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90_SB0065
110 ILCS 947/38 new
Amends the Higher Education Student Assistance Act.
Creates the minority environmental scholarship program to
increase the number of minority students resident of Illinois
who are enrolled as engineering, environmental science,
chemistry, or law enforcement students at qualified
institutions of higher learning, pursuing environmentally
related undergraduate or graduate degrees in any of those
fields. Provides for administration of the program by the
Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which is to award the
scholarships, beginning with the 1998-1999 academic year,
subject to appropriations made for purposes of funding the
minority environmental scholarship program. Requires the
Commission to promulgate rules for administration of the
program, including qualifications, application forms, annual
filing deadlines, and scholarship amounts. Defines terms.
Effective immediately.
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1 AN ACT to amend the Higher Education Student Assistance
2 Act by adding Section 38.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Higher Education Student Assistance Act
6 is amended by adding Section 38 as follows:
7 (110 ILCS 947/38 new)
8 Sec. 38. Minority environmental scholarships.
9 (a) For the purpose of increasing the number of minority
10 students who are enrolled in environmentally related courses
11 of study, the minority environmental scholarship program is
12 hereby created.
13 (b) The scholarship program shall be administered by the
14 Illinois Student Assistance Commission for minority students
15 who are residents of this State and citizens or permanent
16 residents of the United States, and who pursue undergraduate
17 or graduate degrees at a qualified institution of higher
18 learning as any of the following:
19 (1) An engineering student pursuing an
20 undergraduate or graduate degree in civil, chemical,
21 mechanical, or agricultural engineering;
22 (2) An environmental sciences student pursuing an
23 undergraduate or graduate degree in geology, biology,
24 wildlife management, planning, natural resources, or a
25 closely related course of study;
26 (3) A chemistry student pursuing an undergraduate
27 or graduate degree in the field of environmental
28 chemistry; or
29 (4) A law enforcement student pursuing an
30 undergraduate or graduate degree in environmental law
31 enforcement.
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1 (c) From appropriations made for purposes of this
2 Section, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall
3 annually award minority environmental scholarships to
4 qualified minority students.
5 (d) The Illinois Student Assistance Commission shall
6 promulgate rules, consistent with the requirements of
7 subsection (b) and the other provisions of this Section, to
8 administer the scholarship program, including qualifications,
9 initial scholarship application and scholarship renewal
10 forms, annual filing deadlines, and scholarship amounts.
11 (e) Minority environmental scholarships awarded under
12 this Section shall be effective, subject to appropriations
13 made for purposes of this Section, beginning with the
14 1998-1999 academic year. A scholarship may be paid in
15 multiple disbursements, as determined by the Commission,
16 directly to the student or to the qualified institution of
17 higher learning at which the student is pursuing his or her
18 required course of undergraduate or graduate degree studies,
19 and shall be used for payment of the student's tuition and
20 necessary fees at that institution.
21 (f) As used in this Section:
22 (1) "Minority student" means a student who is
23 either (1) Black (a person having origins in any of the
24 black racial groups in Africa); (ii) Hispanic (a person
25 of Spanish or Portuguese culture with origins in Mexico,
26 South or Central America, or the Caribbean islands,
27 regardless of race); (iii) Asian American (a person with
28 origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East,
29 Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, including
30 Pakistan, and the Pacific Islands, including, among
31 others, Hawaii, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia); or
32 (iv) Native American (a person who is a member of a
33 federally or state recognized Indian tribe, or whose
34 parents or grandparents have such membership) and to
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1 include the native people of Alaska.
2 (2) "Qualified institution of higher learning"
3 means Chicago State University, Eastern Illinois
4 University, Governors State University, Illinois State
5 University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern
6 Illinois University, Southern Illinois University, the
7 University of Illinois, or Western Illinois University.
8 (3) "Tuition and other necessary fees" means the
9 customary charge for instruction and use of facilities in
10 general, and the additional fixed fees charged for
11 specified purposes, which are required generally of
12 nonscholarship recipients at a qualified institution of
13 higher learning for each academic period for which a
14 scholarship recipient actually enrolls at that
15 institution, but do not include fees payable only once or
16 breakage fees and other contingent deposits which are
17 refundable in whole or in part. The Commission may by
18 rule prescribe detailed provisions concerning the
19 computation of tuition and other necessary fees.
20 Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
21 becoming law.