(110 ILCS 235/95-5)

Sec. 95-5. Findings; policies.

(a) The General Assembly finds the following:

(1) Historic and continuous systemic racism has created significant disparities in college access, affordability, and completion for Black, Latinx, low-income, and other underrepresented and historically underserved students.

(2) Higher education is examining its role as a contributor to systemic racism, while recognizing its place in providing opportunity and upward mobility, and its role as a powerful actor in dismantling systemic racism.

(3) Chicago State University has created the Equity Working Group, which includes statewide representation of private, community, and public sector stakeholders, to create an action plan for employers, the secondary and postsecondary education systems, philanthropic organizations, community-based organizations, and our executive and legislative bodies to improve college access, completion, and post-graduation outcomes for Black college students in Illinois.

(4) Despite similar numbers of Black high school graduates, Illinois saw about 25,000 fewer Black enrollees in Illinois higher education in 2018 compared to 2008.

(5) Illinois must address wide disparities in degree completion at Illinois community colleges, which currently graduate Black and Latinx students at a rate of 14% and 26% respectively compared to the rate of 38% for White students, as well as at public universities, which currently graduate Black and Latinx students at a rate of 34% and 49% respectively compared to 66% of White students, within 6 years.

(6) The State of Illinois benefits from a diverse public higher education system that includes universities and community colleges with different missions and scopes that maximize college enrollment, persistence, and completion of underrepresented and historically underserved students, including Black and Latinx students and students from low-income families.

(7) Illinois has a moral obligation and an economic interest in dismantling and reforming structures that create or exacerbate racial and socioeconomic inequities in K-12 and higher education.

(8) The Board of Higher Education has a statutory obligation to create a strategic plan for higher education and has adopted core principles to guide this plan.

(9) The Board of Higher Education has included among its core principles designed to guide the strategic plan the assumption that excellence coupled with equity should drive the higher education system and that the higher education system will make equity-driven decisions, elevating the voices of those who have been underserved, and actively identify and remove systemic barriers that have prevented students of color, first generation college students, low-income students, adult learners, and rural students from accessing and succeeding in higher education; access and affordability as well as high quality are embedded in the definition of equity.

(b) The General Assembly supports all of the following work and goals of the Board of Higher Education:

(1) Its work on the strategic plan for higher education and the vision it has set forth that over the next 10 years Illinois will have an equitable, accessible, innovative, nimble, and aligned higher education ecosystem that ensures individuals, families, and communities across the state thrive.

(2) Its goal to close equity gaps in higher education in Illinois and that the strategic plan will identify multiple strategies to achieve this goal.

(3) Its goal to increase postsecondary credential/degree attainment and develop talent to drive the economy of Illinois and that the strategic plan will identify strategies to achieve this goal, including embedding equity in the State's attainment goal.

(4) Its goal to improve higher education affordability, increase access, and manage costs and the expectation that the strategic plan will identify strategies for stakeholders to achieve these goals, including opportunities to improve efficiency and principles for equitable and adequate ways to fund higher education.

(c) The General Assembly encourages the Board of Higher Education to prepare an array of policy, practice, and proposed legislative changes required to implement the strategic plan, along with an implementation process and timeline by May 1, 2021 and to regularly evaluate the impact of the implementation of the strategic plan and publicly report the evaluation to ensure that the goals are achieved as intended and lead to a high-quality, equitable, and diverse higher education system in Illinois.

(Source: P.A. 101-654, eff. 3-8-21.)