U of Illinois leaders see faculty strike as unproductive

URBANA, Ill. (AP) - Top administrators at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus say they want to continue negotiating with non-tenured faculty members on a contract.

But interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson and interim Provost Edward Feser said in an emailed statement Tuesday that they don't believe the current two-day strike is the right approach.

Members of the Nontenure-Track Faculty Coalition Local 6546 started a two-day strike on Tuesday that they hope will help speed up contract negotiations that have dragged on for more than 18 months.

It was not immediately clear how many of the roughly 500 members are on strike or how many classes are affected.

Non-tenured faculty work on short-term contracts and want longer-term deals based on years of service.

Wilson and Feser said they support longer contracts based on merit.