At a meeting on Monday, Illinois Education Association members encouraged students and faculty to participate in Higher Education Lobby Day on Wednesday in Springfield.

Organizer Tom Suhrbur emphasized active involvement in lobbying state legislators and the governor to the 12 NIU students and faculty who attended the meeting at Reavis Hall. Suhrbur said the day is a chance for the NIU community to lobby for reduced cuts in higher education budgets statewide.

A coalition of the Civil Service Employees Association, the Labor Rights Alliance and the NIU Instructors Union have collected 400 to 500 signatures to petition the governor to stop cutting state funding for college resources. Suhrbur said he hopes to have at least 1,000 signatures by Wednesday morning, when a group of NIU students, faculty and the IEA presenters will lobby at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield.

Suhrbur co-presented with Donna Manering, IEA higher education and student director.

The group will leave at 7 a.m. Wednesday from The Junction, 816 W. Lincoln Highway. Participants will carpool to the event. Lobbying will take place from 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Illinois Capitol. Lunch and a debriefing session immediately will follow at the Illinois AFL-CIO headquarters.

Suhrbur and Manering stressed the need for students to lobby against further cuts to higher education budgets for fiscal year 2005.

If the governor’s proposed budget for 2005 is adopted, college funding could drop as much as $277 million, Manering said.

“Students need to show up and voice their opposition to such measures in order to be taken seriously by lawmakers,” Manering said.

NIU has lost about $16 million in state funding since fiscal year 2002, but university income has increased by only $6.7 million in that time period, Suhrbur said. The result is a net loss of $9.3 million for NIU since fiscal year 2002, he said.

“In total, NIU has lost 14 percent of its funding in the last two years, bringing the university back down to 1997 funding levels,” Manering said.

The meeting concluded with a brief question-and-answer session about the details of Wednesday’s departure for Springfield.