Southern Illinois-Carbondale Moves to Subject Tenured Professors to Layoffs

Hi, dank48. We should have better ID’d him. He’s a son of Hosni Mubarak. I added a quick phrase and a link to that effect. Thanks for your comment. -Alex, an editor at Brainstorm

SIUC may have the power to impose the terms, but it can hardly be called a “contract.” Last time I checked, it still required an agreement from both sides to constitute a contract.

A world where short term gains are worth throwing away any future chance of recruiting quality faculty candidates.

Perhaps the administrators are taking lessons from Wisconsin’s governor!

As a resident of Southern Illinois and an alum of SIUC, I can say with 100% certainty that the university is having a legitimate fiscal crisis. With the loss of over 1400 students over the past five years, an official declaration of financial crisis would probably not help efforts to increase enrollment.

If the media reports are even halfway true, perhaps the layoff language imposed by the administration is in response to the faculty union’s demand for a package proposal that would cost in excess of $20 million…. I would guess that the upper level administration (all of who have tenure) know that laying off tenured faculty would also hurt enrollment and would only happen as a very last resort.

Time for the AAUP to update its censured institutions list.

I’m sure this move will help bring the best people in when Carbondale opens positions. I know I’d jump at the chance to work in such risky circumstances.

It is a matter of public record that SIUC actually ran a surplus this year ($15.8 million).

11250382 : As someone who has had successful careers in both corporate and academic worlds, let me clarify the big picture for you.

Your claim that a state university is part of “the world of business,” i.e., a for-profit corporation, demonstrates poor understanding of the mission of state higher education (beyond marketing-ese “misson statement” confections). In point of fact, a state university’s main purpose is not to offer sweetheart student insurance contracts, a steady supply of construction contracts, an all-expenses-paid-with-your-student-loan resort, a source of malleable, unthinking, cowardly hires for corporations, or a piggy bank for state officials hell-bent on destroying education itself. Universities educate informed citizens capable of running a democracy.

Learning how to think (as opposed to what to think) means understanding that life (and that includes “the world of business”) requires more than dress-for-success, punch a clock, bitches and hoes, or dollar, dollar über alles.

A state university’s greatest mission is to create an educated electorate capable of running a democracy, as opposed to functioning as a holding pen for sheep and lemmings who would then follow such towering geniuses as, say, Donald Trump or Waka Flocka Flav. Rich? Sure. Dumb as a board? Oh, yeah.

And those corporate interests hell-bent on undermining our democracy for their own selfish profit are now targeting state universities nationwide (from gerrymandered districts) precisely because they do NOT want an informed electorate mucking up the bottom line. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for democracy, the crassness of their efforts is now obvious to growing numbers of voters. I refer you to the town hall meetings in Wisconsin.

Welcome to the real world.

Oh, you poor, poor things!!! Please- it is LONG past time to acknowledge that Universities and Colleges, as with almost ALL other institutions in the U.S., are managed solely for the benefit of a privileged few- Administrators, Full Faculty, and Trustees. That six figure, tenured Faculty are getting a boot off the gravy train might encourage them to look beyond their own selfish interests. The rest of us have suffered far longer and much more deeply. NO sympathy here.

That almost (almost) makes this whole thing funny.

Southern Illinois: a place where students learn about integrity from a plagiarizing president who takes job security from tenured professors.

Those of us who have worked in the SIU system are also facing a cut in our pensions, if we haven’t retired yet. The SIU-Edwardsville benefits office tells us that the State University Retirement System

“is reducing in the annuity amount provided by the Money Purchase Formula. Based on this change, it is estimated that the monthly benefit paid from the Money Purchase Formula will be reduced on average by 7% to 8% when the new factors take effect. [. . .] SURS estimates that it will take active employees 10 to 11 months after the effective date of this change to recover this monthly reduction in annuity benefits.”

Since I worked at SIUE for more than 20 years, I am not surprised by anything the State of Illinois and its institutions do. I would have thought, though, that they couldn’t change the terms that applied to my pension once I had stopped working–a deal is a deal, after all, except in court, where they call it a contract. Clearly, I was wrong.

To anyone contemplating taking a job in the SIU system, I can only say that unless you’re a connected Illinois pol, like our plagiarist president, you should save yourself–and your retirement income–while you still can.

It was 104 faulty who were laid off in the 70′s after campus anti-war riots. They sued and won.

Are you taking a reduction in the amount already earned? That would violate federal labor laws to the best of my knowledge if you have a defined benefit pension. If you have a defined contribution type plan where you then can convert into an annuity, the formula for determining the annuity can change at any time, and usually goes down when interest rates do down, just as if you were going to buy an annuity on the open market with your account balance.

Its painful either way. But unfortunately something I think we might all face in the future. It costs a lot of money to retire, and we haven’t put enough away individually, as a society, states, federal government, or corporations. I think the days of working 20 years and getting half pay are coming to an end. (I think in texas it is 20 year 46% pay, but close enough). I don’t think we can as a society afford it.

I have to agree that this can’t be good for recruiting new faculty but I am not sure that the retirement plans won’t face the same thing elsewhere. We were probably a little too generous in the past. (Still I thinking the deal after the fact is not fair, just maybe inevitable)

Considering the surplus of advanced degree holders in this land, the reality is that SIUC (if it survives) will have more than enough adjuncts ready to work for a fraction of the pay, and benefits, expected by tenured faculty.

One of the ironies is, if adjuncts take over and are required to teach heavy course loads, graduate programs be hit hard. Eventually (decades?) there will be a shortage of college instructors. Unless it is ultimately determined that a baccalaureate degreee is sufficient preparation to teach at the college level.

This looks like a harbinger of things to come. It’s not just Wisconsin, not just Illinois.

“Are we supposed to get rid of tenured faculty who have been at in institution and serving it for years and replace them with more junior faculty, lecturers, or adjuncts, or should we just increase class sizes?”

Yeah, you know, you could have a point. They could be terrorizing them into accepting that extra kid or two into their classes rather than sociopathically driving them off for infringing on their tenured liberties through the unforgivable crime of existing and paying their pay check and funding their pensions.

It really sucks to be an adjunct. We are the cheapest of labor…and when we have to work at multiple college to survive, it is the students who lose.

In addition to the debt problem we have a price problem.  Both need to be addressed.

Shrinking revenue will require the vast majority of colleges to lower their overhead costs.  The sooner those options are explored, the better.