SIUC Faculty Association holds meeting to discuss restructuring

CARBONDALE, IL (KFVS) - The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Faculty Association held a meeting Monday night, April 8 on campus to discuss the new direction in which the university is headed.

Faculty, staff and students were invited to share their ideas and concerns on the new restructuring going on at the college.

The school has began a restructuring process which began in the fall of 2017 by late SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno.

Montemagno proposed that all current academic departments at SIUC be combined into new, larger units known as schools.

Faculty have approved to the combining of some schools but are opposed to others, one example given at the meeting was the narrowing of research and a loss of academic freedom that the department of economics will have if moved to the School of Business.

The faculty union is concerned that consolidation will give students fewer reasons to come to the college, and that some of the faculty are concerned that some programs will end up being cut all together.

The union is also concerned that administration isn’t listening to alternatives proposed by faculty, staff, and students and want to make sure all ideas are being heard.

SIUC Faculty Association President Dave Johnson said that they will be reaching out to the President of the school and the Board of Trustees to understand what they believe are the downsides to the proposed restructuring of departments, and to consider alternatives.

Johnson spoke about why it was so important to hold a meeting like this and share information.

“We are all interested in improving the university, we all believe in working together,” Johnson said. “We all believe in high quality programs, but they seem to have decided that this is the only way to do it, and we are not willing to entertain other options.”

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