Some to take collective furlough day at UI on Thursday
URBANA — Another collective furlough day at the University of Illinois will coincide with National Day of Action to Defend Public Education today.
The day starts with a noon gathering at the Alma Mater statue at the intersection of Wright and Green Streets.
The Urbana-Champaign United Coalition, which consists of the Graduate Employees’ Organization, the Campus Labor Coalition, the Undergraduate-Graduate Alliance, the Campus Faculty Association, La Colectiva and the Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority will hold to seek accessible and diverse education.
Participants will begin marching at 12:10 to the Swanlund Administration Building, 601 E. John St. A rally outside Swanlund will last from 12:20 to 12:50 p.m., and will include speakers, music and performances.
Under the UI furlough policy, faculty and academic professionals who earn more than $30,000 a year must take four furlough days, or an equivalent pay cut.
Harriet Murav of the Campus Faculty Association said the event will continue in the evening, at 7 p.m. in 100 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green St., U, with the theme “Core Mission: Are We Really All In This Together?”
More in Thursday's News-Gazette.
They should wait a couple of weeks, and then they could take a collective furlough day in honor of the Illini appearing in the NIT.
"Core Mission: Are We Really All In This Together?” -- The answer, of course, is of course not. Funny how no one had a problem with skyrocketing tuition until this situation hit home with the elitists in the ivory towers.
I would agree that furloughs make little sense. There should be cuts. The University needs hundreds of millions of dollars. Waging these drawn-out, tiny battles to save $15 million is pointless, yet it's precisely what we have come to expect from the insulated world of academia.
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