Bill Text: IL SB1378 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Academic Degree Act. With respect to a public university, provides that only the board of trustees of the university may award an honorary degree, and the university's faculty shall have no role in the award of the honorary degree.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-29 - Referred to Assignments [SB1378 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SB1378-Introduced.html

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104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 SB1378 Introduced 1/29/2025, by Sen. Chapin Rose SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
110 ILCS 1010/3 from Ch. 144, par. 233
Amends the Academic Degree Act. With respect to a public university, provides that only the board of trustees of the university may award an honorary degree, and the university's faculty shall have no role in the award of the honorary degree.
LRB104 06343 LNS 16379 b
A BILL FOR
SB1378 LRB104 06343 LNS 16379 b
AN ACT concerning education.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Academic Degree Act is amended by changing
Section 3 as follows:
(110 ILCS 1010/3) (from Ch. 144, par. 233)
Sec. 3. Award of degrees.) A degree or any object in
evidence thereof may be awarded only by a degree granting
institution. Anything in this Act to the contrary
notwithstanding, a degree granting institution may award
honorary degrees; provided that any such degree be clearly
represented to be honorary and that any other tangible object
issued or purporting to be in evidence thereof shall state on
its face expressly, clearly and conspicuously that the degree
is honorary. With respect to a public university, only the
board of trustees of the university may award an honorary
degree, and the university's faculty shall have no role in the
award of the honorary degree.
(Source: P.A. 79-803.)