In a bill passed Nov. 30, the Legislature directs the Illinois Board of Higher Education to collect data from each of the 12 public universities and 48 community colleges on their use and compensation of temporary faculty. The board is required to issue a report to the legislators in a year. The bill was drafted and championed by leaders of the University Professionals of Illinois, working with the Illinois Federation of Teachers over the course of a year and a half, says Sandy Flood, president of the UPI chapter of instructors at Northern Illinois University. Strategically, it sets the stage for a strong budget offensive in the future by asking the board to develop a policy that discourages overreliance on temporary faculty and that compensates such faculty on a scale of pay and benefits indexed to that of permanent faculty. In addition, word processing skills are desirable and e-mail access is helpful for BOE team members.
All appointments are for a three-year term.
Members may spend several days a year on-site in training and college campuses. Joseph Del Grasso, president of the NTU, reports that pay for teachers will increase 15 percent over the period, with three raises of nearly 5 percent in each of the next three years. Teachers will also receive tuition reimbursement for continuing education, and there will be seven days of in-school professional development in the newly extended school year. The union agreed to add a day to bring the school year to 187 days. The agreement enables teachers to meet their requirement for 100 hours of professional staff development all within the school year and day.