IL SB0641

Public colleges and universities must conduct a survey within 60 days of veteran and military services available on campus, including service descriptions, usage numbers, locations, and contact information, and make the survey available in an orientation guidebook and on campus homepages.

Campuses with over 1,000 full-time students must appoint or hire a Coordinator of Veterans and Military Personnel Student Services within 6 months to serve as an ombudsperson and advocate for student veterans and their families.

Coordinators must be regularly advertised on campus websites, social media accounts, and promotional materials with office location, phone number, and internet access information.

Board of Higher Education and Department of Veterans' Affairs shall conduct joint review of surveys, post links to them online, and may issue a best practices report highlighting beneficial programs with a fiscal needs assessment.

Colleges and universities must make best efforts to create academic and social programs for veterans, expand online curricula to serve student veterans and deployed military personnel, and report annually to the Board of Higher Education on fiscal impacts and veteran recruitment and retention efforts.