Why the UIS faculty are on strike

An art professor at UIS told me her supply budget hasn’t changed in more than a decade. She covers the shortfall out of her own paycheck, because she’s not going to let her students pay or miss out because of the state’s neglect. She’s been doing it for years and only brought it up recently.

She walked off the job this week and isn’t coming back until there’s a contract worth signing.

UIS faculty didn’t go on strike because they wanted a dramatic moment. They went on strike because after nearly a year of bargaining, the university’s last formal offer for tenure-track faculty works out to about $100 for the entire year. For some of our lowest-paid staff, who are still at the bargaining table watching how this plays out, the number is even worse, 16 cents an hour. That’s what this institution decided these folks are worth.

The university will tell you it doesn’t have the money. That’s not true, and the numbers say so. The University of Illinois system’s net position grew by about $444 million in fiscal year 2024 and about $392 million in fiscal year 2025, according to audits released by the Illinois Auditor General. This past February, the U of I’s board of trustees approved a $23.7 million purchase of an office building on Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. The system has money. It has just decided not to spend it on the people who teach, clean and keep UIS running.

At the campus level, the chancellor’s priorities are documented by the federal government itself. According to data UIS reported to the U.S. Department of Education, the university employs about 50 fewer instructors than comparable institutions, and about 47 more managers. That’s fewer educators and more administrators.

You see what that looks like on the ground when you actually talk to people on our campuses. Faculty report students falling asleep in class, not because they were out late but because they worked an overnight shift to pay their tuition and came straight in at eight in the morning. Our unions have had to pool their own money into emergency funds they call Fast Funds, covering broken-down cars and past-due bills just so students can keep showing up. That those funds exist at all — that faculty and staff are reaching into their own pockets to keep students enrolled — tells you what the university’s priorities actually are.

A full-time custodian at UIS told me that after buying new tires, he had $100 left until his next paycheck. A hundred dollars for groceries, gas, everything. Our university has decided that’s fine for someone who keeps a state university running. His situation and the art professor’s situation are the same fight. The job title just looks different.

UIS is the smaller and often-neglected campus in a system with billions in resources. That disparity is a choice. Regional universities like UIS are where first-generation students come, where Springfield and central Illinois send their kids. We should be investing in the educators and staff who show up for them every day, not offering them 16 cents. 

The administration wants to call this a disagreement over a few cents on a wage scale. But what’s happening at UIS is years of decisions falling hardest on the people with the least cushion: the faculty out on the line right now, the staff still at the table who can’t make $100 stretch two weeks, and the students sleeping through class because they worked all night to pay their tuition.

After nearly a year of trying to negotiate our way out of this, faculty decided they couldn’t wait any longer. Staff are still at the table, watching to see if the university does the right thing. So are the students.

John Miller is membership secretary for the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is serving his fourth term as statewide president of the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) Local 4100, representing over 4,500 faculty, staff, graduate students, and retirees at regional public universities. He also serves as first vice-president for higher education with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, chair of IFT’s Political Action Committee, and sits on the AFT’s Higher Education Public Policy Committee.