Last Thursday, members of the Illinois Student Senate traveled to Springfield for “U of I Day,” a now annual event where our student representatives meet with legislators in the Statehouse. But this year, the event took place at Sammy’s Sports Bar and Grill.

A hallowed hall of democracy it ain’t, but we can’t deny that significant decisions are made by lawmakers in casual settings such as Sammy’s. However, the event itself seems more like a career fair than any tangible progress.

Getting in contact with legislators is great, but it would be nice to see more effort to reach out to lawmakers who are not already familiar with our needs. Local Reps. Chapin Rose and Naomi Jakobsson and state Sen. Michael Frerichs are all advocates for higher funding for the University. While they are important conduits to others in the Statehouse, they shouldn’t need to act like chaperones.

University football coach Ron Zook accompanied the group to Springfield for a little star power, but through no fault of his own, the celebrity factor associated with taking this school to the Rose Bowl probably overshadowed the more serious mission of the day. His status as a parent of a University student is certainly as important as his role on the field.

Student government plays an important role in representing the needs of students. But simply driving over to the Capitol for glad-handing without any concrete proposals allows lawmakers to say that they care about higher education funding in campaign bulletins without having to actually get anything done.

It won’t be as glamorous and probably won’t involve drinks, but more traditional forms of persuasion would likely be more effective than a photo-op and a business card exchange.

It would be great to see student government as an institution get more involved in the day-to-day happenings of Springfield. In addition to events like U of I Day, there are many ways students can stay involved all the time. Things like working with not just the representatives of this district, but individual senators and representatives spread out across the state. Letter writing, regular phone calls and even policy suggestions going beyond, “This school needs more money. Please give it to us,” would all go a long way to making sure that students (potential voters themselves) are still heard.

But contact is contact after all. While University of Illinois Day certainly didn’t hurt anything, more can be done to make sure the University and increased higher education funding is a priority in the other 364.