Faculty Voices Concerns:

While President Sharon Hahs tried to place a silver lining on NEIU's status in this year's state of the university address, many faculty members continue to express concerns with the lack of progress in union negotiations.

The speech, which took place on September 21, began by congratulating various members of the staff as well as several organizations in the school for their contributions to the university in the past year. Once the various honors were awarded, the president introduced the university's new television commercial that is set to air on select Chicagoland stations. The purpose of the advertisement is to highlight the diversity present at NEIU. Filmed this past summer, the commercial opens with the line "what do you want to achieve?" and comments on the university's flexible hours and multitude of programs.

President Hahs then followed with a presentation of graphs which depicts student enrollment data for fall semester of 2010. According to the figures, there are more students taking more credit hours at NEIU. Graduate and freshman enrollment has had a small dip, but Hahs says that this may just be a small blip in a higher enrollment curve. However, a point of concern was the noticeable drop in people graduating from NEIU.

Once Hahs finished guiding the audience through the student enrollment rates she proceeded to outline the current budget. Hahs said that "higher education has seen a permanent cut in its funding." In prior years whatever amount of funds the state took away, they reimbursed at a later date. The money the university has lacked may never return. Nonetheless Hahs assured that the administration was doing everything in its power to fix the budget. Hahs thanked the university as a whole for struggling through this tough times.

Other high points of the speech include the announcement of the Energy Conservation Project, a means to cut university energy expenditures in the long run. Furthermore, President Hahs announced that the Science building is to be renamed the Bernard J. Brommel Hall due to a seven-figure donation by Mr Hall.

Once the speech was finished, Hahs opened the floor to questions from the audience. Various members of the faculty had the same issue on their minds: the union negotiations. One member commented on how demoralized the faculty is. He said that they have been "shamefully overlooked for the past two years." A member of the Psychology department commented on how they had entered their third year of bargaining without any progress, while the administration had received the previously reported pay raises. All of the faculty members who spoke up commented on how overworked and underpaid they felt, one member even noted the requirement of two full time jobs to maintain himself.

President Hahs said that she is not allowed to discuss on the status of the bargaining. According to Hahs "we need to be fiscally sound in the long term" before there can be progress. For that reason there is "no time frame available" for when the negotiation will be finished. Hahs then said that the faculty has "smaller workloads at NEIU than other institutions" and for that reason there are lower wages for the faculty.

The subject of union negotiations was hard to break with faculty members asking for more university involvement in receiving state funding and bringing up an unfair labor practice filed against the President.

Other issues were brought up, as well. Laurie Fuller, of the Women's Studies Department, spoke about the new Angelina Pedroso Center for Diversity and Intercultural Affairs and how she would like to see an LGBTQA center in the future. President Hahs said "stay tuned."

The atmosphere was bitter at the end of the presentation, with the faculty having clearly expressed their concerns. Despite President Hahs' best efforts, the faculty has had enough and demands progress immediately. The future looks unpromising for NEIU if the union negotiations do not get solved soon and the faculty morale cannot be brought back up.