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Time for COD to pay faculty fairly

As Illinois' largest and most-respected community college, the College of DuPage has a tremendous impact on our local economy and on the lives of our students. With the support of our state government and our local property owners, COD offers students a world-class education at an affordable price, putting them on the path to successful and productive careers.

Much of the credit for COD's excellence goes to its dedicated faculty members, who do an outstanding job of preparing students for future success.

Back in 2015, when the Higher Learning Commission put COD on probation after a series of scandals related to a former administration, the faculty stood up and fought to protect COD's accreditation.

Faculty members went even further to help COD get back on its feet by agreeing to a contract extension with no yearly base salary increases. Now their contract has expired, and faculty are asking for a modest increase in base salary.

But instead of sitting down with the COD Faculty Association leadership and coming up with a new contract that makes sense for everyone, COD President Brian Caputo and the trustees are threatening to hire more than 140 new temporary replacement instructors.

That's just wrong. This year, COD students will shell out more than $56 million in tuition payments. They deserve excellent, experienced, well-qualified faculty instructors - not a group of hastily hired temps who lack the experience and qualifications that have distinguished COD faculty for decades.

The people of DuPage County care about education. We are proud that COD offers affordable, accessible, high-quality educational opportunities to all. It's time to resolve this dispute, pay the faculty fairly, and make sure that COD students get the top-tier educational experience that they (and we) deserve.

State Rep. Terra Costa Howard

Glen Ellyn

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