The Independent Colleges Capital Program gave John Marshall School of Law a $3.27 million grant in 2012 for renovations. However, its merge with the University’s Chicago campus in 2019 called for a refund of the rest of the grant from the UI System, according to a press release from State Senator Chapin Rose.

After the University tried to get the refund forgiven, Senator Rose thought it should be paid for by only the Chicago campus. On Friday afternoon, the UI System agreed that the money to repay ICCAP would come from the Chicago campus.

Before resolving the issue, Senate Bill 2282 was filed in the Illinois legislature, which if passed, would forgive the entire amount that was owed back to ICCAP by the UI System, which is $934,013.79.

If that were to have happened, the money would then be deprived from other independent colleges throughout the state, such as Milikin or Illinois-Wesleyan.

The refund was asked for because after John Marshall merged with the Chicago campus, it no longer was an independent college.

Therefore, Senator Rose filed a legislation, SB 3170, that would require the refund to be paid by the Chicago campus only, “so that the refund does not negatively impact the operations of the other campuses within the U of I system and will also ensure that these funds are available for use by independent colleges throughout Illinois.”

However, now Rose said he would table this bill because of the said agreements between the Chicago campus and ICCAP.

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