Frustrated by what they see as a lack of progress in contract negotiations, the Non-Tenure Faculty Coalition will hold a strike authorization vote for its members at the University of Illinois Urbana campus next week.

In the first of three open budgeting meetings, U of I Urbana campus Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Edward Feser laid out a series of proposals in the event state funding continues to fall short for the next eight to ten years.  "The amount of labor going into the planning and budgeting process has dramatically increased," he says.

Interim Provost Edward Feser says the University of Illinois Urbana campus is making cuts in both administration and faculty hiring, as part of efforts to cope with the state budget impasse.

The acting chancellor of the University of Illinois' Urbana campus Thursday named Edward Feser as interim provost. Barbara Wilson said in a statement that Feser has the skills and experience needed to help address what she called "the many issues" facing the campus.