Day of Action II, in its beginning planning stages, will pressure the General Assembly at the spring legislative session to roll back the $150 tuition increase.

Illinois Student Association directors unanimously agreed at Saturday’s meeting to plan Day of Action II. It will focus on continuing the action in Springfield and supporting a tax increase.

ISA President David Starrett said the return of the Day of Action is to “tell universities we are not fooled. We know there will be no tuition rollback, and we will be back in the spring.”

University system heads made it clear a tuition reduction is not probable regardless of the results of the veto session, Starrett said. “Universities don’t have the slightest intent of rolling back tuition even with a tax increase.”

e said the one-time tuition hike will not be reduced because no money is coming from the General Assembly, and universities already have figured the increase into next year’s budget.

Because tuition will not be reduced for the spring semester, the ISA should focus its attention to the fiscal year 1989 budget process to have tuition decreased, Starrett said. The ISA plans to have the legislature roll back tuition for FY89, he said.

The ISA’s legislative report states the General Assembly can override Gov. James Thompson’s item or reduction vetos with a three-fifths vote, which would restore funding originally provided by the General Assembly’s FY88 appropriations.

owever, in the report Thompson contends the state’s treasury does not have funds to support General Assembly appropriations.

Another option of the General Assembly is, by majority vote and with Thompson’s signature, to provide supplemental appropriations to the various functions given available funds.

Thompson’s Budget Director Robert Mandeville’s Oct. 20 testimony, at a joint hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committees I and II, stated there is between $20 million and $22 million of unappropriated general revenue funds which can be used for supplemental appropriations.

The Oct. 21 Day of Action provided the Illinois legislation with more student-initiated press and student arguments than they have in the past 10 years, Starrett said.

The ISA is clearly against the tuition hike, and the goal of the recent trip to Springfield was to have the tuition increase rolled back, ISA Director Brian Monahan said. He said, “It (Day of Action) worked well to activate students.”

The strategy for the second Day of Action will concentrate on Springfield and pressuring the legislature because students already are active, Monahan said.

In Springfield between 700 and 800 students and faculty showed up for the Day of Action, Monahan said. He said students at Illinois State University “crusaded against the university.”

At the University of Illinois-Chicago, students marched to the State of Illinois Building for a central rally of Chicago institutions, ISA Director Kevin Lamb said. He said more students might have participated in the march if not for the cold weather conditions.

Monahan said planning for the spring will have to begin earlier and more participants need to be brought in. More could have been done with the Day of Action if more people were involved, he said.