A Student Association rally set to take place Thursday will include speakers who have intimate knowledge of and are stakeholders in the Illinois budget impasse.

State Reps. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley) and Ken Dunkin (D-Chicago), Faculty Senate President Greg Long, and representatives from Safe Passage and the School of Theatre and Dance, among others, will discuss the budget impasse at 4:30 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Commons. The rally will be held to inform students about the affect the impasse could have on Monetary Assistance Program funding and the local community, according to a Student Association news release.   

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and the General Assembly have been locked in a stalemate regarding the approval of a state budget, resulting in unpaid MAP grant funding for NIU and schools across the state. More than 5,000 NIU students who receive MAP grants have been tentatively credited what they would have been awarded had there been a budget at the beginning of the academic year; however, they may not receive credits from NIU if a state budget is not determined by the spring semester.

Rauner will be in DeKalb during the rally to attend the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation’s Annual Dinner and State of the County Event. This event will take place 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Duke Ellington Ballroom. 

SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke said the SA reached out to 13 area colleges and universities to attend the rally. Other organizations attending are DeKalb VAC, RAMP, 4C, DeKalb County Community Gardens, and Kishwaukee United Way.