Frequently Asked Questions

UFISU represents approximately 650 non-administrative tenured and tenure-track faculty at Illinois State University.

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board certified UFISU as the official bargaining representative of approximately 650 non-administrative tenured and tenure-track ISU faculty on January 8, 2024, and the parties are now negotiating over wages and other terms and conditions of employment for a first contract. The University is committed to bargaining in good faith to complete these negotiations as promptly as possible. However, it is important to note that it is quite common for negotiations to develop a first contract to take longer than renegotiations for an existing agreement due to the significant number of foundational items that must be addressed.

These negotiations will have a substantive impact on how shared governance is practiced moving forward at Illinois State, and merit thoughtful discourse and consideration by both the University and the Union.

Throughout its 168-year history, Illinois State has a long, successful record of and commitment to shared governance and we expect that to continue. This is achieved primarily through the convening of the Academic Senate, which was founded in 1970 and includes representation by members of faculty also represented by the UFISU. The Academic Senate provides a forum for the input and participation of the University’s faculty and students in recommending and advising on the implementation of educational policies across the institution. Many of the topics being negotiated are already addressed in existing University policies developed with input from the Academic Senate.

Negotiations began February 28, 2024. Since then, the University and Union have met almost weekly, including throughout the summer. From January 13 through March 24, 2025, the parties were assisted by an independent mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). On March 26, 2025, the parties were notified that the Federal mediator would no longer be available to assist the parties in these negotiations, as a March 14, 2025, Executive Order reduced the size and scope of the FMCS and ended support to public-sector negotiations. The parties met without the Federal mediator on March 28, 2025. Moving forward, negotiations will continue directly between the University and the Union. Beginning with our negotiating session on March 28, negotiations will continue directly between the University and the Union following implementation of March 14, 2025, Executive Order reducing the scope of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and limiting that agency’s support for public sector negotiations. Moving forward, negotiations will continue directly between the University and the Union. To date, we have had more than 40 bargaining sessions addressing wages and conditions of employment for a first contract.

Updated March 30, 2025

It is not uncommon for bargaining to continue well past a year for an initial contract, as the parties need to discuss and reach agreement on how to address all terms and conditions of employment. Over the course of negotiations to date, the parties have discussed and resolved dozens of proposals/issues; only a handful of significant issues, like compensation, remain open. The University is committed to ensuring that a new agreement is reached as promptly as reasonably possible and making every attempt to avoid disruption to the teaching and learning environment.

Updated March 25, 2025

To date, the University and the Union have reached a tentative agreement on more than 30 contract articles, including Academic Freedom, Assignment of Work, Disability Accommodations, Discipline, Electronic Availability of the Agreement, Entire Agreement, Facilities, Grievance Procedure, Group Health Insurance Benefits, Health and Safety, Intellectual Property, International Faculty, Labor/Management Meetings, Layoffs, Legislative Affairs, Limitations and Savings, Management Rights, No Strike/No Lock-Out, Non-Discrimination, Personnel Files and Records, Policies and Procedures, Program Reorganization, Consolidation, or Disestablishment, Purpose, Reappointment, Evaluation, Promotion, Tenure, and Post-Tenure Review, Recognition, Revisions to Previous Tentative Agreements, Shared Governance, Transfers, Union Dues, Union Rights, and Workload.

Key outstanding issues include Compensation, and the Union’s demand for paid time-off to work for the Union.

Updated March 30, 2025

Yes. Additional negotiation sessions are scheduled for April 3 and April 4, 2025.

Updated April 3, 2025

Because appropriations from the State have remained relatively stagnant over the last two decades, the percentage of Illinois State’s operating funds that must come from tuition dollars has increased significantly. Currently, tuition dollars generate approximately 45% of Illinois State’s operating funds. While we are proud to have seen consistent year-over-year enrollment growth of 3.98% from Fall 2020 to Fall 2024, the University has also experienced an increase in institutional financial aid expense to attract and retain these students. It is important to note that while increased enrollment results in a positive revenue impact, corresponding increases in financial aid, personnel and operating costs offset revenue gains from year to year. Illinois State is cognizant of the cost of a college education and keeps this critical factor in mind while we work through our compensation commitments to our employees.

Aside from state revenues and growing dependence on tuition dollars to support the University’s personnel and operating costs, an even more significant impact that must be considered is the projected decline in the number of high school graduates nationally. In Illinois, the number of high school graduates is expected to begin dropping precipitously from approximately 148,000 in 2025 to just over 115,000 in 2037. Decreasing enrollment among traditional-age college students will impact not just tuition revenue, but also funds generated by housing, dining and student fees.

Given the projected decline in the number of students graduating from high school in the future and that nearly 96% of Illinois State’s students are drawn from within the state, the University’s student enrollment is likely to be affected in coming years. Another factor that will likely impact enrollment is that approximately half of college-bound students currently leave the State of Illinois to pursue higher education (Illinois the second-highest exporter of college-bound students in the country). All these factors are important for the University to consider in our financial planning and projections, including commitments made through collective bargaining.

Added December 19, 2024

No. This is a misleading and inaccurate characterization of Illinois State University’s true financial position. The Union is showcasing isolated data points, without full context, in an attempt to substantiate their excessive salary demands.

Illinois State University’s recently released financial audit for Fiscal Year 2024, prepared by an independent CPA firm on behalf of the Office of the Auditor General for the State of Illinois, provides an unbiased and verified analysis of the University’s revenue, expenses and net position that must be considered in its financial planning and projections, including commitments made through collective bargaining.

While the audit findings show an increase in net assets across all funds of $14.2 million, this figure reflects both a surplus of $21.3 million in the restricted funds (which are not available to pay the wages of the University’s tenure-track faculty) and a deficit of $7.1 million in the unrestricted funds, which provide the vast majority of faculty and staff wages, salaries, and expenditures.

Unfortunately, the deficit in our unrestricted funds has continued to worsen. In FY23, the unrestricted fund deficit was $4.6 million. This deteriorating unrestricted fund deficit is driven by inflationary pressures that have caused expenditures to outpace revenues, among other factors. The current trajectory of the increasing annual unrestricted fund deficit is not sustainable and must be addressed for Illinois State to avoid the fate of many of its higher education counterparts who have faced similar challenges and found it necessary to eliminate programs and/or institute layoffs.

In September 2024, Illinois State implemented a comprehensive strategy (RISE—Resilience, Innovation, Sustainability and Excellence) to support the University’s long-term financial stability. RISE included a number of strategies that were immediately put in place to close the gap between revenue and expenses, including mandated divisional budget holdbacks, hiring reductions, deferral of non-urgent projects, and reduction in out-of-cycle and additional pay increases.

Added March 25, 2025

Under Illinois State’s April 2, 2025, economic proposal, by the first full month following ratification the average salary for assistant and associate professors will be at or above the projected market average for similar positions at Illinois State’s peer institutions and by January 1, 2026, the average salary for all Illinois State tenure-track faculty will be at or above the projected market average for similar positions at Illinois State’s peer institutions.

Following are the projected average fiscal year 2025 salaries for tenure-track faculty compensation for comparable academic programs at Illinois State peer institutions:

Assistant Professor	$81,274
Associate Professor	$96,071
Professor	$115,022

These projections are based on data from the College and University Professional Association (CUPA), adjusted to both reflect the slightly lower cost of living in Bloomington-Normal (as compared to the average cost of living in the peer institution locations) and an annual salary increase equivalent to the ten-year national average annual salary increase for tenure-track faculty salaries as reported by the American Association of University Professors, the parent union to the tenure track faculty union here at Illinois State.

Updated April 2, 2025

Illinois State University uses the Basic Carnegie classification, sector (e.g., Public, 4-year or above), and geographic region (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau regions) to determine a set of similar institutions that may be used for salary comparisons of many academic positions and non-academic positions. Illinois State’s Basic classification under the Carnegie system is Research 2: High Research Spending and Doctorate Production and Illinois State is located in the Midwest US Census Bureau Region. As of December 18, 2024, the Carnegie Classification system reports there are 24 public, four-year universities with a Basic Carnegie classification of Research 2: High Research Spending and Doctorate Production located in the states within the Midwest US Census Bureau Region.

Updated March 6, 2025

The University has proposed allocating $500,000 in both fiscal year 2027 and fiscal year 2028 to be distributed to individual employees based upon each Professor’s annual base pay relative to market rates. In addition to these market adjustments, the University has proposed multiple other compensation components that collectively increase the average pay for each rank to at or above the projected market rates in Fiscal Year 2027 or before. These include salary minimums, increased promotional amounts (for promotion to Associate and Full Professor), and a new five-year merit program for full Professors, as well as the across-the-board and merit increases included in the proposed annual base salary increases.

Added March 25, 2025

The Union’s most recent on the record proposal from March 24, 2025, included wage increases that would, within 33 months, pay Illinois State faculty as much as 17% over the projected average salaries of tenured and tenure-track faculty at peer institutions, depending upon faculty rank. Under the Union’s March 24 proposal, over the next 33 months, the average employee in the bargaining unit would receive more than a 28% increase in their base pay—approximately 10% per year.

While Illinois State greatly values and respects its tenure-track faculty colleagues, it is not realistic to provide these types of increases based on comparisons to rates at our peer institutions, the University’s current financial position, enrollment projections, anticipated state funding, uncertainties regarding how developments in Washington will influence federal funding for higher education, and the volatility of the overall economic climate.

The Union has indicated that its compensation expectations are based on average salaries from a data set sourced from the American Association of University Professors (which is affiliated with the Union) that includes all U.S. public colleges and universities that grant doctoral degrees, including over 100 Carnegie Classification R1 (very high research) institutions, such as University of Michigan, UC-Berkeley, and University of Illinois Chicago. Illinois State is not an R1 school but is instead classified as an R2 (high research) school.

The Union has acknowledged this and other challenges in the AAUP data set, including:

• The inclusion of director/department chair salaries (chairs and directors are not in the Illinois State bargaining unit).
• The inclusion of salaries for professors in medical schools, law schools, and other highly-paid professional programs (that Illinois State does not have).
• The inclusion of ten-month academic year salaries (Illinois State’s academic year is nine months).
• No consideration of the widely varying cost of living in the various locations of the institutions.

Significantly, professors at R1 universities are generally paid more than professors at R2 universities, like Illinois State, because R1 institutions are much more research-intensive, receive significantly more funding, and have much higher scholarly activity requirements for their professors. In contrast, at R2 institutions, like Illinois State, the focus is more evenly distributed between teaching and research.

Illinois State has gone to great lengths to identify an appropriate set of comparator institutions for compensation purposes, relying on data from a neutral third party, focusing on other public R2 universities in the Midwest, and further focusing only on the compensation paid to tenure-track faculty teaching in the same disciplines as those offered by Illinois State. The University’s economic proposals have been and will continue to be benchmarked against this more comparable data set.

Please click the button below for an apples-to-apples comparison of average salaries for Illinois State’s tenure-track faculty and those at our peer institutions—Carnegie Classification public R2 (High Research) universities in the U.S. Census Bureau Midwest region.

Comparison of Average Salaries

Updated March 30, 2025