NORMAL -- About 50 people attended a public hearing Friday to convince state lawmakers to restore funding to the popular MAP grants, which are need-based assistance for Illinois college students.

The hearing at Illinois State University was sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

Panelists who listened to the testimony included members of the commission, ISU financial aid director Jana Albrecht, state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, and Jay D. Bergman a member of both the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the ISU board of trustees.

The roughly 137,000 Illinois students who received Monetary Award Program grants this fall were told in August that no money will be available for the spring semester. Maximum awards are about $2,300.

Students and staff members from ISU, Illinois Wesleyan University and Heartland Community College took turns at the microphone.

In each case, the panel listened to individual stories of MAP grant necessity, and how the lack of a spring disbursement lead to a student dropping out of college.

One student lamented how students would need to take on more part-time jobs or more loans, or drop out.

"Taking these grants away, students will be spreading themselves too thin," said Angelica Riley-Taylor, a Heartland nursing student. "I will be forced to withdraw."

More than 3,500 of ISU's 20,000 students, about 430 of IWU's 2,100 students and about 900 of Heartland's 5,000 students are eligible for the assistance this year, according to college officials.

Friday morning's event was the third of six ISAC hearings expected to take place on Illinois campuses before Oct. 15. Students are being urged to converge on Springfield that day, the second day of the General Assembly's fall veto session, to lobby lawmakers.

"Everyone will smile and say they support MAP. The issue you need to get across is not that MAP is a great program, but that (lawmakers) must do everything it takes to fund it," ISAC President Andrew Davis told the students at the hearing. "Don't take 'no' for an answer."

To learn more about the issue, visit saveillinoismapgrants.org.