Looming student loan payments came with Karen Alejandro’s graduation from UCLA on Friday afternoon.

“I would feel a lot happier graduating if I wasn’t so worried,” said the recent graduate as she stood in the center of Bruin Plaza Friday afternoon.

Alejandro did not qualify to receive financial aid, but she could also not afford to go to school without taking out numerous student loans, leaving her about $30,000 in debt. 

After UCLA’s commencement ceremony on Friday, Alejandro and about 150 other people at UCLA signed a petition in support of a congressional bill that would lower student interest rates.

The petition was part of a nationwide day of action aimed at educating students about bills currently in Congress that would prevent the increase in federal student loan interest rates. 

The event was put on by the undergraduate student government’s external vice president’s office, the United States Student Association and MoveOn.org, a website and community that promotes grassroots political actions, said Maryssa Hall, the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president.

The day of action addressed the issue of subsidized federal student loan interest rates, which are scheduled to double July 1 – from 3.4 to 6.8 percent – if Congress does not act.

The office’s petition supported the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, which would lower student loan interest rates to 0.75 percent, about the same interest rate banks pay when borrowing from the Federal Reserve.

The other bills promoted by the USAC office during the event were the Student Loan Fairness Act and the Student Loan Affordability Act.

The Student Loan Fairness Act, which is separate from the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, would have students make payments of 10 percent of their discretionary income to pay off their loan debt for 10 years. At the end of the 10-year period, students would not have to pay more money back for their debt.

The Student Loan Affordability Act, another bill, would stop student loan interest rates from increasing in July and keep them at the same rate – 3.4 percent – for the next two years. 

Hall – who is currently about $15,000 in debt from student loans – said the Bank On Students Loan Fairness Act offers a long-term goal for legislators and students. She said she has a 10-year-old sister whom she does not want to see face financial difficulties with student loans when she too goes to college.

Nicole Fossier, a third-year political science and psychology student who attended the event, said she thinks student loan interest rates are a priority issue for students across the country at both public and private schools.

“Student loan rates affect past, present and future students,” said Fossier, who has been involved in the external vice president’s office since her first year.

For Alejandro, concerns about student loan debt will cause her to move back home to San Diego to save money. She said she currently does not have a job lined up for her at home.

“You think graduating is the end of it,” she said. “But it’s not the end of it.”