Tri States Public Radio | By Rich Egger Published July 11, 2024 at 7:24 AM CDT
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A few excerpts:
"She [Mindrup} said they’ve also reduced the number of administrative positions. There are now four vice presidents instead of five, and she’s streamlined duties to reduce the number of assistant vice presidents."
"Merrill Cole, President of the WIU Chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois, which represents faculty, said he knew layoffs would be coming.
But UPI is not happy about them.
“We do not like what’s happened. We do not want our members to suffer, and they are suffering right now,” Cole said.
Cole said, for example, some who’ve lost their job are wondering how they will pay for their prescription medicine. He said UPI is doing what it can to help.
“There are different ways of defining what a deficit is. There are different ways of defining how far behind we are. There are different ways of seeing what needs to be done,” he said.
Despite those differences, Cole believes he can work with Mindrup, and he is feeling some hope after the administration and UPI leadership met following the layoffs announcement."
“I think that everybody in that room is committed to building a better WIU. We don’t agree on a lot of things, and we certainly don’t agree about the layoffs. But I want to believe – I have every reason to believe – that we’re all trying to make WIU a better place, most especially for our students,” he said."