From Mary Lucille Hays—Senior Lecturer, English. I can’t really blame folks who wonder if union dues are worth it if they haven’t seen first-hand what the union can do for us. My union dues run about $50 a pay check, or $600 and some change every year. I suppose I could buy a pretty sweet bicycle with that money, but I have some perspective on what the union does for me, having been involved since the advent of the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Coalition (NTFC). In fact, this summer, as I was in my office completing my biannual ritual of cleaning, ...
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Recently NTFC was alerted by a bargaining unit member that HR “lost” multiple elements of their personnel file. Due to the uncertain scope of this lapse, we’re advising all members to review their personnel files by immediately requesting them from HR.

Those requests should be sent to the Associate Director of HR, Jessica Mette: jmette@illinois.edu. The ability to check your file is your legal right under the NTFC contract’s Article XIV and the Illinois Public Record Review Act (IPRRA). We advise all members to periodically review your personnel file’s contents as you would your credit report. A good time to ...
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From Jordan Sellers – Instructor, English. As an educator and a parent, I get it. You have no free time. Neither do I. So why am I pausing to write this amid lesson planning for tomorrow, returning student emails, and the myriad of other duties that need my attention? Because I care about you and about the state of higher education. Because I care, I serve as NTFC’s Bargaining Research Chair. Last week, while out visiting new faculty members on campus, a colleague in a different department asked, “Hey aren’t you all paid for your time?” The thought seemed to ...
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From Dorothee Schneider, Teaching Associate Professor-- History, Retired After teaching American history for more than three decades, a lot of what I teach in the classroom refers to events I actually experienced: Watergate, Ronald Reagan’s “It’s Morning in America,” and Bill Clinton’s “I Feel Your Pain.” I watched the towers of the World Trade Center fall with my students while teaching about immigration. But, like students at that moment, I felt that I was a witness, an onlooker of events over which I had no control. I could live through history, I could understand history, but it never occurred to ...
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