The school received $2.6 million more in state general revenue fund appropriation, Despite Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s cuts in the state budget.
This will bring the total state general revenue fund appropriations to $43.4 million in the operating budget, which was approved by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 18.
On July 10 the Governor approved the request for a total of $43.4 million in state appropriations. This $2.6 million in new state revenue, according to the President’s Report to the Board of Trustees dated Sept. 18, states that $1.5 million is from the Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives, a fund strictly for “expansion of student advising and support services and training of culturally competent social service professionals to work with Latino communities.”
The remaining $1.1 million is new state appropriations for supporting increases in salary, unavoidable costs and departmental operations.
Even with that, the report says with this new state appropriation and tuition revenue the university will not be able to meet the University’s salary increases and unavoidable costs. This will cause a University-wide internal revenue reallocation of two percent.
With this two percent reallocation, according to the President’s report, “The University will implement previously negotiated salary increases for four bargaining units and a general three percent increase for non-negotiated employees. The report says that the estimated increase in salaries for the current fiscal year will be $2.0 million, which includes non-negotiated and negotiated salaries. The number has been confirmed to be $1.9 million, according to Mark Wilcockson, Vice President for Finance and Administration (See article, “President Hahs Approves Pay Increases for Non-negotiated Employees”).
The President’s report also explains that because of the two percent reallocation the University now has the ability to spend $132,000 on three new staff positions for Institutional Advancement and $277,000 to make up for cuts in the Illinois Board of Higher Education HECA grant that supported the First Year Experience and Enlace program.
During the meeting, University President Sharon K. Hahs noted a typo on page 12 of her report and said the number for the money reallocated for the three new staff members for Institutional Advancement was not the $232,000 that was printed in the report and is supposed to be $132,000 as stated above. Board member Grace Dawson brought up the issue, feeling the printed number seemed too high.
“Ready to negotiate,” reads a button on the door of Psychology professor and University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) president, Therese Schuepfer’s office explaining the theme for this year’s contract negotiations. Four years ago the negotiations failed, resulting in a 19-day strike. A letter posted on Schuepfer’s door said, “As frequently occurs in labor relations, ongoing disagreements emerge over the interpretations of contract language and its implementations.” The letter also said, “we are dedicated to an open dialog and a climate of mutual respect and cooperation.” The letter has President Hahs’ and Schuepfer’s names printed at the bottom.
The Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) team (members from the NEIU administrative team and the UPI team) currently reached a tentative agreement on one issue and a subcommittee is working on potential language for another issue. During the most recent sessions, the team identified awkward contract language and a second subcommittee will bring recommended changes to the next IBB team meeting, read an email sent from Schuepfer and the Public Relation office. The IBB team is focusing on language issues before they work on economic issues according to these emails.
“When it came to the battle of the outsiders, the real participants in the negotiations were left to the wayside.” She went on to say that they would keep it someone from NEIU or UPI, if it came to that, Schuepfer said in March, explaining what happened in the 2004 strike. In 2004 both sides brought outsiders to the negotiations prior to the 2004 strike, and that was a mistake, according to Schuepfer. She said that this time it would be an internal negotiation process.
Both teams have met a number of times during July and August and in those sessions, each team presented their issues and related issue statements to be addressed during negotiations, according to an email supplied to the Independent. The email went on to explain that issue statements were “reconciled” into one from statements from both sides. After that, the teams generated interests relative to the issues offered. The next negotiation sessions are scheduled through the end of October.
The Board also approved the $43.4 million request for fiscal year 2010 budget. This will be brought to the General Assembly in Springfield, Ill some time in early 2009.