Two Eastern student leaders made history last week when they discussed student issues with the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Speaker of the Senate Adam Weyhaupt and Student Body President Katie Cox were part of a four-person delegation from the IBHE’s Student Advisory Committee to the IBHE’s bimonthly meeting in Chicago on Tuesday. Each of the four spoke with the IBHE about a particular student issue.

Cox said it was the first time the IBHE-SAC was invited by the IBHE to give presentations.

Weyhaupt said that he, Cox, Jim Mitchell from the College of Lake County and Ben Syfert from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale met with six to seven IBHE members, including the chairman and the executive director, for an hour.

Weyhaupt said he talked about IBHE-SAC requests that the IBHE define what constitutes a “student fee,” recommend full disclosure of where student fees go and have schools seek student input before adjusting fee rates.

Weyhaupt said the board members were receptive to his concerns.

“They do understand that the affordability of college is an important issue,” Weyhaupt said. “They recognize that student fees have tripled in the past 14 years.”

Weyhaupt said the IBHE asked him to speak to give board members student opinions on the issues.

“(The IBHE board members) don’t need to know the numbers; they need to know how it affects students,” Weyhaupt said.

Weyhaupt said he would continue to work with the IBHE-SAC to reach other Illinois colleges and universities and ask for their support in the three student fee requests.

Although Cox said she was disappointed that only six or seven of the 15 IBHE members heard her talk about raising salaries for public higher education faculty to the board, she felt that her presentation was worthwhile as it allowed the IBHE to hear students’ opinion on the issue.

“All (board members) ever hear is the faculty saying, `We want to be paid more,'” Cox said.

Cox said her topic hits close to home for her.

“Our faculty here at Eastern are simply not paid what they’re worth,” Cox said.

In addition to delivering a formal presentation to the IBHE, Weyhaupt and Cox also attended an IBHE luncheon, an event that allowed the student delegation to speak informally with board members about education issues.

The IBHE, composed of delegates from public, private and community colleges in Illinois, sets policies, coordinates activities and decides the annual budget for all public colleges and universities in Illinois, including Eastern, Weyhaupt said.

Weyhaupt and Cox were chosen to speak before the IBHE by the IBHE-SAC at the SAC’s bimonthly meeting the weekend before the Tuesday meeting.