The Board of Trustees Hears Our Message

Today’s showing at the Board of Trustees meeting was very successful! Fifty-five people showed up to the Board meeting and those of us wearing black far outnumbered everyone else! During the public comment portion of the BOT meeting, we had two speakers:

Kristi Brownfield, on behalf of Graduate Assistants United, delivered a statement urging the Board to make the public commitment to improve student health care by agreeing to follow the guidelines set out in the new Patient Affordable Health Care Act. You can read a text version of her remarks here:

GAU Health Care BOT Statement 07-14-2011 [PDF]

After Kristi was finished, William Stodden, a member of GAU, came to the podium to deliver our message about bargaining. He delivered the statement on behalf of the presidents of the four IEA-NEA unions on campus, the Association of Civil Service Employees, the Faculty Association, Graduate Assistants United, and the Non-Tenure Track Faculty Association. The letter asks the Board of Trustees to urge the teams bargaining on their behalf to come to the table and settle contracts. The 3400 members of those four unions have been working without a contract for 379 days as of July 14, 2011. You can read a text version of his comments here:

Union Presidents’ Letter to the Board of Trustees 07-14-2011 [PDF]

We also have video of Stodden delivering the statement available here on Youtube (via shaky camera phone, so I apologize for the quality!).

News coverage:
Union members protest to SIU board [The Southern]

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures taken by David Vitoff during the meeting: