Updates to faculty layoff plan and other stuff

General Campus News, Updates, Discussion
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sealhall74
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wiu712 wrote: Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:09 pm At an Illinois Chamber event today, Governor Bruce Rauner said that he wants more effective funding for our higher education system--both community colleges and our state university system.

He said: "We need a lot of restructuring of our universities and our community colleges because we’ve got too much capacity, we’ve got a lot of redundancy, and we’ve got a lot of overlap. But we need more resources for higher education. And I’m committed to doing that."

His talk of "restructuring, too much capacity, redundancy, and overlap" signals that change and downsizing of state universities are in his plans.
Between and during campaign stops, you will hear lots of talk. Action? Not a chance for the rest of this year.
Embrace the pace of the race.
wiu712
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sealhall74 wrote: Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:41 pmBetween and during campaign stops, you will hear lots of talk. Action? Not a chance for the rest of this year.
The General Assembly has until May 31 to finish the State's Budget for July 1, 2018--->June 30, 2019.

So the funding amounts for the state universities are being determined now. Everything will be up for discussion.
wiu712
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The SIU Board of Trustees met today. The SIU Board of Trustees did not pass item GG, which would’ve shifted $5.125 million in state allocations from Carbondale to Edwardsville.

SIU-Carbondale Chancellor Carlo Montemagno said in a blog post that the SIU-C had already cut over $31 million in funding since 2014. He also said that the $5 million in additional cuts would be equal to 110 layoffs at the Carbondale campus.
wiu712
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SIU Board rejects $5.1 million funding shift.

From WSIL-TV News:
http://www.wsiltv.com/story/37946327/si ... ding-shift
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Neckerchief
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Members of the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) Local 4100 will hold a strike authorization vote next week on the Macomb and Quad Cities campuses as contract talks with the administration drag on.

http://tspr.org/post/wiu-workers-could- ... ze-walkout
wiu712
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As the Western faculty union plan to hold a strike authorization vote as referenced above, this is the front page headline in today's McDonough County Voice:
Western Faculty union to hold strike authorization vote.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2018 ... ation-vote

This is coming at a bad time as a lot of high school seniors are making their college choice selection for the fall.
wiu712
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Legislation has been filed which seeks to separate the two SIU campuses after the $5.1 million funding shift from Carbondale to Edwardsville was defeated on a 4-3 vote by the SIU Board of Trustees.

State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, is introducing legislation to separate the two sister campuses. That measure would shift the current allocation conversation from the SIU Board of Trustees to the Illinois legislature. Hoffman said he filed the bill this week because he believes SIUC and SIUE have two different missions.

Filed Thursday, HB5861 seeks to abolish the SIU Board of Trustees and calls for new boards to be appointed to each campus. The separation would be effective July 1, according to the document.

Hoffman's proposal would include the School of Law as part of the Carbondale university. However, it designates the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, School of Pharmacy, School of Nursing, and the East St. Louis Center as part of SIUE.

The School of Medicine, located in Springfield, has traditionally been affiliated with the Carbondale campus.

“Edwardsville has the School of Nursing, it has the pharmacy school, it has the dental school, and it makes sense to have health sciences under one umbrella,” Hoffman explained.

As Carbondale’s enrollment falls, SIUE’s is steadily increasing: In fall 2017, SIUE had 13,796 students, while SIUC had 14,554.
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Tere North
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wiu712 wrote: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:56 am As the Western faculty union plan to hold a strike authorization vote as referenced above, this is the front page headline in today's McDonough County Voice:
Western Faculty union to hold strike authorization vote.
http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/news/2018 ... ation-vote
Presuming the strike vote passes and the file their 10-day notice the following day, as indicated by the UPI President, that means they start striking on May 1, right in the middle of dead week, with classes ending on May 4 and finals the next week. Talk about little impact! Strikes are supposed to make your absence painful to the company, this one certainly won't. Administration would have 4 days plus the weekend to develop scantron finals for courses that don't already use them; then have the exams distributed, monitored, and collected by TAs or administrative assistants for machine grading. Not a perfect world, but definitely doable with little notice of absence.
wiu712
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Tere North wrote: Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:26 pmStrikes are supposed to make your absence painful to the company, this one certainly won't.
I think that the real pain from a strike would come from incoming freshmen who decide to go somewhere else. And also from potentially new-hire faculty who decide not to work for a university having an on-going labor dispute.
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Tere North
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wiu712 wrote: Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:43 pm
Tere North wrote: Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:26 pmStrikes are supposed to make your absence painful to the company, this one certainly won't.
I think that the real pain from a strike would come from incoming freshmen who decide to go somewhere else. And also from potentially new-hire faculty who decide not to work for a university having an on-going labor dispute.
Agreed if potential new students are aware of the strike and/or visit campus during the strike; same for potential new faculty/staff. Yet, the time frame for the strike would minimize the likelihood of either.
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