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Monday, May 9, 2016
Northern Star
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Program prioritization changes impact more than just students
New union supported by several
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Veysel Demir Associate professor College of Engineering
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Perspective
Hanna Markezich | Northern Star
Student feedback should take faculty into account according to NIU’s website. Faculty members are going to be affected differently based on which category their programs were placed in. Kaylyn Zielinski The Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Columnist Science and Master of Arts in History are all candidates for resource Students should recognize reduction. Trude Jacobsen, assistant faculty are also heavily affected by chair and associate professor for the program prioritization and should history department, said she was consider this when providing not surprised by the categorization. feedback because they will be here long after most students. Program prioritization is a proI don’t agree with program cess where task forces reviewed prioritization... it’s installacademic and administrative ing the notion that educaprograms to recommend resource tion should be run like allocation for each program. a business when it has These programs were then categonever been like that in the rized into five different categories: history of the world.” Trude Jacobsen candidate for enhanced resources, History Department continue with no change in reAssistant Chair sources, candidate for reduced resources, requires transformation, and subject to additional review; “People don’t think that hiscandidate for phase-out. An April tory degrees are going to get 27 town hall meeting stressed the them anywhere, which is not importance of feedback on the true, but it’s a question of perceptask force reports. tion,” Jacobsen said. “As profesI encourage all students to sors, we can’t really do very much submit their feedback before the to market our major more than May 23 deadline, but it is impor- we are doing currently.” tant for students to realize that Jacobsen said she is hopefaculty are the ones who are go- ful that feedback will affect the ing to be affected by the changes recommendations. in the long run. “I don’t agree with program The guiding principles for prioritization,” Jacobsen said. “I NIU program prioritization think it solidifies, and it’s installguarantee that all students can ing the notion that education finish their academic programs, should be run like a business
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when it has never been like that in the history of the world.” The B.A. in English received a positive recommendation, as it was categorized as a candidate for enhanced resources. “Generally speaking, we are pleased to be recommended for additional resources, but I think the whole thing is that we are going to have to wait and see what is actually going to happen with this,” said Associate English Professor David Gorman. Gorman said he was not sure how the university would give the English department these additional resources or if the faculty would have a say in what these resources would be. The process of prioritizing programs is going to be long, with changes most likely not being implemented until Fiscal Year 2018, according to Provost Lisa Freeman at a April 27 town hall meeting. We, as students, may have strong opinions about the process, but the changes may not be implemented until after we are gone. That leaves the faculty members to take on the changes in their departments and the courses they teach. “When there’s something definite that I could react to I’ll have a reaction, but until then I guess I’ll have to wait and see,” Gorman said. Students should keep their professors and the future of NIU in mind as they submit feedback on the task force reports.
NIU faculty will be entering a new phase, if the union application filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board is approved. Hopefully, this move will lead to more constructive communication between the faculty and administration and yield positive outcomes for all of the NIU community. I witnessed the hard work of many faculty members who spent their time to communicate this move to all faculty since its first meeting in early 2015, and I would like to thank them for taking the responsibility to make a positive change. Meanwhile, the union also ran a campaign to support Monetary Award Program grants and showed they are not there only for themselves but also for students. Last but not least, the support of the American Federation of Teachers and American Association of University Professors deserves recognition. Their success story at the University of Illinois Chicago inspired many at NIU and their partnership with NIU faculty will continue to be a valuable one.
Letter to the Editor Letters to the Editor are the author’s opinion alone.
Union will help fight for faculty Karen Lichtman Associate professor department of Foreign Languages and Literature
A tenure-track faculty union at NIU is a long time coming and I say that having been here only four years. As a graduate student in the Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, I earned yearly cost-ofliving raises that brought my salary up almost 25 percent in six years. At NIU, I make to the penny what I made when I was hired. The Graduate Employees’ Organization negotiated for more family leave. At NIU, the family leave policy is to comply with federal law. The Graduate Employees’ Organization won increased employer health care contributions. At NIU, we receive emails saying not to worry about paying our health care providers up front. As a Graduate Employees’ Organization member, I could participate in a democratic organization to negotiate directly and legally with the administration. At NIU, I get a feedback box on the program prioritization website. A union is not a separate entity from the faculty — the union is the faculty.
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