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University Professionals
of Illinois
Local 4100, IFT, AFL-CIO
Unions are happening!
June 1, 2026
The UPI Retirees' Newsletter was sent out May 19.
If you missed the email the Newsletter is now posted on the Retirees Page.
As you can see from the articles in this Spring Newsletter, the last six months have been a busy time for the Retirees Chapter. Among their many activities, Retirees members attended the HOD and our Annual meeting; organized, lobbied, and rallied for higher education funding; lent support to striking faculty at UIS; and joined No Kings protests!
Read more
Keep Up the good work
There has been a lot going on and it seems overwhelming. Take time for selfcare too. It's important to peacefully protest and equally important to take care of yourself.
It is important to keep up the pressure and run for local office!
Every phone call, letter, email, and postcard help keep the issues before our representatives.
The pressure is working, keep up the good work.
June 1, 2026
5/15/26
Western Illinois University is the most underfunded public university in Illinois.
According to Advance Illinois, WIU currently gets less than half the state funding needed to serve its students. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, however, is funded at nearly 90% adequacy.
The gap is no accident, but the result of a funding system that has never been based on equity or student need, but only on political momentum and flat percentage increases applied equally to the well-funded and the underfunded alike.
Senate Bill 13 and House Bill 1581, the Adequate and Equitable Public University Funding Act, would change this. The bill would direct new funding to the universities furthest from adequacy first.
June 1, 2026
Illinois is failing its regional universities
May 27, 2026
"As someone who has spent their career in both policy and higher education, and as a current trustee for Western Illinois University, I have sadly witnessed the erosion of state support for regional universities.
In fact, the western region of Illinois isn’t known as “Forgotonia” for no reason. Illinois has over time morphed into a public higher education system of inadequate, inequitable and unstable funding of our vital regional universities."--Kirk Dillard
Read the entire article @Ford County Chronicle
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Thank you to everyone who made a one-time or recurring donation to our FAST Fund!
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