Staff Council

The Civil Service-Administrative/Professional Council Merger

For nearly half a century, the Civil Service (CS) and Administrative/Professional (AP) Councils have served as key shared governance bodies representing the staff of Illinois State University. While both councils have served their respective staff groups well, recent changes and ongoing concerns led the councils to work together in developing a proposal to merge into a single, united Staff Council that includes both CS and AP representation. This culminated in votes of both councils two years ago to merge.

Discussions about the possibility of a merger and the nature of a new, staff-wide council have been ongoing between the two Councils for several years, starting with a cross-council working group and extending to campus-wide information sessions that the councils hosted in the Fall semester of last year. At this stage, there is general agreement on the benefits of such a council, what major concerns would have to be addressed, what such a council should look like, and how a staff council would function in ISU’s shared governance structures.

To ensure adequate time and consultation with ISU staff, the CS and AP councils will spend much of this calendar year engaging in an outreach campaign to provide information about the work done so far and to solicit feedback. Most months from now through November, we will provide an in-depth discussion of some aspect of the merger or respond to the feedback and questions we receive. We want to ensure that your voices are recognized and heard, so we plan to devote two months to addressing questions you send to the Councils. This will conclude in November with an advisory survey of all staff, where you can make your views known, and we can take that into account in making final decisions about the merger.

The planned topics are as follows for 2024:

March – Introduction and timeline of the plans for this series
April – History of work on the merger, reasons for proposing the Staff Council
May – Structure of merged council, part I: Staff Council structure, membership, and executive board
June – Response to feedback received from March through May
July – Break
August – Structure of merged council, part II: Subcommittees on the Staff Council
September – External representation and position in ISU shared governance
October – Response to feedback received from June through September
November – Summary, conclusion, call for staff-wide advisory survey
December – Results of the staff-wide advisory survey, plans moving forward

Your feedback is vital to this process and central to maintaining ISU’s practice of shared governance. Not every question can be answered at this stage, and not every decision can be made immediately—some things would have to be determined by the Staff Council. However, members of the CS and AP Councils will do our best to answer every question we can. Feedback, including questions and comments, should be sent to this feedback form.