On April 12, 2016, the University of Illinois Department of English issued the following statement in support of our non-tenure track colleagues:
We, the faculty of the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in continuity with resolutions we have passed in previous years, call upon the university administration to bargain in good faith with the Non Tenure Faculty-Coalition and agree to a contract along the lines that the NTFC has proposed. We believe that agreeing to such a contract is essential to maintaining and improving undergraduate education. Because our non tenure faculty are indispensable to the university’s commitment to excellent teaching and research, we express our support for the NTFC, including our support for the right ofnon tenure faculty to participate in a lawful work action without retaliation.