by Jim Allen, Robbie Lieberman and Rachel Stocking

We must respond to Associate Vice Chancellor Margaret Winters’ Feb. 6 letter in The Daily Egyptian, which was also mailed to the faculty. Coming as it does from the head of the board’s negotiating team, this communication is no ordinary advertisement.

It saddened us to read the board’s positions expressed by a trusted colleague, but we find unfortunate the board’s use of state funds including part of the Administration’s $300,000 budget for photocopying to bargain in public, precisely what Dr. Winters accuses the Faculty Association of doing. Her letter is clearly not for information only. At least the Faculty Association did not communicate (or hire an attorney) at taxpayer expense.

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More specifically, we find disingenuous the following implications:1) that the board should impugn the Faculty Association’s efforts to address sexual harassment, affirmative action, disciplinary action and fair share in the contract;

2) that University administrators really ought to receive larger merit raises than those accorded the faculty, even though the expense for administration at SIUC is 45 percent higher than at peer institutions and its faculty salaries 15 percent lower;

3) that the Faculty/Employee Handbook has already settled matters like sexual harassment, affirmative action, sabbatical leaves, and outside employment, when in fact the board has rejected the handbook as the basis for negotiations; and

4) that the 11-month school year will not jeopardize SIUC’s Carnegie II research status. But to make such a calendar feasible, the administration must dilute the University’s research mission by canceling searches for tenure-line faculty, resorting to less qualified term-instructors and expecting everyone to teach more or to time through grants.

How are the faculty, especially in the liberal arts, to finance their research time without the external funding that exists in engineering and business? Apparently the board sees no point in a humanistic inquiry that does not pay its own way. This policy is unworthy of a Carnegie II research institution.

Despite her own red herrings, Dr. Winters asks for our patience and trust. As for us, we would merely ask the board for more serious and timely negotiation at the bargaining table.

Jim Allen, Robbie Lieberman, Rachel Stocking

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