On July 29, 2016, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Senate Bill 2174 into law, which amends the Board of Higher Education Act and requires public university Board of Trustees members to undergo leadership training.
Public Act 99-695 requires "every voting member of the governing board of a public university appointed for a term beginning after January 1, 2016 to complete a minimum of 4 hours of professional development leadership training covering topics that shall include, but are not limited to, public university and labor law, contract law, ethics, sexual violence on campus, financial oversight and accountability, audits, and fiduciary responsibilities of a member of a governing board within 2 years after beginning service and within every 2 years of service thereafter." (110 ILCS 205/13)
The training may be provided by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) or an entity approved by the IBHE. Universities are required to provide training completion information for individual trustees on their websites. University board chairs are required to certify to the IBHE by July 31 of each year the successful completion of training by any of its members during the preceding year.
To fulfill the leadership training called for in Public Act 99-695, Governor Rauner’s First Annual Public University Trustees Conference was held in Chicago on Thursday, October 27, 2016. Public university trustees and public university presidents were invited to the daylong session, which was organized by the IBHE and the Association of Governing Boards.
The following trustees completed leadership training on the respective dates: