2021 - 2022 School Year

General Campus News, Updates, Discussion
wiu712
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Message from WIU President Guiyou Huang: Fall 2021 Update.
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wiu712
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The state’s higher education agencies released updated COVID-19 guidance Monday (July 19) encouraging all public and private higher education institutions in Illinois to issue mandatory vaccine policies.

“Vaccination against COVID-19 is now widely available, and all persons over the age of 12 are eligible,” the guidance document reads. “Vaccination is the leading prevention strategy against COVID-19 and all public and private universities are strongly encouraged to require vaccination (with appropriate exemptions) to protect campus populations and slow COVID-19 transmission in surrounding communities.”

Some schools, including Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, the University of Illinois System, Loyola University Chicago, and DePaul University, among others, have already announced they will require vaccinations for in-person learning.

Higher education institutions are also “strongly encouraged to continue COVID-19 testing of unvaccinated individuals to identify and slow virus transmission,” and should follow CDC guidelines on safe hygiene practices and health equity.
wiu712
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WIU allows staff and students to choose COVID-19 vaccine to return this Fall.
From WGEM News:
https://wgem.com/2021/07/20/wiu-allows- ... this-fall/
wiu712
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New Moline mayor, new approach to Western Illinois University's riverfront campus.
From the Quad-City Times:
https://qctimes.com/news/local/educatio ... d3327.html
wiu712
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New Deal Negotiated Between WIU and Former President Jack Thomas.
From Tri-States Public Radio, WIUM-FM:
https://www.tspr.org/post/new-deal-nego ... ent-thomas
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Tere North
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wiu712 wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:58 pm New Deal Negotiated Between WIU and Former President Jack Thomas.
From Tri-States Public Radio, WIUM-FM:
https://www.tspr.org/post/new-deal-nego ... ent-thomas
It wasn't enough that when Dr. Thomas chose to resign, we gave him 2 years full salary. Now, with another job in Ohio, he can't fullfill his commitement for the 2nd part of the platinum parachute of teaching 1 class each semester for $300k/yr, so wants us to pay $900k more on top of the $540k we already paid him, claiming personal injury and loss of earnings. What does virtually the same board who gave him his first parachute do? You guessed it, gave him yet another parachute.

As a tenured professor, he would be eligible for a max 1-yr salary if released. But he chose to resign. Let's say the 1-yr at $270k was OK since 1-yr transitional sabbaticals are typical anyway.

The Board should have simply not accepted his resignation and not renewed his year-to-year contract. Then we'd be out a $270k salary and he'd be gone. Instead, we were out $570k and he came back for more. Yet again the University lawyer and the board showed zero backbone in the face of threats of a discrimination lawsuit. Now, he has cost us $1.44M that could have be spent much more wisely. The Board, on a 5-1 vote approach this Dr. Thomas and his Alabama Personal Injury Law firm offer. Polly Radosh was the lone vote in opposition. Mark Twomey was a no show. The student Trustee understandably abstained as they just came on board July 1.
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sealhall74
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Tere North wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 12:26 am
wiu712 wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:58 pm New Deal Negotiated Between WIU and Former President Jack Thomas.
From Tri-States Public Radio, WIUM-FM:
https://www.tspr.org/post/new-deal-nego ... ent-thomas
It wasn't enough that when Dr. Thomas chose to resign, we gave him 2 years full salary. Now, with another job in Ohio, he can't fullfill his commitement for the 2nd part of the platinum parachute of teaching 1 class each semester for $300k/yr, so wants us to pay $900k more on top of the $540k we already paid him, claiming personal injury and loss of earnings. What does virtually the same board who gave him his first parachute do? You guessed it, gave him yet another parachute.

As a tenured professor, he would be eligible for a max 1-yr salary if released. But he chose to resign. Let's say the 1-yr at $270k was OK since 1-yr transitional sabbaticals are typical anyway.

The Board should have simply not accepted his resignation and not renewed his year-to-year contract. Then we'd be out a $270k salary and he'd be gone. Instead, we were out $570k and he came back for more. Yet again the University lawyer and the board showed zero backbone in the face of threats of a discrimination lawsuit. Now, he has cost us $1.44M that could have be spent much more wisely. The Board, on a 5-1 vote approach this Dr. Thomas and his Alabama Personal Injury Law firm offer. Polly Radosh was the lone vote in opposition. Mark Twomey was a no show. The student Trustee understandably abstained as they just came on board July 1.
Inquiring minds would want to know EXACTLY what alleged personal injury was put on the table during the negotiations. Or at least I hope they would. I hope they did not cave on just the threat of legal action. Who knows, he may have hurt his back packing up his stuff before he left Macomb. LOL
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ST_Lawson
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If you have the time, you can listen to the audio from the BOT meeting where they discussed (and approved) the settlement (it's just over 45 minutes and is the only agenda item). It gives a better understanding of the situation. Personally, I'm in the "Polly Radosh camp", but if you're interested, take a listen. Just FYI, the audio starts at around 5:40 into the video.

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sealhall74
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Did I hear it right? He was offered an Intro to English course? If so, therein lies the problem. We could have done a whole lot better than that to avoid this issue coming to board vote.
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ST_Lawson
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 8:59 am Did I hear it right? He was offered an Intro to English course? If so, therein lies the problem. We could have done a whole lot better than that to avoid this issue coming to board vote.
I think they (whoever's decision it was) wanted to push things to get him to back out of the rest of the contract, so they assigned him an in-person course that they knew would fill up (English 280 is always full) rather than one that wouldn't have any/many students and they could just cancel.
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