This communication is a follow-up to the message you received on Wednesday, March 26, to inform you about a Notice of Intent to Strike by United Faculty of ISU (UFISU), the Union representing Illinois State University’s non-administrative tenured and tenure-track faculty. Illinois State remains confident that further progress can be made through continued dialogue to reach a contract agreement that is fair, fiscally responsible, and sustainable in the long term.

Illinois State University has been my academic home for twelve years. I was drawn to the Redbird community because of our mission and our people. Every day we do work that has the potential to transform the trajectory of a student’s life, and we have people who are 100% invested in making that happen. That is what makes Illinois State a special place.

Those 100% committed people are sitting at the table representing the University, and those 100% committed people are sitting at the table representing the Union. While there remain differences in opinion about specifics, at the very core, I truly believe there is a shared commitment to the same fundamental mission.

I know the representatives on both the University’s and Union’s negotiation teams have been putting in long hours throughout this process, and those hours have ramped up even more in the last week or two. In the negotiating session last Friday night, which lasted until 10 p.m., the parties agreed to schedule two additional negotiation sessions for this week. This means the teams will be negotiating four consecutive days this week beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, April 1.

Importantly, the University and the Union also reached tentative agreements on Friday night on Workload and Assignment of Work, two issues the Union had identified as areas of significant concern. As someone who still considers herself a faculty member at heart, I understand what a significant achievement it is to reach this tentative agreement on workload. The details of this agreement went through several iterations, and I commend both the members of the University’s and Union’s teams for working diligently to come to a mutually agreeable resolution. With these tentative agreements, the parties have resolved almost all noneconomic issues, and the focus is now primarily on economic issues such as compensation and parental leave.

One detail I want to clarify about parental leave from my message last week is regarding the benefits that are already available to tenured and tenure-track faculty. Faculty can currently use the following paid benefit time to cover parental leave: personal sick leave, extended sick leave, sick leave bank, and personal plus time. The University is offering an additional four weeks (20 business days) of paid parental leave on top of these existing options.

These important tentative agreements reached Friday are even more laudable as that session was conducted directly between the University and the Union without the involvement of the Federal mediator. The Federal mediator will no longer be able to provide support because of an Executive Order issued on March 14, 2025, that significantly reduced the scope and size of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) and ended support to public-sector negotiations. While good progress was made with the mediator’s support, we believe the University and the Union have developed a productive working relationship that will allow negotiations to continue without the involvement of a mediator as Illinois State and the Union move toward contract resolution.

I realize the remaining economic issues will not be easy to resolve, but I am also heartened by all the progress that has been made recently. I deeply believe we will be able to come to a resolution that supports faculty, supports students, and allows Illinois State to continue to thrive.

As always, the University will continue to share updates on the University’s dedicated website (ufisunegotiations.illinoisstate.edu/) and through direct email communication.