Thirteen NIU students travelled to Springfield on Wednesday to participate in a lobbying event that addressed the state budget impasse and funding of Monetary Award Program grants.

The event was organized by the Student Association in response to the state budget impasse, which has resulted from state lawmakers’ lack of agreement with Gov. Bruce Rauner on a budget for Fiscal Year 2016. Without a finalized budget, funds for higher education and MAP cannot be appropriated. Illinois is the only state without a budget.

Students focused on pushing Senate Bill 2046, which would give NIU more than 90 percent of its state appropriations and fully fund MAP. House Bill 4521 was also pushed, which would give the governor the ability to establish emergency reserves of previously appropriated funds and to transfer balances between special funds in the state treasury and the general revenue fund, said Christine Wang, SA Senate speaker-elect.

During Wednesday’s event, which was sponsored by the SA, students interacted with 17 Republican and seven Democratic state lawmakers.

“I don’t know if we changed any minds, but I know that we kept the issues in the forefront of [legislators’] minds,” Wang said.

Some of the solutions proposed by state lawmakers regarding the budget impasse included raising sales taxes, decriminalizing marijuana and reforming procurement, Wang said.

After arriving in Springfield, students attended a rally at the University of Illinois at Springfield. They then headed to the Illinois State Capitol to begin lobbying legislators.

Numerous recent SA lobbying events have been attended exclusively by SA members. But because seven non-SA students attended the event, some participants did not have lobbying experience.

“[Participants] did a wonderful job of holding up under the heat,” Wang said. “I know some legislatures can get kind of intense and it can be really tiring walking from office to office, but they did really well.”

SA members plan to attend more Springfield lobbying events before the semester ends, including one taking place next Wednesday, Wang said.

“We kept pushing higher education and showing them that we have a voice,” said Alex Huber, senior political science and communication major. “We’re going to react if they use our education as a bargaining chip.”