University of Illinois, Chicago, Faculty, Supporters Picket Campus In Two-Day Strike
February 19, 2014 | Justin Carlson| Chicagoist
Hundreds of teachers, students and other supporters picketed the University of Illinois’ at Chicago campus Tuesday as part of a two-day strike called by UIC United Faculty, the union representing more than 1,100 tenured and nontenured faculty members.
The walkout, which featured teachers and their supporters picketing and distributing flyers in front of campus buildings for much of the day, is the first to take place at the university. Despite more than 60 bargaining sessions over 18 months [1]—which were joined by a federal mediator in November—the administration and UICUF has not been able to come to an agreement.
“State universities have been turned into businesses, business corporations with a focus only on the bottom line,” said UICUF's President Joe Persky. “This must change. A university must devote its resources to guaranteeing our student body a first class education every bit as good as Champaign-Urbana.”
Faculty at UIC are striking to demand an increase in wages for both tenured and nontenured professors, as well as multi-year contracts and “control of governance and curriculum.”
Inside the historic Jane Adams Hull-House (which was turned into a temporary center for the striking teachers) Patricia O’Brien, a teacher in the college of social work said:
“I feel there’s no other way the administration will take us seriously. Our respect, our concerns, that our both for retaining solid faculty for excellence and teaching our students. What we have seen in the last few years is increasing numbers of students who are enrolled here, increasing tuition, while the value of how we are compensated has dropped almost proportionally to the increase in tuition.”