Category: News & Updates

Legislation that would reduce pension benefits for all participants in the SURS system (FT, PT, CODAA, and non-CODAA alike) is now in play in the IL General Assembly as of Thursday May 26, 2011.

Among the provisions of SB 512:

• Forcing SURS members to pay hundreds, if not thousands, more into their pensions each year.
• Establishing 67 as the retirement age.
• Making members of SURS, who do not qualify for social security, rely on risky 401K retirement investment accounts for their retirement savings.

From the May 23, 2011 edition of The Nation.:

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education

What’s Going On?

SB512 is expected to move through the Illinois legislature this week; it is still in flux, but changes are being proposed that would either drastically increase your contributions (i.e. the amount of the SURS deduction taken out of each of your paychecks) , or force you to change to plans that  either have a higher retirement age (age 67) or higher risk/reduction of benefit to continue with the current lower per-paycheck contributions.

These changes affect all PT faculty members who currently pay into SURS, regardless of union status.  The IEA considers these changes unconstitutional and is strongly opposing them.  Learn more here.

What Can You Do?

Please contact your legislators (in person, if you can)  and let them know how these changes would affect you.  As minimally-compensated PT Faculty members, many of whom are nearing retirement age, these proposed changes would have profound negative impact on us.

IEA Members can use this tool to send a message to their State Representative and Senator.  If you are not an IEA member or CODAA member, you can independently look up the contact information for your State Representative and Senator at this website.

Please speak up about this important issue!

The following individuals next will serve on CODAA’s Executive Board:

President
Diane Rzeszewski

1st VP
Colleen McCoy

2nd VP
Birgit Noodt

Secretary
Rochelle Favale

Treasurer
 Stella Styrczula

Regional Council Representatives
 Cheryl Baunbach-Caplan
Joe Crickard