UIC Senate Ratifies Council of Senates Statement of Concern Regarding Civil Service Reclassifications

THE UNIVERSITY of Illinois at Chicago Senate endorsed the Council of Illinois University Senates Statement of Concern regarding Civil Service reclassifications at its meeting on Oct. 29.

FOR SEVERAL years now, at the request of the State Universities Civil Service System (SUCSS), the University of Illinois has undergone an assessment process in which many Academic Professional positions and personnel are being converted to Civil Service positions and personnel.

THE COUNCIL of Illinois University Senates features representatives from each of the Senates of the 12 public universities in Illinois: Chicago State University, Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Illinois at Springfield, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and Western Illinois University.

THAT COUNCIL recently passed a Statement of Concern, which was ratified by the UIC Senate on Oct. 29.

THE STATEMENT reads: “The Council of Illinois University Senates is gravely concerned about the actions of the Executive Director and staff of the State Universities Civil Service System (SUCSS) toward reclassifying principal Administrative/Academic Professional positions within universities, as well as their adversarial audit activities and threat thereof, without adequate and widespread consultation, including with the Presidents, Chancellors, Faculty leadership, and Human Resource Directors of the respective campuses.

“THESE ACTIONS strike us as both arbitrary and capricious, and lacking in the transparency we expect from our public bodies.”

IN THE audits of UIC jobs conducted in September 2008 and in the spring of 2009, SUCSS determined that some jobs selected for review were inappropriately classified as Academic Professional (AP) positions and therefore had to be converted to an appropriate Civil Service (CS) classification.

UIC AGREED to comply with the recommendations put forth in the audit report by SUCSS, develop processes to ensure tighter position management protocols for APs, transition jobs incorrectly classified as Academic Professional to Civil Service, and evaluate and document each AP job with appropriate job descriptions.

FOR MORE about the Council of Illinois University Senates, see http://cius.illinoisstate.edu/, call (309) 438-8735, or email acsenate@ilstu.edu.