It may have been the Super Bowl weekend, but some Student Government members spent time at Lakeland Community College.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education-Student Advisory Committee met over the weekend to discuss multiple topics, including under funding of the Illinois veteran tuition waivers, student debt and graduating in four years.

A report by the Illinois Board of Higher Education found that between 2002 and 2006 the veteran tuition waiver programs were under funded by $29.7 million.

According to Student Senate member Alison Kostelich, the schools have to raise tuition in order to make up for the shortfalls of the state.

A proposal was drawn up to present suggestions on how to fully fund the programs to IBHE.

One of the suggestions was to ask alumni for donations to fund the program, Kostelich said.

Having Illinois help alleviate student debt especially for “socially low paying jobs,” was the basis for a report by the Faculty Advisory Council.

While the proposal was well received, there were questions on what was a “socially low paying job,” Kostelich said.

“A lot of people appreciated and agreed that the state needs to do more to alleviate student debt, but we had a problem with why just whatever they deem socially valuable are,” she said. “Everybody comes out of school with debt.”

The EIU4 program, which guarantees students will graduate in four years, was brought up in Access Diversity committee, said Student Senate Speaker Jeff Lange.

“(The committee) talked about what our schools do to help people graduate in four years to get their bachelors,” Lange said.

Amanda Raz, student executive vice president, said that funds from alumni license plates are supposed to go towards a scholarship fund, but currently the money is going into the general fund.

More research is going to be done to make sure that those funds go where they are supposed to go, Raz said.

Delegates from public, private and community colleges attend IBHE-SAC meetings.

The student-related issues that are discussed are then presented to IBHE.

IBHE-SAC has a representative that votes on the board meetings.