Area community members are invited to join Western Illinois University faculty, staff and students in Springfield April 16 for the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) 'Teach Out at the State Capitol,' as part of the Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding Advocacy Day.
Buses will transport those who participate from Macomb to Springfield, and back that day, according to Merrill Cole, WIU's UPI 4100 chapter president. Details will be announced closer to the date. To register, visit tinyurl.com/HigherEdAdvocacyDay. Parking will be available in Q-Lot west, next to Western Hall. Community members may park in that April 16 (please note that meters should not be used, nor specially-designated reserved spots, without the appropriate permit for disability-related parking, faculty-staff tag, etc.)
'This is our biggest opportunity right now to improve WIU's dismal funding situation,' Cole pointed out. 'Arguably, it's our biggest opportunity since the last UPI Teach Out in April 2017, which precipitated the end of the budget veto crisis.'
Cole is also available – and eager - to speak to community groups about the UPI's push for the full funding of education in Illinois, from pre-K to higher education. To arrange for Cole to present to an organization or group, email him at [email protected].
'Instead of waiting passively for the political winds to change, University Professionals of Illinois, together with our colleagues in the Illinois Federation of Teachers, are working together to make education funding an unavoidable priority for our legislators and the governor,' he added.
Currently, the IBHE allocates flat percentage funding for Illinois' public university system, which includes, along with WIU, Eastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois State, Chicago State, Governors State, Northeastern University and the University of Illinois System that includes three universities around the state. The UPI is asking for an equity funding formula to be put into place that would allocate state allocations on the metric of what each campus requires to provide equity for its students. By this metric, WIU is the most inadequately funded public university in Illinois, noted UPI 4100 President Merrill Cole.
In addition to the Advocacy Day April 16, the UPI, along with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, has an ongoing equitable funding digital postcard campaign at ift-aft.org/upifunding.
'This postcard drive is not limited to UPI members. We ask that students, community members, retirees, parents of students, city officials and others to please take part in this digital campaign to urge the IBHE to support equitable funding,' Cole added.
