I was pleased to see your article, “Instructor Pay Raise Proposal,” in the Jan. 17 Star. The proposal to have significant salary increases for faculty who have earned promotions is long overdue.

Your reporter, and the Provost, do not mention that the Regents and NIU administration have been deaf to such proposals for years. They didn’t listen until the UPI chapter at Sangamon State University was able to negotiate $3,000/year increases for new professors and $2,000/year for new associate professors. The Regents and NIU administrators were so frightened that NIU faculty might see some virtue in the results of UPI collective bargaining that they decided they would try to get on the bandwagon.

Even with the SSU collective bargaining agreement to read, the Regents still couldn’t get it right. They came up with $800/year less for professors and $500/year less for associates. Clearly, in spite of their rhetoric, the Regents don’t see NIU promotees as being as meritorious as their colleagues at SSU! Will NIU faculty always have to wait for benefits to be negotiated at SSU before having a chance to get a watered-down version?

It is good of you to publish at least part of the story of the Regent’s wilted promotion raises for NIU faculty.

Jack Bennett

professor of biology,

UPI VR for the BOR Council