With threats to academic freedom increasing across the country, educators in the state of Illinois are pursuing a bill to protect Illinois college students and staff from being punished for their speech or communications, with exceptions for threats and violence.
“The whole goal of higher ed is that you’re seeking the truth, you’re seeking knowledge,” said Troy Swanson, legislative chair for the Cook County College Teachers Union, which has endorsed the bill. Swanson is a Moraine Valley librarian.
“We are ensuring for the future that everyone who’s involved, whether it’s a full-time faculty member, a part-time faculty member or a student, has the same protections under the law, that they can explore knowledge wherever it takes them.”
The issue has come up because the Trump administration wants more accountability from schools that take tax dollars and believes they are teaching a left-wing ideology. But professors see that as a threat that government is taking control of what’s being taught, requiring right-wing ideology and removing their academic freedom.
Scholars at Risk, a global academic freedom group, has counted 40 attacks against academic freedom in the United States in the first half of 2025.
“Academic freedom exists precisely because scholarship requires fearless inquiry,” says Amy Reid of PEN America. “Faculty are not meant to bend to political dictates when they teach; they are meant to bring their expertise, analysis, and interpretation into the classroom. Vibrant debate flourishes, and students learn and grow confident, when professors are trusted to do their jobs, not when they are forced into straitjackets.”
Northwestern University professor Steven Thrasher was denied tenure in March, and he will stop teaching there next year. Thrasher says it’s because he has protested for Palestine on campus.Last month, Texas A&M fired professor Melissa McCoul because of her lesson on gender in children’s literature.
More than 70 education gag laws have been proposed as of July 24, with 22 becoming law in eight states.
“Academic freedom exists precisely because scholarship requires fearless inquiry.”
Amy Reid, PEN America
SB 2202, the Academic Freedom of Expression Act, would require the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board to make academic freedom statements, along with Illinois colleges. The bill is currently stalled in the Illinois Senate and will not move forward without being revived in a future legislative session or being granted a new path by the Senate Rules Committee.
The goal of the bill is to ensure that higher education institutions have some framework for how academic freedom works on their campuses, which Illinois law doesn’t currently define.
“For Illinois, it’s a good start to define that, so it brings clarity to academic freedom in and out of the classroom,” said Harper College history professor Michael Hawkins, who serves as president of the Illinois chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
SB 2202 is based on California’s Leonard Law, which was passed in 1992 and prevents colleges, universities and high schools from disciplining students for constitutionally protected speech. Even though SB 2202 only covers colleges, it extends free speech coverage to tenured and adjunct faculty of these institutions.
Swanson says that’s important because of inequalities in professor protections based on employment status.
“In Illinois, we are a case of the haves and have-nots, in terms of academic freedom,” he said. “If you are a full-time faculty member who has tenure, you have some of the strongest academic freedom protections that exist. If you are a part-time teacher, or work at a university or college that doesn’t have a union, you have no protection at all.”
Denying tenure to professors is one of the tactics used to punish them for their speech. That’s why many education gag bills severely restrict, or even ban, tenure altogether, in order to make it easier to fire “rogue” faculty members.
These bills can create a chilling effect in classrooms due to vague definitions of banned topics, which are often just labeled “DEI” or “divisive concepts.” Teachers and professors are forced to self-censor to avoid losing their jobs, to the point of avoiding entire subjects such as blues and jazz music, Frederick Douglass, and even painters like Frida Kahlo.
Professors say the result could hamstring their ability to do their jobs effectively, and students could be deprived of the ability to discuss important topics in order to develop informed opinions.
“Generally speaking, I want there to be more speech, and if you’re restricting that, it could diminish my ability to develop my perspective,” said Moraine Valley political science professor Kevin Navratil. “If that were limited, that’s going to limit my ability to have the full knowledge that I could have, to be able to vote, or develop opinions on the key issues of the day.”
The bill would prevent retaliation against students as well as faculty for engaging in scholarly inquiry and controversial topics.
“They should focus more on the future, students that want to grow up,” said Moraine Valley exercise therapy major Mehdi Ali, 22. “Depending on race or nationality, sometimes students are not given the same opportunities. If they allow equal opportunities for everybody, that would be better for everybody.”
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