ll fall asleep.”
Needham, who is studying to become a history teacher, believes the page program has helped him to understand the inner-workings of government, and that’s been helpful in his political science classes at Lincoln Land Community College. But he also admits he enjoys the slow part of the job.
“I’ve read like five books over the summer to pass the time,” he says. “I’ve read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, About a Boy, and Love in the Time of Cholera.”
They also resort to games.
“We’ll play cards when nobody’s there,” Needham says. “We play chess too. It’s an easy one. Anita mostly just watches and talks a lot.”
Being together for hour after hour, day after day leads to close friendships. Needham shares a duplex with Nick Lipe, a Democrat page. “Outside of work, we are friends,” Ettinger says. “We aren’t old enough to go to bars yet, but we go to Maui’s, Knight’s, or the movies. Quite a few of the Republicans hang out together because they went to Pleasant Plains High School.
“The process is a lot different than you’d think,” offers Ettinger.
“It’s definitely a more responsible job than the one I had in Pleasant Plains,”
Needham says.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2003.
