The modern-day Illinois College Press Association was founded with the adoption of its Constitution and Bylaws at its first convention at Eastern Illinois University on April 8-9 1983. It was the result of a year's work by Harry Theil and Jim Munz (Illinois State University), John David Reed (Eastern Illinois University), E. Mayer Maloney, Jr. (University of Illinois), and Harvey Beutner (Illinois Wesleyan University).

Charter members were: The DePaulia (DePaul University), The Daily Eastern News (Eastern Illinois University), The Pegasus (Eureka College), GSU Innovator (Governor's State University, The Argus (Illinois Wesleyan University), The Decaturian (Millikin University), The Print (Northeastern Illinois University), The Daily Northwestern (Northwestern University), Regent Tribune (Rockford College), The Encounter (College of St. Francis), The Daily Egyptian (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale) and the Western Courier (Western Illinois University).

In 1984 and 1985 conferences were held at Illinois State University, and the 1986 conference returned to Eastern Illinois. The 1987-91 conferences were held at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Chicago, which enabled the city's working journalists to take time off from their busy schedules to give seminars and presentations to student journalists who attended. From 1992-97, conferences were held the last week of February at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza in Chicago, featuring a jobs fair, two days of presentations by Chicago-area professional journalists and an annual awards banquet sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. Since 1998, the annual ICPA conference has been held at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. In 2001, the convention is now held at the Holiday Inn City Centre in Chicago.

Membership is open to all four-year colleges in the State of Illinois. Member schools may nominate their journalists for awards in 29 different categories each year, and are eligible to have members of their staffs attend the convention (for a nominal per-person registration fee). Other benefits include access to free legal advice and newsletter updates. Membership dues are currently $75 per year for schools with an enrollment of less than 9,000 students and $150 for schools with an enrollment of more than 9,000. Schools interested in joining ICPA should send their dues and the following information (newspaper name, frequency of publication, school name, enrollment, newspaper address, phone, fax, email numbers, and the names of the editor and adviser) to: John David Reed, ICPA Secretary-Treasurer, Journalism Dept., Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920. Membership is good for the calendar year.