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House bill would guarantee admission to U of I system for some community college students

Illinois community college students would have a path to guaranteed admission into the University of Illinois system under legislation passed by the state House on Tuesday.

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, a Republican from Elmhurst, sponsored the legislation, HB 796, which would require the U of I to create a "pilot program" that promises admission beginning in the 2022-23 school year to all Illinois community college students who graduated from a state high school, have a 3.0 GPA and completed 36 graded credit hours. The bill passed 111-0.

It would fall on the University of Illinois and individual community colleges to reach an "articulation agreement" on requirements for programs that usually have higher admissions standards, such as engineering.

The legislation now moves to the Senate; no date has been set for a first reading.

Mazzochi, a former chairwoman of the College of DuPage board, said the legislation is designed to get more Illinois students into the state's "flagship university."

"My goal is to make sure that students from every (legislative) district in state have an opportunity to get to the University of Illinois if they are showing they are a good student," she said.

Under this proposal, the university would no longer be able to deny a student admission based on capacity unless 100% of its enrollment capacity were filled by in-state students. It would serve as an effort to give in-state students admission priority over out-of-state and international students.

"I believe many of our community college students, and actually many of our high school students, don't get the consideration from the University of Illinois that they should, if they are top-tier students," Mazzochi said.

The legislation originally aimed to include all Illinois high school students who rank in the top 10% of their class, a measure the University of Illinois opposed. The legislation was amended to narrow the qualifying students to only those in community colleges who meet the GPA and credit-hour thresholds.

Mazzochi said she hopes to see the law expanded to include all Illinois high school students who rank in the top 10% of their class.

"This is, to me, is the next step we can take to try to persuade the University of Illinois that if they take these students, the sky is not going to fall on their academic standards," she said. "These are students who are going to be able to compete and do the work."

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