Faculty will picket Old Main’s Lincoln Avenue gate Wednesday to voice complaints about suffering academic quality.

University Professionals of Illinois, Eastern’s faculty union, is negotiating a new three-year faculty contract with the administration. UPI said the administration is not only hiding the budget from faculty, but hiding behind it as a reason not to offer adequate faculty compensation or hire more professors.

“We feel the administration has not been forthcoming in discussing the budget,” said David Radavich, English professor and president of Eastern’s UPI chapter.

Radavich said an enrollment increase of more than 600 students and an 8.5 percent tuition increase has resulted in a 3 percent overall budget increase since last year. He said faculty do not believe enough of that student-generated revenue is being directed toward academics.

Additionally, Radavich said, the extra students have resulted in a work overload and crowded classes, citing a “writing-intensive” class that contains 274 students.

“That’s ludicrous,” Radavich said.

The administration has said the budget has fallen short about $2.2 million because of “unavoidable expenses,” but Radavich said the union does not believe that excuse either. He said the “shortfall” comes from budgeting for items the administration might like to have.

While the picketing suggests some difficulty in negotiations, Radavich said the union is still a long way from striking. Getting an outside mediator would be the first option, and that step, too, would be well in the future, Radavich said.

The administration released its statement Tuesday night. The statement read, “We have been working very hard to settle the contract through negotiations at the bargaining table. We have nothing to say about the actions of the the UPI until we have an opportunity to review their statement about the picketing and until we review any materials may be distributed at tomorrow’s planned activity.”

Charles Delman, vice president of Eastern’s chapter of the UPI, said by picketing, the UPI is trying to send a message to the administration because they do not believe their concerns are being heard.

“I think the administration needs to understand how much the faculty care about the settlement,” Delman said.

In a meeting on Monday, the UPI decided to take the move to picket to show they believe the current state of negotiations is unacceptable.

Likely more than 100 faculty members are expected to picket, Delman said.

The faculty will picket from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.