Tom Britton says that he does not want to bargain with the faculty in the press, but at the same time the administration’s bargaining team is doing everything it can not to bargain.

I would like to comment on only one issue of the proposed bargaining contract. The SIUC Faculty Association is asking for a modest 4.5 percent salary increase. The Administration response is to offer a 3 percent merit salary increase. Let us examine just what kind of raise is really being offered to the lowest paid university faculty in Illinois.

Last year faculty salary merit raises, after taking out promotion money, amounted to approximately 2.3 percent. This year the administration has already announced that the amount of money for promotions will be doubled. Assuming that approximately the same number of promotions will occur this year as last, 0.7 percent will double to 1.4 percent. That leaves 1.6 percent for merit faculty salary increases.

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But wait remember what the administration has already done for themselves. They took their raises off the top this year, rather than after the subtraction of promotion money as in years past. One can only guess what might be left, but at most we are actually talking about less than a 1.5 percent increase. After all, the guys who already have taken theirs also make big bucks. I am sure 3 percent of any administrator’s salary is a lot more than 3 percent of mine and most other faculty, and it is certainly more than the paltry 1.5 percent that might be given to the faculty if the administration ever decides to bargain. The dishonesty of this offer is astounding.

According to National Public Radio, the average family income worldwide increased by 4 percent last year. The faculty is asking for 0.5 percent more than the average increase in income throughout the world. The University Administration apparently feels that the faculty at SIUC should be given less of an increase than was experienced in most of the third world. I guess fairness is in the eye of the beholder, Mr. Britton.

associate professor, Library Affairs