SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Over the past year, several colleges and their students have collaborated with Illinois lawmakers to create legislation that would give college students mental wellness days every academic term. 

While the idea stemmed from a former student body president at Illinois State University in Normal, current student body president Eduardo Monk picked it up and took the initiative when he stepped into the role last May. Monk said the project is an expansion of an Illinois law passed a few years ago that allows K-12 students five mental health days a year. 

“As we know, university students are not excluded from the mental health crisis,” Monk said. “So, I saw this as a golden opportunity to be able to have a real impact on students’ mental health. To me, it’s the issue of our generation. Doesn’t matter what kind of school you’re at, doesn’t matter how many friends you’ve had. If you’re miserable through it all, none of it matters.”

Monk said the colleges and students involved in this process brought it to Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, and Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, last year. Since then, nine universities and community colleges have come on board. A few colleges have already passed their own resolutions to adopt mental wellness days. Monk said the group that approached Koehler and Chung has been meeting with stakeholders, senators and representatives from around the state.

Koehler officially filed Senate Bill 2606 in October. 

The bill would require all public colleges and universities in Illinois to implement a student mental wellness day policy that would allow students at least five mental health days per academic year. Schools would have to allow students to use at least two mental wellness days per semester, give them at least two scheduled wellness days every semester, or give them at least one scheduled wellness day and at least one wellness day to use per semester. 

Regardless of how universities and colleges approach that policy, students would be able to use the wellness days if they’re struggling with mental health, and need to take care of themselves and/or take advantage of their school’s mental health resources, among other things. 

If the bill passes, colleges and universities would have to implement a policy by the 2026-27 academic year.

“I think (this bill) helps to provide students (some) relief, first of all, because there are a lot of stresses, especially in a post-COVID timeframe when people are trying to catch up with the problems of education during COVID,” Koehler said. “It gives them a chance to care for themselves, to make sure that they can handle the pressure in the right way, but it also gives the whole campus-wide community a chance to help mental health and wellness.”

The bill passed out of committee in March and will head to the Senate in the coming weeks. If it passes through the Senate, Chung will be the representative championing it through the House. 

Izzy Pruitt, a student government executive member at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, also played a significant role in this project, and has been working with SIUE’s administration to implement a pilot program regarding this legislation. Pruitt said the idea of the pilot program at SIUE was to create something that other colleges and universities could use as a model for their own programs.

Pruitt said they are still working out logistics, but the program would allow students to have one to two days to take off per semester for student wellness days.

Pruitt said she and the administration have had to take certain rules, complications and accreditation hours into consideration, such as nursing clinicals and labs that require students to do a certain number of hours. Students may not be able to use wellness days during those times due to the constrictions that come with fulfilling those requirements.

“The point is, we kind of have gone through trying to find a way to have those limitations while also having a program that other students could utilize,” Pruitt said. “It’s been a good experience (and) a long one, but we’re getting there. Change is slow.”

Andy Morgan, ISU assistant vice president and dean of students, said he appreciates this legislation being student-led, and that ISU’s student government worked with other college student governments and Koehler to make it happen. 

“It’s our student government working with other student governments across the state to work with our state legislators to make this happen,” Morgan said. “With any government and within our student government, there’s both sides of the aisle, but they all came together and they collaborated. That’s a good thing. I appreciated just (witnessing) their learning to work together.”

Spokespersons at Heartland Community College in Normal and Lake Land College in Mattoon both said their institutions hold a neutral stance on the bill; Lake Land’s spokesperson added that offering mental health resources and services to students and supporting mental health are priorities for the college. 

Many colleges and universities have already been increasing mental health resources and services available to students in recent years, but look to continue expanding them and working with their administration and the legislature to do so. 

“(Eastern Illinois University) is committed to supporting the health and well-being of its students,” the university said in a statement. “In recent years, EIU has taken dynamic and proactive steps to support the mental health needs of its diverse student body. The University looks forward to working with the General Assembly to continue to prioritize the well-being of all students.”

If this bill passes, Illinois would be the first state in the nation to implement a wellness day standard for all public colleges and universities. Many people believe the bill will start a trend in providing more resources to students in higher education. 

“I think Illinois is the leader in a lot of different ways across the board,” Koehler said. “This is just another example of it. I think what it says is that we know that we have real inadequacies in how we deal with mental health, and this is another step in terms of trying to address the needs that students, in this case, have, or universities and colleges have. There’s a lot of things we can do without spending a whole lot of money if we just would prioritize it and pay attention to it.”

If the bill passes, Pruitt said she hopes the legislature will readdress its law regarding the Mental Health Early Action on Campus Act, as she believes lawmakers haven’t given colleges and universities adequate funding to provide mental health resources to students, such as the number of counselors available. 

“The law is great in theory, but if you don’t have the funds to do it, and you’re not giving the funds to these public universities, it doesn’t show anything,” Pruitt said. “My hope is that they start to really put funding towards mental health resources and same thing for individual universities … to really prioritize true mental health resources and not the bare minimum.”

While Pruitt and Monk, among others, believe there is a long way to go in terms of addressing mental health and providing resources for people in all stages of life, they also believe this bill is a good start and a move in the right direction. 

“I think we’re way behind the curve,” Monk said. “I think this is something that all 50 states should already be offering… It’s been such an incredible process to be able to advocate for something on what is the national level, but we’re hopeful that this is definitely just a domino falling when it comes addressing the mental health crisis as a nation (and) that this is one more baby step forward.”