Lianne Abellar (left), freshman pre-elementary education major, and Minnika Hoggsterom (right), sophomore biological sciences major, talk about Promoting Leadership through Unconditional SisterHood, an organization for female empowerment. The organization was approved at the Student Association Senate meeting Sunday in the Holmes Student Center, Sky Room.

A student shows off signs in support of increased funding to education while attending a rally near the Illinois State Capitol complex on Wednesday in Springfield. The rally was sponsored by the Illinois Coalition to Invest in Higher Education and hundreds of students from other colleges attended.

Teachers rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago to support a one-day strike held by the Chicago Teachers Union in Chicago on Friday. Teachers said the strike was aimed at getting lawmakers to adequately fund schools in the nation’s third-largest district.