WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with the leadership and members of the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities (FIICU), which represents 54 private non-profit colleges across Illinois. During their meeting, Durbin and Duckworth spoke about the Trump Administration’s continued attacks on higher education, including limitations on financial support for students and pushing policies that shut immigrants out of the American education system.

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“One of the greatest gifts we can give the next generation is an education. But we’ve seen the Trump Administration, time and time again, roll back student protections and create new barriers to accessing education,” said Durbin. “Senator Duckworth and I today spoke with higher education leaders about fighting for accessible, affordable education.”

“Illinois is home to some of our country’s best universities,” Duckworth said. “As the Trump Administration continues to wage a nonsensical war against high quality, affordable education, doing everything they can to make it more difficult for students to have the financial support they need to earn a degree, I’m committed to working with our state’s colleges to make higher education accessible for all Illinoisans—no matter their income or zip code.

Universities represented at the meeting included:

  • Aurora University
  • DePaul University
  • Eureka College
  • Illinois College
  • Quincy University
  • Wheaton College
  • Saint Xavier University
  • Dominican University
  • Lake Forest College
  • Lewis University
  • Loyola University Chicago
  • Northwestern University
  • Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
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