Thank you to all who attended our first Town Hall! This month the NTFC is happy to host Town Halls as a series of forums to share information and experiences teaching at UIUC during the pandemic.

Our second Town Hall is centered around the AFT-AAUP A New Deal for Higher Education campaign. An IFT representative and NTFC representatives will be on hand to share information, answer questions, and hear your thoughts. This is an open forum for faculty of all levels to discuss this national effort to make public colleges and universities more accessible to all students.

When: Tuesday, March 9, 12-1pm CST

Where: A New Deal For Higher Ed

Each year, many of our campus workers at the University of Illinois struggle to get by. Food Service Workers and Building Service Workers, among others, often are “laid off” during the summers when the students leave. Though they typically receive work again when the fall instruction resumes, they are ineligible to apply for unemployment benefits during the summer period. Normally, this is already a very difficult financial circumstance–but the pandemic has made this situation even worse for many. Our friends from AFSCME have asked us to support their push to get Illinois legislators to amend the unemployment insurance restrictions, which would allow much needed relief to come to non-instructional higher ed workers at UIUC and elsewhere. Below is a copy of the letter that we are sending to the office of Governor JB Pritzker calling on him to help lead the charge to provide unemployment benefits to all higher ed workers over the summer.

You can get involved too! Our friends from AFSCME are asking us to call our legislators to ask them to support these changes. More details are in the image above.

Dear Governor Pritzker, 

We are writing on behalf of the thousands of non-instructional educational employees (e.g., teacher aides, building and grounds workers, food service workers, bus drivers) in elementary, secondary, and higher education to request that you take action to ensure that these workers are eligible for summer unemployment benefits. 

Unlike other seasonally unemployed workers, non-instructional education workers are currently ineligible to apply for benefits. This is the case even though they face many of the same challenges as other seasonally unemployed workers.It is nearly impossible to find work in the 2-3 month period over the summer while they’re unemployed, receiving low wages, and receiving few benefits. These benefits are already crucial in normal times given their low wages. With the added financial stressors of the pandemic, it is more important than ever to allow non-instructional education workers access to unemployment benefits.

The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) provides funding from the federal government to reimburse up to 50% of the costs of unemployment benefits for workers from March 13th through December 31st of this year. This funding will offset any educational employer costs.

We are asking that you please take action to amend the Unemployment Insurance Act (820 ILCS 420) to allow non-instructional educational employees to apply for unemployment insurance. 

Michael Odom, President

Amanda Bales, Vice President

Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition Local #6546 AFT/IFT/AAUP

The results are in! We are so excited to welcome a record-breaking number of Stewards to the Stewards Council and to welcome Dr. Amy Clay, former LAS steward, to the Executive Council as Communications Chair.

See below for the full list of our new NTFC Leaders!

Executive Council

• President–Michael Odom
• Vice President–Amanda Bales
• Secretary–Shawn Gilmore
• Treasurer–Stephanie Fortado
• Grievance Committee Chair–Dennis Dullea
• Communications Committee Chair–Amy Clay
• Bargaining Research Committee Chair–Jordan Sellers
• Chief Steward–Heather McLeer

Stewards Council

• Liberal Arts and Sciences Stewards
  • Katherine (Kate) Norcross–English
  • Valeria Bonatti–Global Studies
  • Bryan Dunne–Astronomy
  • Anna Nesbitt–Atmospheric Sciences
  • Lisa Travis–Pscyhology
  • Silvia Soto–American Indian Studies
  • Karle Flanagan–Statistics
  • Ellen Fireman–Statistics
  • Daniel (Dan) Steward–Sociology
  • Caroline (Carrie) Bunch–Communication
  • Allison O’Dwyer–School of Integrative Biology
  • Sarka Petrickova–Mathematics
  • Daniel Roche–English
  • Hugh Bishop–Linguistics
  • Charles Fogelman–Global Studies
  • Linda Sims–Linguistics
  • Billy Huff–Communication
  • Jonathan (Patrick) Fadely–English
  • Benjamin Clegg–School of Integrative Biology
  • Andrew Moss–English
  • Jordan Sellers–English
• Fine & Applied Arts Stewards
  • Rachel Fein-Smolinski–Art & Design
  • Carl Lewis–Architecture
  • Rosemary (Rose) Kaczmarowksi–Theatre
  • Lou Turner–Urban & Regional Planning
  • Ken Salo–Urban & Regional Planning
  • Karin Hodgin Jones–Art & Design
• Education Stewards
  • Susan (Sue) Talbott–Special Education
  • Kimberly Wolowiec-Fisher–Special Education
• Engineering Stewards
  • Geoffrey Challen–Computer Science
  • Juan Alvarez–Electrical & Computer Engineering
  • Zuofu Cheng–Electrical & Computer Engineering
• Information Sciences Stewards
  • David (Dave) Dubin–Information Sciences
• Business Stewards
  • John Hepp–Accountancy
• Labor and Employment Relations Stewards
  • Stephanie Fortado–Labor Education Program