About 60,000 college students from the City Colleges of Chicago still are waiting for their classes to resume after the full-time faculty decided to strike more than two weeks ago.
Luckily, Northwestern students never will be in this situation, NU officials said.
City College of Chicago administrators and 495 full-time faculty in Cook County College Teachers Union, Local 1600, failed again to reach a compromise during Monday’s negotiation.
“We hoped there was never going to be a strike,” said Cecile Regner, vice president of Malcolm X College, one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago. The schools are community colleges that offer associate degrees, continuing education and transfer credits.
Disappointed with the outcome of Monday’s negotiation, Regner said the seven colleges will discuss options at today’s 9 a.m. board meeting for students who have not been able to attend classes.
“We don’t know the final options yet,” Regner said. “Right now we just don’t know where we’re going.”
The full-time faculty’s refusal to teach at the seven colleges is affecting 30 percent of the classes at the City Colleges of Chicago, but such strikes would not affect classes at NU because the faculty members are not unionized.
Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs John Margolis said professors at NU usually are satisfied with their workload, benefits and pay. Attracting the best faculty with the best benefits and pay is a part of maintaining the university’s competitive edge, he said.
Margolis added that most private universities are not unionized.
“Change is handled amicably,” said Bruce Wessels, an NU professor who served as the immediate past chairman of the General Faculty Council. “Department chairs will usually handle the issues and complaints at the department level. Problems are discussed one-on-one with the chair, and it doesn’t get much beyond that.”
Kellogg School of Management Prof. Sudhakar Deshmukh said he has never had problems with his contract in his 32 years at NU. He said that the university has committees that will investigate any problems thoroughly.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything in terms of discrimination or very strong grievances,” he said.
Deshmukh added that most of his colleagues have never had problems with their contracts or would think about striking.
“It’s not the culture to go on a strike,” he said. “There are 130 students that depend on my being there.”
The General Faculty Council at NU is responsible for serving as a liaison between faculty and administrators, said Wessels. The council brings up any problems or complaints professors may have about their contracts to the central administration.
“There certainly is dialogue,” Wessels said.
Many of NU’s professors are tenured and have guaranteed employment until retirement, Wessels explained. Compared to the professors at the City Colleges of Chicago, NU professors have higher salaries, more comprehensive benefits and a lighter workload, he said.
One of the main reasons the full-time faculty members at the City Colleges of Chicago went on strike was because the college wanted faculty to work more credit hours than the original contract, which expired in June.
At public institutions like the City Colleges of Chicago, professors are much more likely to belong to unions because individual professors have less leverage, said education Prof. Alfred Hess. He said professors unhappy with their contract at NU can easily transfer to another university.
“Most issues can be resolved so that things are left on the table as minor irritants rather than major distractions,” Hess said.
Reach Stephanie Chen at [email protected].
