Hello IVCC students. As you all probably know by now, Illinois is in a crisis. The Illinois budget crisis continues to impact higher education in the state.

During February’s board meeting, the board decided to pass two major items that correlate with the budget crisis: a tuition increase and shutting down the Reading, Writing, and Study Lab.

However, I truly believe we have been lucky. We are not seeing the unfortunate changes that many other colleges similar to us are going through. As I speak to other student trustees of those colleges, I hear stories I hope to never see at IVCC.

I believe our administration is doing the best they can to make sure IVCC students are the main priority.

As of right now, all we can do as students is speak up and advocate. We need to continue to let our state’s leaders know how the state’s budget crisis is affecting us as college students.

It is as easy as speaking to them directly or writing a letter. We need to remind them the importance of higher education.

As a reminder, Advocacy Day is approaching. On April 5, IVCC’s Student Government Association will be returning to Springfield to let our leaders know how the budget is affecting IVCC.

If you are also interested in attending Advocacy Day with the SGA, please don’t hesitate to email me, or Cory Tomasson, our SGA advisor. We would love the support.

Students who want to contact Tipton can reach her at [email protected].