Several students encouraged their peers to act on the financial issues they face in college during a forum Thursday.

Speakers filled the Lesar Law auditorium stage to voice their opinions on financial issues that surround college students during the event, “Deficits, Education and Funding: Student Voices on Money Matters,” sponsored by the Department of Speech Communication and the Society for Civil Discourse. Five student speakers — Evette Rudolph, Leslie Murray, Jess Michels, Noah Coleman and Kyle Rudick — suggested constitutional amendments, equal educational rights and student-teacher relationship improvement as solutions to students’ issues, said Rudick, a graduate student in speech communications from Tulsa, Okla.

He said higher education funding has declined because it makes Americans easier to control. While Rudick said he admits this sounds like somewhat of a conspiracy theory, this is the culture the U.S. government has built, and now we must deal with the consequences.

Funding for education was at its highest between 1945-1975, he said. During this time period, college students held protests regarding civil rights, women’s rights and the demand for higher wages, showing that when students stand up for their rights, the government will listen, he said.

“One thing was clear — give people an education, and they will learn to demand their rights,” Rudick said.

Rudick said funding has dropped since the protest era died out, which caused a student-debt increase and a lack of quality programs and instructors. Because of this, students select their careers based solely upon earning potential, he said, which limits the likelihood that students will become activists in fear that it might endanger their careers.

Students do not protest what they know to be problems, he said.

“Keep your head down, scrape together a living and hopefully you’ll be able to afford that little house with the white picket fence whenever you’re 60 years old,” Rudick said.

Rudolph, a sophomore from Country Club Hills studying psychology, said she focused her speech on tuition rates and student retention because students must actively work to improve their college, she said.

“The only way to make a change is to create it,” Rudolph said.

Coleman, a freshman from Du Quoin studying English education, said higher education funding is a big university issue. Tuition is often raised when students can barely afford it already, he said.

Students in attendance at the forum took the national issues the speakers addressed and applied them to their university experiences.

Gloria Pindi, a graduate student in speech communication from the Republic of Congo, said university fees alone are too expensive. Although graduate assistants get free tuition and a stipend, she thinks she just gives the stipend back to the university, she said.

Eric Dussthua, a senior from Chicago studying architecture, said while he agreed with many of the speaker’s opinions, he didn’t agree with complaints about the school spending too much on physical appearance.

“Obviously, the campus is lacking in money and the way it looks, and you have to do something in order to bring people here (and) in order to bring revenue into the school,” he said.