Eastern’s Office for Civil Rights and Diversity is understaffed.

Eastern’s civil rights office currently has one continuing employee and two temporary staff workers.

Western Illinois University, whose student population compares closest to Eastern’s, has four continuing staff members employed at their Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has eight continuing employees working at their Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has five continuing employees working at their Office of Diversity and Equity.

Illinois State University has four continuing employees at their Office for Diversity and Affirmative Action.

“We are a very busy office, but that would be true for any other office on campus,” said Cynthia Nichols, Eastern’s director of the Office for Civil Rights and Diversity. “If you were to go and interview any dean or director on campus, most of them will tell you that it would be good to have additional staff members because there are many things they would like to do.”

Nichols is the only continuing employee in the office.

Nichols decides how to allocate the office’s money, which includes moving money from personal services to the office’s operating budget.

“I adjust the composition and number of employees to align with the available budget and immediate needs,” Nichols said.

The civil rights office is in charge of ensuring the university is building a diverse faculty and staff.

The office aids department chairs in finding candidates to fulfill positions and checks to see if department chairs are looking at diverse areas to hire someone, Nichols said.

She added employees within the office have to attend a department’s search committee and have to review the department’s reasons for wanting to interview the candidates they are selecting.

The office participated in 80 search committees last year, Nichols said.

The office handles discrimination complaints also. These complaints are over issues concerning discrimination against race, religion or sex.

Nichols said the office handles about 10 to 11 complaints a year. The office handles the investigation if an informal resolution cannot be met, and the appropriate vice president administers the decision.

Robert Miller held the associate director position for the office, but accepted another position within the university in June.

Nichols believes Eastern’s civil rights office performs its duties well despite being understaffed compared to four other Illinois public universities.

She added Eastern has limited resources and every department would like additional staff members, but realizes having additional staff members is not a feasible idea.

Nichols said the maximum number of employees working in the office a few years ago was four. There were three continuing employees and one temporary employee working at the office.

“Over the years, the office has experienced normal attrition,” Nichols said. “One person retired and two people accepted other positions.”

But relief could be on the way.

The civil rights office will look to expand their continuing employee pool in the spring, Nichols said.

“Most people have settled in where they are at for the academic year, and most people who are graduating from programs tend to graduate in the spring,” she said. “Generally speaking, the best time to conduct a search and get a large applicant pool is in the spring.”

Western, ISU, SIU-C and U of I’s civil rights offices each oversee the investigation on discrimination complaints also. A vice president or vice chancellor either administers the decision.

ISU and Western’s civil rights offices are in charge of ensuring their respective universities are not discriminating when fulfilling a personnel position, whereas SIU-C and U of I’s civil rights offices focus on anti-discrimination education.

“A lot of our work is in prevention,” said Larine Cowan, director for U of I’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

Nichols said it is very difficult to compare each university’s civil rights office.

“Each campus addresses the issues of employment, civil rights, affirmative action and diversity differently,” Nichols said. “(Each campus) places the people and units who work on these issues at different places in the organizational charts.