Bill Text: IL SB0641 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Enrolled

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Amends the Higher Education Veterans Service Act. With regard to the requirement to advertise the office location and phone number of and Internet access to the Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel and Student Services, provides that the advertisement must also include the website and any social media accounts of the public college or university. Requires each public college and university to annually report to the Board of Higher Education on the efforts of the public college or university in attracting, recruiting, and retaining veterans and military personnel. Effective immediately.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-3)

Status: (Passed) 2021-08-06 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 102-0295 [SB0641 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-SB0641-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning higher education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Higher Education Veterans Service Act is
amended by changing Sections 15 and 20 as follows:
(110 ILCS 49/15)
Sec. 15. Survey; coordinator; best practices report; best
efforts.
(a) All public colleges and universities shall, within 60
days after the effective date of this Act, conduct a survey of
the services and programs that are provided for veterans,
active duty military personnel, and their families, at each of
their respective campuses. This survey shall enumerate and
fully describe the service or program that is available, the
number of veterans or active duty personnel using the service
or program, an estimated range for potential use within a
5-year and 10-year period, information on the location of the
service or program, and how its administrators may be
contacted. The survey shall indicate the manner or manners in
which a student veteran may avail himself or herself of the
program's services. This survey must be made available to all
veterans matriculating at the college or university in the
form of an orientation-related guidebook.

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Each public college and university shall make the survey
available on the homepage of all campus Internet links as soon
as practical after the completion of the survey. As soon as
possible after the completion of the survey, each public
college and university shall provide a copy of its survey to
the following:
(1) the Board of Higher Education;
(2) the Department of Veterans' Affairs;
(3) the President and Minority Leader of the Senate
and the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House of
Representatives; and
(4) the Governor.
(b) Each public college and university shall, at its
discretion, (i) appoint, within 6 months after the effective
date of this Act, an existing employee or (ii) hire a new
employee to serve as a Coordinator of Veterans and Military
Personnel Student Services on each campus of the college or
university that has an onsite, daily, full-time student
headcount above 1,000 students.
The Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall be an ombudsperson serving the specific needs
of student veterans and military personnel and their families
and shall serve as an advocate before the administration of
the college or university for the needs of student veterans.
The college or university shall enable the Coordinator of
Veterans and Military Personnel Student Services to

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communicate directly with the senior executive administration
of the college or university periodically. The college or
university shall retain unfettered discretion to determine the
organizational management structure of its institution.
In addition to any responsibilities the college or
university may assign, the Coordinator of Veterans and
Military Personnel Student Services shall make its best
efforts to create a centralized source for student veterans
and military personnel to learn how to receive all benefit
programs and services for which they are eligible.
Each college and university campus that is required to
have a Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall regularly and conspicuously advertise the
office location and , phone number of , and Internet access to
the Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services, along with a brief summary of the manner in which he
or she can assist student veterans. The advertisement shall
include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following:
(1) advertisements on each campus' Internet home page;
and
(2) any promotional mailings for student application;
and .
(3) the website and any social media accounts of the
public college or university.
The Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services shall facilitate other campus offices with the

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promotion of programs and services that are available.
(c) Upon receipt of all of the surveys under subsection
(a) of this Section, the Board of Higher Education and the
Department of Veterans' Affairs shall conduct a joint review
of the surveys and post, on any Internet home page they may
operate, a link to each survey as posted on the Internet
website for the college or university. Upon receipt of all of
the surveys, the Office of the Governor, through its military
affairs advisors, shall similarly conduct a review of the
surveys and post the surveys on its Internet website.
Following its review of the surveys, the Office of the
Governor shall submit an evaluation report to each college and
university offering suggestions and insight on the conduct of
student veteran-related policies and programs.
(d) The Board of Higher Education and the Department of
Veterans' Affairs may issue a best practices report to
highlight those programs and services that are most beneficial
to veterans and active duty military personnel. The report
shall contain a fiscal needs assessment in conjunction with
any program recommendations.
(e) Each college and university campus that is required to
have a Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student
Services under subsection (b) of this Section shall make its
best efforts to create academic and social programs and
services for veterans and active duty military personnel that
will provide reasonable opportunities for academic performance

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and success.
Each public college and university shall make its best
efforts to determine how its online educational curricula can
be expanded or altered to serve the needs of student veterans
and currently-deployed military, including a determination of
whether and to what extent the public colleges and
universities can share existing technologies to improve the
online curricula of peer institutions, provided such efforts
are both practically and economically feasible.
(Source: P.A. 96-133, eff. 8-7-09; revised 7-16-19.)
(110 ILCS 49/20)
Sec. 20. Fiscal impact and reporting. Each Beginning on
September 1 of the year following the effective date of this
Act and each subsequent September 1, each college and
university that is required to have a Coordinator of Veterans
and Military Personnel Student Services under subsection (b)
of Section 20 of this Act shall report to the Board of Higher
Education on the fiscal impact of the programs and services
related to the requirements of this Act and on the efforts of
the public college or university in attracting, recruiting,
and retaining veterans and military personnel.
The Board of Higher Education shall compile the
information and, within 60 days after receipt of such
information, issue a report reflecting the information for
each institution required to report under this Section. The

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report must be filed with the Governor, the Governor's Office
of Management and Budget, the Director of Veterans' Affairs,
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of
the Senate, the Minority Leader of the House of
Representatives, and the Minority Leader of the Senate.
(Source: P.A. 96-133, eff. 8-7-09.)
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.