Downstate Illinois Innocence Project®

Opportunities for Students

Undergraduate and graduate degree-seeking students at the University of Illinois at Springfield have an opportunity to participate in Innocence Project activities for credit. Project faculty regularly teach a cross-disciplinary Public Affairs Colloquia course titled "Actual Innocence" which can be taken for four credit hours of credit. The course is open to students from such disciplines as legal studies, criminal justice, communications, biology and others. Students enrolled in the course have the opportunity to apply to work on actual innocence cases, but are not required to do so. Degree seeking students also have the option of signing up for Innocence Project work through credit-generating tutorials, clinicals, and/or other applied study and experiential learning opportunities offered on the campus. Depending upon a student's discipline, he or she can earn up to eight hours of credit through a combination of these options.