Thousands of state employees have already flunked this year’s ethics training program, and Eastern ethics training administrator Sandy Bowman does not want university employees to follow suit.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading and understanding the information contained in the course,” she said.

About 200,000 state workers take this test every year since Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act into law in 2003.

All full-time workers in agencies under the governor are required to take the training, from graduate assistants to Eastern President Lou Hencken and up to the governor himself.

Already more than 6,000 state employees – or 10 percent of those that have taken the annual online training – did not effectively complete it in a reasonable amount of time this year, said Gilbert Jimenez, Illinois deputy inspector general.

Of the 60,000 employees that have taken the training, the average time spent was about 30 to 35 minutes, he said, some took over an hour.

But the 6,000 people who will retake the course completed it in an inadequate amount of time. Some finished the entire course, which consists of more than 80 pages of material and 10 questions at the end, in two minutes.

“The emphasis is on reviewing the material, not taking the test,” Jimenez said. But he would not give an exact number of minutes that the state will accept as sufficient.

“Just read the material,” Jimenez said. “Not only do we feel that this is reasonable, but it is also a requirement of Illinois statute.”

Bowman said she remembers Eastern employees finishing the training quickly in the past, but warned them that this year the state will crack down on those not reading through the material.

State employees who fail to complete the program in an adequate amount of time will be mailed a paper-based ethics packet, Jimenez said. They will be required to give a signature promising they have thoroughly read through the packet, though state officials will be leaving it up to employees’ honor to actually study the material.

Any workers who refuse to give their signatures will be disciplined accordingly, which could result in the loss of a job, Jimenez said.

This training program will not begin until Oct. 4 for full-time Eastern employees, but Bowman said she wants to save Eastern employees from going through all of this trouble. She said President Hencken also plans to write all employees a letter.

“We’re just doing everything we can to help employees complete this training and to understand the law,” she said. “We want to help them do what the state wants them to do.”