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SIUC: Chancellor Threatens Faculty POSTED TO WPA-L BY: Carl W Whithaus/ENGL/AL/ODU DATE POSTED TO WORKPLACE: 1/3/03 8:40 PM FROM: R. Gerald Nelms Folks, Just to let everyone know-- It appears that the faculty at Southern Illinois University Carbondale will go out on strike Monday morning. We have been trying to negotiate a contract with our administration for a year now, and they have at best simply not negotiated. We have asked our new Democratic governor to intervene and insist on binding arbitration (which our Faculty Association has requested), but he appears reluctant. SIUC is a top-heavy institution run by a paternalistic administration: faculty have long been abused, lower salaries, no voice in decision making, swiftly diminishing numbers of faculty, etc. In his last, unsigned email to the faculty, our chancellor, only in his second year, threatened to take away all benefits from striking faculty, something of course Illinois law forbids. And because we are in a rural part of the state that for many northern Illinoisans clearly is good only as a site for new prisons, faculty continue to believe that the administration is seeking to shift the focus of the university to our sister institution in Edwardsville, near St. Louis, MO. It is difficult to judge at the moment how many faculty will actually go out on strike and how many will at least honor the picket lines. As a half-time administrator/half-time faculty member, I intend to be on the picket line at 7 am on Monday morning and doing my CAC work that afternoon from home. There is a good possibility that our email will be cut off. If you don't hear from us here, you'll know. Say a prayer for us, if so inclined. Things are looking to get very, very nasty. Jerry R. Gerald Nelms
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