99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2015 and 2016
HB4565

 

Introduced , by Rep. André M. Thapedi

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Public University Uniform Admission Act. Requires each public university in this State to admit first-time freshman applicants as undergraduate students if the applicant graduated with a grade point average in the top 10% of the student's high school graduating class in one of the 2 school years preceding the academic year for which the applicant is applying for admission and (1) the applicant graduated from an accredited public or private high school in this State or from a high school operated by the United States Department of Defense; (2) the applicant successfully completed the minimum college preparatory curriculum requirements for admission to the university or satisfied the ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks on the ACT college admission assessment applicable to the applicant or earned on the SAT college admission assessment a score of at least 1,500 out of 2,400; and (3) if the applicant graduated from a high school operated by the United States Department of Defense, the applicant is a State resident or is entitled to pay tuition fees at the rate provided for State residents. Provides that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is not required to offer admission to applicants who qualify for automatic admission in excess of the number required to fill 75% of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students in an academic year. Sets forth other provisions concerning the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sets forth other provisions concerning admissions. Provides for additional preparation for college, student outreach, and rulemaking.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning education.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Public
5University Uniform Admission Act.
 
6    Section 5. Definition of institution. In this Act,
7"institution" means a public university in this State.
 
8    Section 10. Uniform admission system. An institution shall
9admit first-time freshman students for each semester under the
10provisions of this Act.
 
11    Section 15. Automatic admission.
12    (a) Subject to Section 20 of this Act, each institution
13shall admit an applicant for admission to the institution as an
14undergraduate student if the applicant graduated with a grade
15point average in the top 10% of the student's high school
16graduating class in one of the 2 school years preceding the
17academic year for which the applicant is applying for admission
18and:
19        (1) the applicant graduated from a public or private
20    high school in this State accredited by a generally
21    recognized accrediting organization or from a high school

 

 

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1    operated by the United States Department of Defense;
2        (2) the applicant:
3            (A) successfully completed the minimum college
4        preparatory curriculum requirements established by law
5        for admission to the institution; or
6            (B) satisfied the ACT's College Readiness
7        Benchmarks on the ACT college admission assessment
8        applicable to the applicant or earned on the SAT
9        college admission assessment a score of at least 1,500
10        out of 2,400 or the equivalent; and
11        (3) if the applicant graduated from a high school
12    operated by the United States Department of Defense, the
13    applicant is a State resident or is entitled to pay tuition
14    fees at the rate provided for State residents for the term
15    or semester to which admitted.
16    (b) An applicant who does not satisfy the curriculum
17requirements prescribed by item (A) of subdivision (2) of
18subsection (a) of this Section is considered to have satisfied
19those requirements if the student completed the portion of the
20college preparatory curriculum that was available to the
21student but was unable to complete the remainder of the
22curriculum solely because courses necessary to complete the
23remainder were unavailable to the student at the appropriate
24times in the student's high school career as a result of course
25scheduling, lack of enrollment capacity, or another cause not
26within the student's control.
 

 

 

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1    Section 20. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2admission.
3    (a) The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is not
4required to offer admission to applicants who qualify for
5automatic admission under Section 15 of this Act in excess of
6the number required to fill 75% of the university's enrollment
7capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate
8students in an academic year. If the number of applicants who
9qualify for automatic admission to the University of Illinois
10at Urbana-Champaign under Section 15 of this Act for an
11academic year exceeds 75% of the university's enrollment
12capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate
13students for that academic year, the university may elect to
14offer admission to those applicants as provided by this
15subsection (a) and not as otherwise required by Section 15 of
16this Act. If the university elects to offer admission under
17this subsection (a), the university shall offer admission to
18those applicants by percentile rank according to high school
19graduating class standing based on grade point average,
20beginning with the top percentile rank, until the applicants
21qualified under Section 15 of this Act have been offered
22admission in the number estimated in good faith by the
23university as sufficient to fill 75% of the university's
24enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident
25undergraduate students, except that the university must offer

 

 

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1admission to all applicants with the same percentile rank.
2After the applicants qualified for automatic admission under
3Section 15 of this Act have been offered admission under this
4subsection (a) in the number estimated in good faith as
5sufficient to fill 75% of the designated enrollment capacity
6described by this subsection (a), the university shall consider
7any remaining applicants qualified for automatic admission
8under Section 15 of this Act in the same manner as other
9applicants for admission as first-time undergraduate students.
10    (b) If the number of applicants who apply to the University
11of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during the current academic
12year for admission in the next academic year and who qualify
13for automatic admission to an institution under Section 15 of
14this Act exceeds 75% of the university's enrollment capacity
15designated for first-time resident undergraduate students for
16that next academic year and the university plans to offer
17admission under subsection (a) of this Section during the next
18academic year, the university shall, in the manner prescribed
19by the Board of Higher Education and not later than September
2015 of the current academic year, provide to each school
21district, for dissemination of the information to high school
22junior-level students and their parents, notice of which
23percentile ranks of high school senior-level students who
24qualify for automatic admission under Section 15 of this Act
25are anticipated by the university to be offered admission under
26subsection (a) of this Section during the next academic year.

 

 

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1    (c) If the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2elects to offer admission to first-time resident undergraduate
3students under subsection (a) of this Section for an academic
4year, the university must not consider an applicant's legacy
5status as a factor in the university's decisions relating to
6admissions for that academic year.
7    (d) If the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
8offers admission to first-time resident undergraduate students
9under subsection (a) of this Section, the university shall
10require that a student admitted under subsection (a) of this
11Section complete a designated portion of not less than 6
12semester credit hours of the student's coursework during
13evening hours or other low-demand hours as necessary to ensure
14the efficient use of the university's available classrooms.
15    (e) If the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
16elects to offer admission under subsection (a) of this Section
17for an academic year, the university may not offer admission to
18first-time undergraduate students who are not residents of this
19State for that academic year in excess of the number required
20to fill 10% of the university's enrollment capacity designated
21for first-time undergraduate students for that academic year.
22    (f) Not later than December 31 of each academic year in
23which the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers
24admission under subsection (a) of this Section, the university
25shall deliver a written report to the Governor and the General
26Assembly regarding the university's progress in each of the

 

 

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1following matters:
2        (1) increasing geographic diversity of the entering
3    freshman class;
4        (2) counseling and outreach efforts aimed at students
5    qualified for automatic admission under this Act;
6        (3) recruiting State residents who graduate from other
7    institutions of higher education to the university's
8    graduate and professional degree programs;
9        (4) recruiting students who are members of
10    underrepresented demographic segments of this State's
11    population; and
12        (5) assessing and improving the university's
13    recruitment efforts.
14    (g) The Board of Higher Education shall publish an annual
15report on the impact of subsection (a) of this Section on this
16State's goal of closing college access and achievement gaps
17with respect to students of the University of Illinois at
18Urbana-Champaign, disaggregated by race, ethnicity,
19socioeconomic status, and geographic region and by whether the
20high school from which the student graduated was a small
21school, as designated by the State Superintendent of Education,
22or a public high school that is ranked among the lowest 20% of
23public high schools according to the percentage of each high
24school's graduates who enroll in an institution in one of the 2
25academic years following the year of the applicant's high
26school graduation. On request, the university shall provide the

 

 

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1Board with any information the Board considers necessary for
2the completion of the report required by this subsection (g).
 
3    Section 25. Admission requirements.
4     (a) To qualify for admission under this Act, an applicant
5must:
6        (1) submit an application before the expiration of any
7    application filing deadline established by the
8    institution; and
9        (2) provide a high school transcript or diploma that
10    satisfies the requirements of subsection (b) of this
11    Section.
12    (b) For purposes of subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of
13this Section, a student's official transcript or diploma must,
14not later than the end of the student's junior year, indicate:
15        (1) whether the student has satisfied or is on schedule
16    to satisfy the requirements of item (A) of subdivision (2)
17    of subsection (a) of Section 15 of this Act; or
18        (2) if subsection (b) of Section 15 of this Act applies
19    to the student, whether the student has completed the
20    portion of the college preparatory curriculum that was
21    available to the student.
 
22    Section 30. Admission for child of fallen police officer,
23firefighter, or Department of Corrections employee. Each
24institution shall admit an applicant for admission to the

 

 

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1institution as an undergraduate student if the applicant:
2        (1) is the child of a police officer or firefighter
3    employed by or in the voluntary service of this State or
4    any local public entity in this State who was killed or
5    sustained a fatal injury in the line of duty or is the
6    child of an employee of the Department of Corrections who
7    was assigned to a security position with the Department
8    with responsibility for inmates of a correctional
9    institution under the jurisdiction of the Department and
10    who was killed or sustained a fatal injury in the line of
11    duty; and
12        (2) meets the minimum requirements, if any,
13    established for purposes of this Section by the governing
14    board of the institution for high school or prior
15    college-level grade point average and performance on
16    standardized tests.
 
17    Section 35. Additional preparation for college. After
18admitting an applicant under this Act, the institution shall
19review the applicant's record and any other factor the
20institution considers appropriate to determine whether the
21applicant may require additional preparation for college-level
22work or would benefit from inclusion in a retention program.
23The institution may require a student so identified to enroll
24during the summer immediately after the student is admitted
25under this Act to participate in appropriate enrichment courses

 

 

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1and orientation programs. This Act does not prohibit a student
2who is not determined to need additional preparation for
3college-level work from enrolling, if the student chooses,
4during the summer immediately after the student is admitted
5under this Act.
 
6    Section 40. Student outreach program. The Board of Higher
7Education, by rule, shall develop and implement a program to
8increase and enhance the efforts of institutions in conducting
9outreach to academically high-performing high school seniors
10in this State who are likely to be eligible for automatic
11admission under Section 15 of this Act to provide to those
12students information and counseling regarding the operation of
13this Act and other opportunities, including financial
14assistance, available to those students for success at
15institutions. Under the program, the Board, after gathering
16information and recommendations from available sources and
17examining current outreach practices by institutions of higher
18education in this State and in other states, shall prescribe
19best practice guidelines and standards to be used by
20institutions in conducting the student outreach described by
21this Section.
 
22    Section 45. Fall or summer enrollment. An institution that
23admits, under this Act, an applicant qualified for automatic
24admission under Section 15 of this Act may admit the applicant

 

 

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1for either the fall semester of the academic year for which the
2applicant applies or for the summer session preceding that fall
3semester, as determined by the institution.
 
4    Section 50. Admissions denial; reference to Act. If an
5institution denies admission to an applicant for an academic
6year, then, in any letter or other communication the
7institution provides to the applicant notifying the applicant
8of that denial, the institution may not reference the
9provisions of this Act, including using a description of a
10provision of this Act such as "the top 10% automatic admissions
11law", as a reason the institution is unable to offer admission
12to the applicant, unless the number of applicants for admission
13to the institution for that academic year who qualify for
14automatic admission under Section 15 of this Act is sufficient
15to fill 100% of the institution's enrollment capacity
16designated for first-time resident undergraduate students.
 
17    Section 90. Rules. The Board of Higher Education may adopt
18any rules necessary to implement this Act.