Author Archives: annipoppen

MONICA BIELSKI BORIS Assistant Professor, Labor and Employment Relations As a scholar of employment relations, I know firsthand the value of union representation for all workers. Collective bargaining provides a direct means for faculty to shape the policies and practices of this university. I want my university to be more equitable, democratic, and transparent, andContinue reading “Monica Bielski Boris”

SUSAN G. DAVIS Professor, Communication Only an organized faculty can be a counterweight against the forces that are undermining the quality and accessibility of public higher education at this university. We need to push back against shrinking faculty numbers, rising tuition, and the pressure to produce degrees, as opposed to education. Faculty are closest toContinue reading “Susan G. Davis”

DIANNE HARRISProfessor, Landscape Architecture; Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities I believe in the values that unions represent. A union can help us move toward more democratic decision making on campus, better shared governance, and the deliberate, transparent resolution of the complex problems we face. Having a faculty union would help us makeContinue reading “Dianne Harris”

ANDREW GREENLEE Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning We need a collective voice that will enable us to live up to the promise of what the University of Illinois is supposed to be.

KRIS LAMBERT Associate Professor, Crop Sciences It is important to have an organization on campus that will advocate for faculty interests, and the union will provide us with the needed leverage to make sure our voice is heard. I also hope that the union will be able to work effectively with the Faculty Senate toContinue reading “Kris Lambert”

MEGAN McLAUGHLIN Professor, History I worry that the world-class university at which I have been proud to work for thirty years is beginning to deteriorate. Its core missions have been increasingly undermined, not only by legislative underfunding, but also by the ill-considered actions of administrators and trustees who are too far removed from the realContinue reading “Megan McLaughlin”

KATHRYN OBERDECK Associate Professor, History I have watched the faculty’s voice in decisions about the central missions of teaching, research, and engagement diminish. It is in the work of our dedicated faculty that the soul of these missions is practiced and preserved. Collective bargaining, which includes the opinions of every willing faculty member, can helpContinue reading “Kathryn Oberdeck”

ERIC BENSON Associate Professor, Graphic Design Collective bargaining will lead to a more transparent, equitable, and merit-based system for compensation, as well as a balance between compensation for administration and for faculty. A union can also call attention to administrative bloat and help overcome a disconnect between the faculty and the administration.

BRIAN RUPPERT Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures Only a union can provide for truly democratic governance in this age of globalization and enable us to fulfill our public educational mission. Charging outsized tuition to help pay for the hundreds of administrators hired since the great recession while at the same time barely keepingContinue reading “Brian Ruppert”

TARIQ ALI Assistant Professor, History As a new faculty member, I am concerned about rising tuition costs, declining access to higher education, the gradual erosion of tenure, the defunding of programs in the humanities, and other trends in higher education. University faculty, particularly new and young teachers, need to express their concerns and help shapeContinue reading “Tariq Ali”

FEISAL MOHAMED Professor, English, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory Collective bargaining is emphatically not a declaration of war. It seeks the forging of productive partnerships with other constituencies on campus, whether the university administration, student groups, or service workers. But it also recognizes that trueContinue reading “Feisal Mohamed”

JOHN TOENJES Associate Professor and Music Director, Dance The number of central administration positions and their salaries outweigh faculty numbers and salaries. A faculty union could help bring this ratio back into a reasonable balance.