HB4968 - Campus Free Speech and Expression Act

• Requires boards of trustees at all Illinois public universities and community colleges to adopt policies affirming that institutions must protect First Amendment rights and not shield individuals from protected speech, including ideas others find offensive.

• Designates outdoor campus areas as public forums where students and faculty can freely engage in noncommercial expressive activities including protests, speeches, literature distribution, and spontaneous assembly, subject only to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.

• Prohibits public institutions from denying student organization benefits (recognition, funding, facility use, etc.) based on the organization's viewpoint or from requiring leaders to abandon the organization's beliefs as a condition for recognition.

• Prevents institutions from creating "free-speech zones" that restrict expressive activities to specific campus locations and exempts healthcare facilities, veterinary facilities, and athletic areas from public forum designation.

• Allows aggrieved campus members to file complaints with the board of trustees or assert violations as a defense in disciplinary proceedings, with a one-year statute of limitations, while protecting institutional employees from personal liability.