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An estimated 137,000 Illinois students may be forced to withdraw from school after severe cuts to Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants by the Illinois state legislature in July. At Bradley University, nearly a quarter of the student body depended on MAP grants, and hundreds may drop out. In response, students, faculty, and administrators are working hard to organize and speak out against the cuts before the assembly's October veto session, the last chance for the cuts to be reversed.

Students and faculty at Illinois University rallied Friday to discuss the problem. Many more meetings and hearings are planned for  October, one of them hosted by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) at Carl Sandburg College on October 2nd.

"We certainly are hopeful," said ISAC Director Paul Palian. "More hopeful than we've been."

The loss of this funding, for an average student about $4,733 per year, could cause the class sizes at Bradley and other schools to drop considerably.

Bradley administrators have been expressing their displeasure to the Illinois Legislature publicly, funding student trips to the capital and organizing letter writing campaigns to get these budget cuts reversed.

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