Harris to speak on student homelessness at Texas convention

INDIANAPOLIS – Rep. Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago) announced today that he will be speaking on the panel “State Policy to Address Students' Basic Needs” at this year’s #RealCollege Convention in Houston, Texas this weekend.

The panel will be from 1:30-2:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28. Other speakers on this panel include Atif Qarni, Virginia’s Secretary of Education and advocates from Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger and Swipe out Hunger.

The convention was created by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University in Philadelphia. Its focus is to gather students, practitioners, policymakers, researchers and activists and develop strategies for securing students’ basic needs and enable them to complete their studies.

In the panel, Rep. Harris will focus on what states are doing to reduce student hunger and homelessness. During the last session of the Indiana General Assembly, he authored a bill (HB 1152) to establish a study committee about the topic, which had bipartisan support. Unfortunately, this bill did not receive a hearing.

“Speaking at this convention is just another step in the journey of empowering students,” says Rep. Harris. “Everyone deserves a higher education, and hunger and homelessness should not be a factor that stops students from achieving their goals.”

Although registration for this convention has reached capacity, a livestream of the event will be available for those who are interested.