From: Michael Sullivan
Date: 01/30/03 3:55 PM
To: governor@state.il.us

Governor Rod Blagojevich,

Please do all you can to prevent a faculty strike at SIUC.

I am an associate professor there (mathematics), currently visiting the 
University of North Texas. Last semester I was at the University of 
Maryland, College Park. I have worked at SIUC for 6 years. Seeing how 
faculty are treated at these campuses has caused my anger at the SIU Board 
of Trustees to rise even higher. These other institutions have budget 
problems as well. But their governing boards and administrators clearly 
respect the faculty and value their work.

We began contract talks last February; the contract expired in June; but 
the Board did not allow its bargaining team to make an offer until October! 
Now the Faculty Association has said it will agree to arbitration, but I 
fear the Board will prefer a strike. I suspect the Board members have 
allowed their personal opinions on unionism to interfere with their 
public duty: to negociate a fair contract in a timely manner.

Problems with the SIU Board of Trustees are not knew. The Carbondale campus 
has suffered from a ridiculously high rate of turnover of top administrators.
We went through 5 chancellors not many more years. None of these chancellors 
were particularly odious (and if they were who hired them?)[*], yet none 
could possibly accomplish much in so short a time.

Of our current top three administrators (President, Chancellor & Provost)
none has a Ph.D. in an academic field, all having taken their Ph.D.'s in 
education. While they are sincere, and the faculty are willing to work 
with them, they are frankly in over their heads.  

Despite pleading poor, the Board has announced plans to build a $40 million 
Research Park adjacent to the Carbondale campus.  The project, a long term 
one, has little to do faculty research, but rather seems to me to be a means 
of shoveling public funds to private contractors. The Board has wasted 
millions on a failed administrative computer system from Oracle. No one seems 
concerned that our four year graduation rate is under 20%. In the 1980's 
this campus had 25,000 students; now it is down to 20,000. And this at a 
time when campuses around the state and across the country have been growing.

No matter how you cut it, the SIU Board has done a poor job. In addition to 
pressing them to negociate a fair contract, you may wish to consider asking 
them to resign. When Cardinal Law stepped down from the governing board of 
Catholic University in Washington DC, the Washington Post reported that he 
had been on the board for 12 years, and commented that this was "an 
unusually long tenure in higher education." Not compared to the terms some 
of our Board members have severed. 

Sincerely,

Mike Sullivan
940-565-3386
Math Dept.
UNT
Denton TX 76203-1430