IFT 6/10//2026 MACOMB, Ill. — The University Professionals of Illinois (UPI) Local 4100 is celebrating a major victory for students, faculty, staff, and Illinois public higher education after an arbitrator ruled that Western Illinois University's decision last year to lay off all nine of its academic librarian faculty and two additional bargaining unit professionals was illegal. Read the full article at IFT by pressing the button below.

OP-ED: KIRK DILLARD May 27, 2026 By KIRK DILLARD 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 region

Special to the McDonough County Voice Updated May 15, 2026, 5:19 p.m. CT 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

Walter Hudson, May 1, 2026 from The EDULedger Between 2012 and 2024, the number of faculty represented by unions at private colleges and universities increased by 56 percent. For graduate student workers, the growth has been even more explosive, with a 133 percent increase over the same period... ...Long before St. John's University decided to dismantle its faculty union, American higher education had already undergone a seismic structural shift in who teaches. Since the 1970

4/23/2026 Special thanks go to Dr. Kristi Barnwell for also giving testimony on the critical need for equitable funding. Please see her statement below: I am first-generation college student, the child of a single mother who lived in financial precarity for most of my childhood. I loved learning always. Like many of my students, I understood higher education’s value for creating social mobility and increasing my chances of having financial stability. My university education i

Allan Bettis Special to the State Journal-Register April 14, 2026, 3:31 a.m. CT I’ve worked as a building service worker at the University of Illinois Springfield for seven years. I take pride in what I do. My job is to make sure students walk into clean classrooms, that buildings are safe, and that the campus runs the way it should. Some may think it’s not glamorous work, but it’s essential. I’m also a proud husband and a father of two amazing children. My kids are growing f

April 11, 2026 Dozens of members of UIS United Faculty and student supporters in the Illinois State Capitol Thursday telling lawmakers how Chancellor Gooch's failure to secure adequate funding for UIS hurts students and faculty alike! UIS needs leadership that advocates for students instead of pitching campus into crisis by pushing faculty to strike!

NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Sean Crawford Published April 15, 2026 at 12:42 PM CDT A high-ranking legislator who chairs a committee that oversees state funding to colleges and universities said the University of Illinois Springfield administration should do more to end the ongoing faculty strike. Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, appeared at a rally with striking faculty on Wednesday morning. Ford, who also serves as Chairman of the Illinois House Higher Education Appropriation

April 2, 2026 UIS students, staff, and faculty rally for a #FairContractNow outside the Chancellor's philanthropy dinner. We're grateful for donor contributions but wanted them to know what Chancellor Gooch does with their money—busting staff and faculty unions!

April 3, 2026 UIS Faculty FB page

WAND Digital Team Mar 19, 2026 Updated 20 hrs ago

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) In an email to the campus community, Chancellor Janet Gooch explained that the university has been negotiating with University of Illinois-Springfield Instructors United (UISIU) for the last year on a new contract. The two parties have met at least 20 times and reached 11 tentative agreements on approximately 20 contract articles being negotiated. But UISIU said in a statement of their own that the university is still refusing to make “reasonable move

WAND Digital Team March 19, 2026 SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - University of Illinois Springfield union members voted Thursday to authorize strikes if fair contracts are not reached. The UIS Staff Union and the UIS United Faculty (UISUF) said members have faced months of administrative stonewalling in negotiations. It added that talks have been ongoing since June 2025.

March 10, 2026 After months of stalling, foot-dragging, and all-around wasting of everyone's time, the UIS administration has pushed tenure-track faculty to the brink of a strike! It's outrageous that the University of Illinois routinely pushes employees to this point before it will bargain a fair contract in good faith! It's a waste of taxpayer dollars and no way to run a university! Enough is enough! Union members: watch your email for voting times/days/places! #GotUnion

By Isabella Froh , News Editor Feb 20, 2026 DeKALB — A projected budget deficit was discussed during Thursday’s Board of Trustees Finance, Audit, Compliance, Facilities and Operations Committee meeting. The budget deficit for Fiscal Year 26 (FY26) will cause a tuition increase and rising operational costs across the university despite improvements from the previous year. The university recommended a 2.5% increase in base tuition and no change in undergraduate differential

By Kaileia O’Brien , News Reporter Feb 22, 2026 DeKALB – During Friday’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lecture, special guest Karen Samonds discussed her extensive work with paleontology and experience in science as a woman. The Women in STEM lectures are meant to give community members a voice and spark inspiration in those who listen. While the lectures focus on women and their experiences in STEM, the lecture series is open to all. Samo

February 24, 2026 MACOMB, IL - - After countless hours of dedication, Western Illinois University alumna and nationally-recognized artist and Professor Tyanna J. Buie can now add a new location to her long list of places her work is featured: the Obama Presidential Center. Buie's story of resilience and freedom was jumpstarted by her time at WIU , and her newest installment, "Be the Change!" will be available to view by the general public when the Center opens later this Sum

Official UIS News By Blake Wood 2026-02-26 The University of Illinois Springfield College of Business and Management celebrated the opening of the Sean and Taryn Grant/Landmark Auto Trading Lab on Feb. 26 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The lab features 12 Bloomberg Terminals that support hands-on learning for UIS students pursuing careers in finance, data analytics and related fields.

February 19,2026 By Nihya Walker , Former News Reporter DeKALB — In 1915, Fanny Ruth Patterson made history as the first Black woman to graduate from NIU, then known as Northern Illinois State Normal School. She earned her two-year degree at a time when opportunities for Black Americans, especially women, were limited by segregation and discrimination.

Article releases February 26,2026 Northeastern Illinois University’s Genocide and Human Rights in Africa and the Diaspora (GHRAD) Center will host “Echoes of Silence: Portraits of Pain, Reflections of Resilience” March 2-23. The exhibit features portraits of survivors of the 1972 genocide in Burundi, Africa as well as other images taken on study trips to Burundi with Northeastern students, faculty and staff between 2023-2025. “Echoes of Silence” is free and open to the publi