SWIC approves raises for part-time teachers, higher tuition for faculty

The Southwestern Illinois College Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved raises for part-time employees.

The workers will get a 3 percent hike, effective for the spring semester through the summer semester of 2017.

The raises cover 438 hourly teachers who are not members of the adjunct faculty bargaining unit. They’re wages shadow the raises the union adjunct faculty members receive.

“The nonbargaining unit employee group is traditionally considered for wage increases upon completion of collective bargaining with the adjunct faculty union,” SWIC spokesman Mike Fleming said.

Teachers outside of the adjunct staff union can’t exceed six hours of work a semester. They currently make $45-$50 an hour.

See what SWIC employees made last year

In other business Wednesday, trustees:

▪ Voted to decrease employee discounts for tuition.

Currently, staff members pay $2 per credit hour to take classes. Effective for the summer and fall registration terms of 2016, employees will have to pay 25 percent of the cost of the standard tuition rate which averages $113 a class hour. That comes to about $28 per credit hour for employees.

The hike applies to administrators, office and technical staff, part-time faculty and other part-time non-union employees, Fleming said.

▪ Accepted a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Community College Board for a total of $448,300.

The money is to be used to pay for Highway Construction Career Training, predominantly for minorities and woman, to be taught at SWIC’s East St. Louis Center in 2015.

The grant is a $7,550 decrease over state and federal funding provided to run the program in 2015.

▪ Approved payment of an increased premium of $224,490 for stop loss insurance for employees. SWIC will pay $168,368 of the increase and employees will pay an additional $56,122.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 8:27 PM with the headline "SWIC approves raises for part-time teachers, higher tuition for faculty."