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SIU strike over

BY CODELL RODRIGUEZ
The Southern

Posted: Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:00 am

CARBONDALE - The strike is officially over at SIU.

The Faculty Association and Chancellor Rita Cheng announced in separate news conferences Wednesday night that the bargaining teams had made enough significant progress to call off the strike.

While no tentative agreement has been reached, bargaining teams for both sides say they will prepare the final documents. The union and the administration will present the final package to its members and the SIU Board of Trustees for ratification, respectively.

Dave Johnson, spokesman for the Faculty Association, spoke about 8 p.m. at the Newman Catholic Center. He said he Departmental Representatives Council voted to end the strike, and the teachers will return to the classroom today.

Johnson said the union has been able to "protect shared governance, tenure" and achieve transparency and accountability at the uni-versity.

He thanked the members of Graduate Assistants United, the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association, the Association of Civil Service Employees and all the students for their support.

Moving forward

The Chancellor spoke at 9 p.m. at the Student Center. Cheng said she was pleased the strike has come to an end.

"I look forward to all members of the university community working together in the best interests of our students," Cheng said. "I urge everyone to set aside the emotions of the past week and come together in a spirit of collaboration. Moving forward, I anticipate working with the Faculty Association to advance our institutional goals."

Cheng later urged that everyone "welcome back" those who went on strike.

Similarly, Johnson spoke of advancing institutional goals together.

"It is time now for us to work together with our fellow faculty members, with our students, and with the SIUC administration in order to make SIUC the very best university it can be," Johnson said.

Welcome relief

The relief shown by both sides at their respective announcements was a stark contrast to the Board of Trustees meeting earlier on Wednesday. Hundreds of student and faculty picketers supporting the then striking Faculty Association gathered outside and marched around the building with chants such as, "Whose university? Our university."

Protestors also banged on drums and blew horns outside of the board room as the meeting was un-derway.

The Board of Trustees will meet again at 9 a.m. today in the Student Center ballrooms.

While neither Cheng nor the union was ready Wednesday night to give out details on the agreement, Cheng earlier said there were seven main issues that had been reduced down to four as of Wednesday. The chancellor said she could not go into details because the agreements had not been signed.