Members of Eastern’s chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois are in the process of voting to ratify the contract agreement that has been long awaited.

Chemistry professor Jon Blitz, the UPI/EIU chief negotiator, said Wednesday will be the final day for members to submit their votes; he expects the counting to be finalized that evening.

If the UPI membership votes to approve the contract, which Blitz expects will occur, it will next move to the Board of Trustees for approval.

The Board of Trustees will have a special meeting to make this decision at 9 a.m. on Feb. 23 in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Blitz said it is the UPI’s goal to have the contract approved in order for university employees to see the negotiated raises reflected in their February paychecks, “but I don’t know if that is going to happen.”

In the tentative agreement, the Unit A and Unit B faculty will receive a 1.5 percent increase retroactive for this year, and a 1.25 percent increase next year.

History professor Sace Elder said she is satisfied with the contract given the economic circumstances.

“Overall, we got a contract that reflects our concerns that lays the groundwork for future negotiations,” she said.

However, one aspect that Elder wishes the contract did address was the encroachment of the Continuing Education program into the curriculum of the rest of the university.

“One of the things I’m concerned about is that continuing education is offering more and more classes that undergraduates are taking, rather than being limited to being offered for non-traditional students,” she said. “I am not satisfied that there are institutional protections to prevent students from flocking to the less expensive continuing education courses.”

The School of Continuing Education extends the academic resources in a cost-efficient manner to provide access to on and off-campus programs for the adult/nontraditional students in the state and beyond, according to the school’s mission statement.

Despite this concern, Elder said she voted to approve the tentative agreement.

Mathematics professor Evgeny Gordon said he was pleased that salary increases were negotiated upon given the university’s budgetary difficulties. He was also satisfied with the manner the furlough situation was handled.

The proposed furlough policy is if the university declares exigency, the UPI will be able to bargain over the implementation of furloughs.

However, this will not be included in the contract. This policy would go into a Memorandum of Agreement, which is a separate document, explicitly laying out the terms.

Gordon’s only complaint was the lengthy period it took to come to the tentative agreement.

Like Gordon, history professor Bailey Young was also very concerned with the inclusion of furlough language into the agreement.

“My colleagues and I were adamantly opposed to talk about furloughs,” Young said. “However, I think our team found a very reasonable middle ground. I think you have to be real sometimes with the things that you’re against in principle. You have to make some concession because of the reality of the situation.”

Young was also pleased that a small raise was negotiated into the contract.

“I think it is wonderful that our negotiating team was able to obtain an agreement like this in the current climate,” Young said.

To have the finish line in sight, Blitz said it gives him “tremendous relief.”

“You always meet the end of these (negotiations) with mixed feeling in the end,” he said. “Some things you’re happy to have got and some things you wish you would have. But I don’t regret what we got in the contract.”

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-7942 or meholmgren@eiu.edu.