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Students Seek to Reverse Funding Cuts
The MAP funding crisis for Illinois college students comes to a climax this week as the Illinois General Assembly convenes for a fall Veto Session in Springfield and students from across the state converge on the capital for a protest rally to demand their lost funding be restored.
Elmhurst College is sending a busload of students on Thursday to join the rally in the state capital, where an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 students from universities and colleges throughout Illinois are expected to demand the state restore $200 million slashed last summer from the Monetary Award Program, or MAP. That amounts to trimming all the funds for the Spring Term of the academic year and affects nearly 138,000 students around the state.
800 Elmhurst College students affected
More than 800 Elmhurst College students stand to lose their funding for the Spring Term if MAP funding is not restored. EC President S. Alan Ray has called on students, their families, faculty, staff and trustees of the College to write letters and e-mails, or make calls and visits, to their state representatives and state senators to protest the cutoff of MAP funding.
The Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges & Universities also is encouraging students to call their lawmakers in the days leading up to the Veto Session, which gets under way Wednesday. In addition, the Federation suggests students Tweet or post to their Facebook pages—or to the student-led MAP grant group and fan pages—about the upcoming rally.
On Friday, Elmhurst College sent representatives to Loyola University on Chicago’s North Side to testify at a public hearing sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC). In an emotionally-charged session, dozens of students explained the impact that lost MAP funding will have on their studies, lives and dreams.
EC student worried about reductions
"This really worries me, and it worries thousands of students like me across the state," said Nicole Spizzirri, 21, of Villa Park, an Elmhurst College senior who joined some 250 students, teachers and administrators attending the hearing from Loyola and other colleges, including the University of Illinois, Northeastern Illinois University, Roosevelt University, Columbia College, Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills and St. Xavier College in Chicago.
“Taking on the additional burden of more loans really scares me,” added Spizzirri, who has a double major in German and Political Science and is hoping to attend graduate school to study foreign policy or international studies. Spizzirri said her mother recently lost her job and the prospect of taking on more debt in a down economy would be a hardship for the family.
Students and others can locate their representatives at the Federation Web Site: www.federationedu.org through the CapWiz tool. Additional information on the MAP funding crisis is available on the Federation site, including details on the Springfield protest rally.
The stories of three EC students
EC students facing a cutoff of their MAP funding are struggling with decisions about whether they can afford to continue their studies in the spring.
Here are the compelling stories of three EC students:
Susana Gonzalez, 30, of Bensenville, who planned to study to be a neurosurgeon, said she may have to scale back her dream and aim to be a physician's assistant because that might be quicker, less costly and more attainable. With two children and no husband, she's dependent on financial aid to get through college and grad school.
She wrote her lawmakers, telling them she is “currently a Junior year student at Elmhurst College pursuing a pre-medical biology degree. The only reason I am able to attend college is because I qualify for financial assistance from the state Monetary Award Program (MAP). That being said, my future is in your hands.
“I am a 30 year old, single mom of 2 children ages 7 and 6. Due to the heavy load of sciences and labs, in addition to my responsibilities as a mother, I am unable to work at all. I solely depend on financial aid and government loans for my education… . My future and that of my children depend on financial assistance for my education, and because a good amount comes from the MAP grants, I am terrified of what next semester will bring due to there being no MAP funding for it! I must continue my education, and I beg that you do all in your power to make that happen for me. Timing is critical as enrollment for the spring occurs during the fall, and so I urge you to act in October.
“Students on financial aid depend on state assistance to attend college. Please restore the $200 million cut to the MAP grants.”
Rachel Hartman, 20, from downstate Collinsville, attended the governor’s Town Hall meeting on MAP funding last month and told Gov. Pat Quinn about her father, who is with the National Guard doing nation-building work in Afghanistan. Her father is on his second tour and her family is looking forward to having him home at the beginning of November. Hartman, who is majoring in Communications and Political Science, said her family has three children in college or grad school, and a fourth hoping to go one day. A cutoff in MAP assistance would be devastating for them, said Hartman, noting she would be forced to take out more loans and it would be a huge setback for her career plans.
Hartman said she would be missing $2,500 dollars of her financial aid for spring semester, and a total of $5,000 dollars less for her senior year next year. That would increase her student loan debt by about 50 percent. Her parents try to help as much as possible with her tuition, but making up that difference would put too much of a financial strain on her family at one time, she said.
Hartman has been considering law school and grad school. Both of those options have been contingent on not racking up more undergrad debt, she said. Graduate and law schools would be put on hold if her debt were to be increased substantially. Finishing her degree at Elmhurst College has always been her plan, and she will do whatever possible to accomplish that. The loans will be an issue, but her degree here is that important to her, she said.
Dawn Sterning, mother of EC freshman Kayla Arburthnot, wrote in a letter to the College:
“This August my husband Bob passed away unexpectedly. We have four children ranging in age from 18 to five. When Bob passed we were in the process of closing our family business because the recent economy had hit us hard. At the time of Bob's death he did not have life insurance and his funeral expenses cleaned out our savings. As you can imagine things are a little tight for us.
“Kayla currently works two jobs to help cover her expenses (she commutes so that she may help at home) and I am working part time. Kayla has maxed out her loan amounts and I cannot take on the extra expense of a loan to cover the lost MAP funding. The loss of this money may very well mean that Kayla will have to take time off from school until we can work this out.
“We are trying to work out a way for one or both of us to attend the rally next week, but in the mean time I wanted to pass along this information. It is my hope that the people making the decision to take this money away from my daughter and others like her will realize the hardships they are causing.”
