The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and an increase in Pell Grants for college students have been a rising issue that presidential candidates are addressing in their platforms.

According to Student Senate President Greg Doucette, on the Student Government annual advocacy trip, which several officials took over break, one of their main priorities was to support the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which was last authorized in 1998.

Two provisions were discussed to make college more affordable, he said. The first is to make Pell Grants accessible year-round.

“If you’re taking summer school …you’re not eligible for Pell Grants at all,” Doucette, a senior in computer science, said.

Adam Compton, student senator and senior in agricultural business management, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s first 100 days in Congress brought an increase in pell grants, but “the cost of tuition has to go down.”

According to Compton, the United States’ education system could face problems if college is not made more affordable.

“If you look at the United Kingdom, colleges are so expensive that there was a decrease in people attending college,” he said.

While N.C. State is considered an affordable university, Compton said more can be done.

“N.C. State is also a lot more expensive than a lot of people in North Carolina can afford,” he said, especially when adding fees, books, housing and other costs. “It has to be affordable for all students.”

On their trip, SG officials met with several staff members of North Carolina Congressmen, including Mel Watt, G.K. Butterfield, Brad Miller and David Price.

Shanna Rose, student senator and sophomore in political science, said they want to plan the trip next year for the fall, when Congress is in session.

The purpose of the trip, Compton said, is to lobby for students’ issues in a national setting.

Several presidential candidates have discussed increasing Pell Grants and lowering the cost of college, with Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pushing for a $4,000 and $3,500 tax credits, according to their Web sites.

And Compton said as these issues enter the national stage, they should energize students to vote.

“If college students don’t go out and vote like they should, then there’s a problem with college students,” he said.

Post-college debt is causing a lot of graduates to opt out of working at non-profits, because it is more financially sound to work in the private sector, he said.

“Student loans are such a tricky thing for most students,” Compton said.

David Foxx, student body treasurer, said college needs to be more affordable so everyone can have the opportunity of an education.

“It’s important for the United States to have the most educated populous that they can have,” Foxx, a senior in political science, said.

But, while he said it would provide some influence in his vote, Foxx said education costs would not be the deciding factor in who he votes for for president.

Another way to bring down student costs that the group lobbied for, Doucette said, would be preventing textbook bundling, in which publishers attach additional materials to books to increase their cost.

By decreasing textbook bundling, Doucette said the “net cost students pay would go down, even if the dollar amount goes up.”

The increase in the costs of contraceptives was also a prime issue during the trip, according to Doucette, because universities around the country were taken off a list of non-profit groups that had lower prices.

Also emphasized by the students were the heavy fines enforced by the RIAA for students who illegally download music, Rose said.

An amendment to a law in the House stated that the top-20 schools for illegal downloads have to have hi-tech solutions to prevent file-sharing, Doucette said.

“There’s nothing N.C. State can do that they’re not already doing to stop file-sharing,” he said.

The last main issue the students discussed, according to Doucette, was the rules for students with drug offenses.

Currently, if someone has an offense, he or she will be denied financial aid for the rest of his or her academic career, but Doucette said the SG members on the trip pushed to change that provision, which is waiting to be passed in the House of Representatives.