Update March 29, 2011

March 29, 2011

Dear Colleagues,

During the last two days, negotiations between the SIUC Faculty Association and SIU Board of Trustees bargaining teams have been conducted with the involvement of a federal mediator. Despite determined efforts by your Faculty Association team to negotiate a mutually acceptable contract, the Board team issued a final offer earlier this afternoon which fails to meet the interests of Faculty on several major issues:

• equitable workload standards and assignments,
• compensation levels which will attract and retain faculty,
• fair and equitable overload compensation,
• flexibility to offer academic year appointments in Library Affairs,
• distance education policies appropriate to a major research university,
• reform of inappropriate and out-of-compliance procedures regarding sexual harassment and conflict of interest,
• reduction in force and temporary wage adjustment terms based on legitimate and verifiable determinations of financial exigency,

and other issues of transparency, equitability, and accountability. The Board’s offer primarily consists of the addition of draconian layoff and furlough language which negates tenure rights and imposes unpaid days without accountability or demonstration of financial necessity.

Your Association Bargaining Team rejected this offer, and considers it insulting to the faculty and counterproductive to the faculty-administration relationship at SIUC. When asked, the Board team confirmed its unwillingness to modify its offer with any of the Association’s options to meet Faculty interests. The Board team has communicated the administration’s intention to impose the terms of its final offer on April 5, 2011. The Association believes that the imposition of this offer is illegal and will review appropriate responses for this action. A meeting of the Faculty Association’s Departmental Representative Council has already been scheduled for Thursday, March 31 in order to hear the report of the Association Bargaining Team. Additional information concerning the Association and Board proposals will be available soon on the Faculty Association web site (www.siucfa.org).

In solidarity,
Randy Hughes
President, SIUC Faculty Association, IEA-NEA