The Illinois Student Senate discussed resolutions for the upcoming town hall meeting with Sen. Dick Durbin and HR 3892, the Student Loan Borrowers’ Bill of Rights Act of 2013, during its meeting Wednesday night.

Appropriation for town hall meeting with Senator Dick Durbin

ISS will be hosting a town hall meeting with Durbin to discuss the student debt crisis, but the date and location have not yet been finalized. Student Senator Tony Fiorentino, graduate student, said that a tentative date is set for May 3 but hopes to find out the final date by Friday.

Initially, ISS had $500 allocated to fund the printing of one-page flyers to promote the event. Student Senator Rachel Heller, junior in LAS, moved to amend the resolution to put 11-by-17-inch ads on all CUMTD buses — which would cost $250 for 75 40-foot buses and $125 for 16 60-foot buses — and the possibility of audio ads for an additional $125.

“I think it would be fair to increase the amount allocated to cover any sort of incidental expenses that might occur,” said Christopher Boidy, ISS parliamentarian. “This is what we should be doing with this money, putting it towards something useful like this, not toward useless sunglasses (on Quad Day) that people are going to throw away.”

The senate then passed amendments to add $200 in incidental costs and another $1,000 for room rentals and hosting expenses.

The entire resolution passed with a 19-1 vote.

Resolution in support of HR 3892

This bill would restore full bankruptcy protections to private and federally guaranteed student loans.

“This is something we’ve been pushing for all year, and passing it through this body would just allow us to say, ‘Sen. Durbin, students are really supportive of this, faculty are supportive of this, the Illinois General Assembly has shown support for this and the Big Ten Conference has as well,’” Fiorentino said.

The resolution passed with a 17-0 vote.

Edward can be reached at [email protected].