U.S. Senator Dick Durbin held a news conference Friday, Aug. 8 at LLCC to call attention to student loan debt and the questionable practices of some for-profit colleges. He said that community colleges are a quality and affordable alternative to for-profit colleges and should be strongly considered by all seeking higher education. Participants in the roundtable discussion were Dr. Charlotte Warren, LLCC president; Deborah Hagan, chief of consumer protection for the Attorney General’s office; Dr. Karen Anderson, executive director of the Illinois Community College Board; Dev Gowda, advocate with Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG);  and Dawn Thompson of Athens, a single mother and current online student at Everest College. Her student loan debt is more than $100,000.

The press conference was fed to CNN and CBS affiliates in Chicago, and was covered by local media WICS, WCIA, WTAX, WUIS and by John Reynolds and Bernie Schoenberg of the SJ-R.

Jay Kitterman, director, Culinary Institute, was credited in this story by former student Justin Cooper, who now runs his own food truck along with his wife.