NEIUPI

We have a membership meeting today at 1:40 – 2:50 in S101. Our agenda will focus on the status of contract negotiations and the next steps in the ongoing process.

I’m sure that many of you have seen TV reports of the rally in Springfield. It was well organized and inspiring. Please find links for YouTube clips of the march and activities in the capitol building.

The March

Under the dome

We have negotiations on Tuesday this week. Get your update during the membership meeting on Thursday, April 22 at 1:40 to 2:50 in Science 101.

If you are unable to join the rally in Springfield then go to the IFT website and send letters to your state senator and representative. It’s very easy…put in your address and the program identifies your representatives and sends an email message to support a modest tax increase (House Bill 174). It is estimated that more than 12,000 will converge on Springfield this Wednesday to rally in support of education. Our legislators will hear the roar of the crowds…let them experience an avalanche of emails…You can send this link to family, friends, students and other colleagues.

This morning I found the call for Excellence Awards posted on NEIUport under my faculty tab (Faculty Handbook and Resources). You can find the information if you navigate from the NEIU website Faculty-Staff link and then click on Faculty Handbook and Resources and scroll down to Honors and Awards Guidelines and you will find the President’s call as well as other related documents (eg., nomination forms)

The award is for the 2008-2009 year (July 1, 2008 – August 31, 2009). The deadline to nominate yourself or others is May 3, 2010. Please remember that Excellence Awards can be awarded to all employee groups included in the bargaining unit (i.e., Academic Support Professionals, Teaching and Resource Professionals, temporary Resource Professionals and Instructors).

Do you recognize excellence in another? Nominate your colleague.
Feeling excellent? Nominate yourself…

Your UPI negotiating team met with the administrative team this morning. Today, our team passed several new proposals that included language on a new parental leave benefit, a sick leave bank, placement of letters in personnel files that may lead to sanction/termination and evaluation procedures for Instructors and Academic Resource Professionals. We are sending a definition for program need to the administrative team on Friday morning. Please find attached an updated Negotiations summary by article/issue.

You will note that some articles are on hold until the end of negotiations (i.e., definitions, recognition and duration) and we have yet to pass a proposal on compensation. We look forward to the administrative team responding to the many proposals we have passed since January. The next negotiating session is next Tuesday. Our team has asked to increase the frequency of negotiating sessions in May prior to the beginning of the summer session.

If you have any questions, please email or contact a member of your negotiating team….see you at the UPI tables this week. You can send a postcard to the Governor and your state legislators while you are visiting your colleagues.

Read the report. It is interesting and it may take a while to go through the statistics for NEIU and comparable universities in Illinois and across the country.

Some highlights include:

• The overall average salary for a full-time faculty member increased only 1.2 percent over last year, the lowest year-to-year change recorded in the fifty-year history of this survey. Moreover, when adjusted for inflation, salaries for continuing faculty members showed the first actual decrease since the hyperinflation years of the late 1970s.
• About 14 percent of reporting institutions reduced contributions to faculty retirement programs this year, and a few eliminated retirement contributions entirely. These changes provide limited savings for the institutions, but can create long-term problems for affected faculty members.