View awards given since 2003 by current lawmakers

We published the data we collected in our investigation so it can be examined by anyone who is interested in examining the public records. Please note that the dataset has more than 6,000 records and may take time to load in a new window in your browser.

Here is how you can read the database, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the State Board of Education:

Field: Leg
Delineates whether the legislator awarding the scholarship is a state representative (Rep) or state senator (Sen).

Field: Last Name
Lists last names of state representatives or senators awarding scholarships.

Field: First Name
Llists first names of state lawmakers awarding scholarships.

Field: Party
Lists the political affiliation of the lawmaker awarding the scholarship. “D” stands for Democrat; “R” stands for Republican.

Field: Award Year
Lists the year that the legislator awarded the scholarship to the student.

Field: Recip
Lists the name of the recipient, last name followed by first name. Notice that sometimes numbers and various other characters follow the names. These are original characters left by the Illinois State Board of Education. I’ve made an effort to keep these intact.

Field: City, Zip
Lists the city and zipcodes of the recipient

Field: School
Lists the school of attendance for the scholarship recipients.

• CSU = Chicago State University
• EIU = Eastern Illinois UniversityGSU = Governors State University
• ISU = Illinois State University
• NEIU = Northeastern Illinois University
• NIU = Northern Illinois University
• SIU = Southern Illinois University (no campus specified)
• SIUC = Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
• SIUE = Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
• SIUS = Southern Illinois University, Springfield (medical campus)
• UI-Chicago = University of Illinois, Chicago
• UI-UC = Univeristy of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• UIS = University of Illinois, Springfield
• WIU = Western Illinois University

All others listings do not fall under these standard categories. They have been left as is.

Field: Duration
Lists the duration of the scholarship awarded to the student.
Most of the durations are listed as:

• 1SUM = 1 Summer
• 1SEM = 1 Semester
• 1YR = 1 academic year including summer
• 1YRXSUM = 1 academic year excluding summer
• 2 YR = 2 academic years

Usually these durations are followed by the semester in which the scholarship begins. The range should be from Fall 2003 (F03) to Spring or Summer 2008 (S08 or Sp08 and SUM08).

Ex:
1YR/F04 = A scholarship valid for one academic year beginning the Fall 2004 semester.
1YR/S05 = A scholarship valid for one academic year beginning the Spring 2005 semester.
1YRXSUM/F07 = A scholarship valid for one academic year beginning the Fall 2007 semester, excluding Summer 2008.
1SUM/SUM06 = A scholarship valid for one summer, beginning Summer 2006.
1SEM/S08 = A scholarship valid for one semester, beginning Spring 2008.

Field: Major
Lists the major recorded by students on their confidentiality waivers.

Field: Waiver amount
Lists the estimated waiver amounts of the scholarships recorded by the students themselves.

Field:  Status

• “Q” lists changes in scholarship status. Status changes occur when a student drops out of school or changes schools. In that case, a portion of the scholarship will be vacated; this is usually reflected by:
• “V-CHANGED SCHOOLS”

• Sometimes a scholarship recipient will vacate some of their scholarship and will list no reason why. In these cases, there will be an unused amount of a scholarship that can be directed towards another student:

• Exs.:
  “V-1 YEAR REMAINS”
  “V-1 SEM REMAINS”

• Lawmakers can direct these vacated parts of scholarships to other individuals.
• Ex.:
  “V-USING JOHN DOE” means that the student with this status is using portions of a scholarship vacated by John Doe.