07 Nov Advocating for UIC in the UI System and State Legislature
- UICUF’s newly formed Advocacy Committee will look into budgets, funding formulas and other structural issues affecting education at UIC.
- UI Board of Trustees to meet NEXT THURSDAY, 9am @Student Center West
- Faculty Advisory Committee is open to new nominees. Submit your nominating petition by November 11 if you wish to be considered.
UICUF’s New Advocacy Committee
During contract negotiations last Spring we won many important victories for faculty, students, and the UIC community at large. However, it also became glaringly obvious that not everything we wanted to accomplish was going to be addressed at the bargaining table. Bigger issues, like state higher-education budgets, funding formulas that determine how those budgets are distributed, and other structural issues, are still determined largely in a black box, without meaningful transparency or accountability.
This realization inspired the creation of a new committee of UICUF members interested in digging into deeper issues of power and equity that affect the lives of faculty and students at UIC. Chief among these concerns are the mounting structural deficit that the UI Board has created through long-term tuition freezes, covered by the problematic stop-gap of raising campus fees and differentials that de facto continue increasing costs for students. This committee will also pursue greater transparency in how UofI’s budget is distributed amongst campuses.
If you’re interested in getting involved, contact Janet Smith. No financial or budgetary experience is necessary, as we will be building a broad coalition of faculty and students to push for greater transparency at the Board and State Legislative levels.
BoT Meets in Chicago Next Week
Whether you want to get more involved or just learn about how high level decisions for the UI system get made, going to next week’s Board of Trustees meeting is a great first step. Members who have attended in the past have described these proceedings as eye-opening, especially in how little attention is paid to one of the university’s primary functions, education. The meeting will be held here in Chicago, on UIC’s West Campus, in Student Center West, from 9am, Thursday, 11/14. If you are interested in joining other faculty going to the meeting, email us at UICUnitedFaculty@gmail.com.
UIC Faculty Advisory Committee
Now is also the time if you want to get involved in a long-running UIC institution, the Faculty Advisory Committee (unrelated to the union’s Advocacy Committee described above), which directly advises the administration on issues affecting the university. Interested faculty need to submit a nominating petition by November 11th. Instructions are listed on the petition form, but only 3 signatures of colleagues are required for a nomination, and the completed form must be filed in the Senate office in UH. We hope some of our intrepid UICUF members will take an interest in serving on this important committee!
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We issue regular updates via email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and on our website. We encourage everyone to like and follow us on social media. If you want to contribute your story, pictures, video, or other content related to the activities of the union, email us at UICUnitedFaculty@gmail.com. With your support, we are making UIC an even better place to work and learn!
