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Item #7A
February 3, 2004
STATE OF ILLINOIS
BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION
PERSONNEL POLICIES FOR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
The State Officials and Employees Ethics Act (Public Acts 93-0615 as amended by
93-0617, effective November 19 and December 9, 2003, respectively) expands and revises ethics
laws in the State of Illinois. Many of the provis ions of the Act relate to State employees,
including public university employees.
Article 5, Section 5-5 of Public Act 93-0615, as amended by Public Act 93-0617, calls
for the adoption and implementation of personnel policies for all State employees, and
specifically requires the Illinois Board of Higher Education to adopt and implement personnel
policies “with respect to State employees of public institutions of higher learning except
community colleges.” The personnel policies must be filed with the appropriate ethics
commission established under the Act – the Executive Ethics Commission for public universities.
By statute, the policies must include policies relating to work time requirements,
documentation of time worked, documentation for reimbursement for travel on official State
business, compensation, and the earning or accrual of State benefits for all State employees who
may be eligible to receive those benefits. The policies shall comply with and be consistent with
all other applicable laws. The statute requires State employees to periodically submit time sheets
documenting the time spent each day on official State business to the nearest quarter hour;
contractual State employees may satisfy the time sheets requirement by complying with the terms
of their contracts, which shall provide for a means of compliance with this requirement. The
policies for State employees shall require those time sheets to be submitted on paper,
electronically, or both and to be maintained in either paper or electronic format by the applicable
fiscal office for a period of at least two years. The policies must be adopted before February 1,
2004, and shall apply to State employees beginning 30 days after adoption.
Recognizing that personnel policies traditionally have been under the jurisdictional
authority of the individual public university governing boards, the staff has worked closely with
representatives of those boards in an attempt to develop policies that comply with the intent of the
new statute but which also take into account the complexity and present variances among
institutions. To the best of our ability, this proposal incorporates present personnel policies where
appropriate, attempts to harmonize existing personnel policies when such policies are at variance
with either the statute or with other institutions, and adds new statute-required policies in a
manner to minimize paperwork and other administrative burdens as much as possible. These
proposed policies are attached as an appendix to this item.
