Our News Advisory – March 8 – Circulate to your media contacts
PDF version: March 8 News Advisory
Contact: Dick Simpson at 773-354-7617 or News Advisory
Tom Gradel at 773-561-1040 (h) 773-742-4996 cell 3-5-2020
UIC Faculty and Students
Turn No Pay Days and Closed Classes
Into Political Action
More than 100 university teachers and scores of students will converge at the State of Illinois’ Thompson Center on Monday morning to protest higher education budget cuts, mandatory furloughs and lost class time.
The angry academic ambassadors will present a demand letter to Governor Pat Quinn’s top aides and then hold a news conference just inside the main entrance to the government offices of America’s 5th largest and once proud State of Illinois.
James R. Thompson Center
Randolph and Clark Streets, Chicago
Monday, March 8, 2010
9:15 a.m. Presentation of statement to Gov. Quinn, 1st floor lobby
9:45 a.m News conference, outside front doors
Since last August, the State of Illinois has failed to pay more than $487 million to fund the operations of the University of Illinois’ three campuses. The funds are in the State’s budget and have been approved by the Legislature and the Governor but they have not been paid.
The University, reacting to the lost funding, ordered all faculty and staff to take one furlough day per month without pay. In turn, class schedules will be disrupted, students will miss some important lectures and they will have reduced access to their teachers.
“Rather than quietly retreat from campus and avoid our students, we decided to turn pay cuts into political action,” said Professor Maria de los Angeles Torres, Director of Latino and Latin American Studies at UIC. “We are rallying faculty, staff and students to educate our elected public officials about the critical importance of public higher education and the need for adequate funding,” she added.
“Somewhat like the ‘sit ins’ and ‘teach ins’ of the late 1960s and ‘70s, we aim to turn our frustrations into a positive force,” said Dick Simpson, Head of the Department of Political Science. “Instead of staggering furlough days at the professors’ convenience, we are all taking the same day off to jointly lobby our public officials, voice our concerns, discuss the results and learn from the experience.
“Illinois’ universities are a vital public asset,” Simpson added. “They are important to our children’s future and to the state’s economic health. We will not sit quietly in the library while our public officials let the universities wither and cause low to moderate income students to be denied a good education.”
Note: More than 300 faculty members have signed a statement which has been placed on the Governor’s website. For more information about the impact of the funding crisis on UIC and about meetings with Chicago aldermen, key state legislators and congress persons see the website: http://uicjointfurlough.wordpress.com/
