Negotiations for a new three-year faculty contract continued Thursday unmediated.

“I would not say I’m optimistic,” said University Professionals of Illinois president David Radavich.

A survey, which began last Sunday and likely to continue through next week, has been conducted to poll faculty on a strike authorization vote, Radavich said.

He said the results of the survey cannot yet be determined, but faculty have expressed discontent with what the administration negotiating team has offered.

“There is strong support for strike authorization and rejection of the administration’s offer,” he said.

A tentative meeting to vote on a strike authorization vote is set for Wednesday. If the vote is in favor of a strike, the UPI executive committee will ask members for a second vote before the occurrence of a strike.

Thursday’s talks helped prepare for negotiations to continue Monday with federal mediator Jerry Carmichael, said Bob Wayland, director of employee and labor relations.

“I feel (talks) were very productive,” he said. “We … had some time to explore some ideas maybe the mediator can help us with. It was helpful to all of us.”

Wayland said discussion narrowed down the three issues of faculty compensation, workload and distance education the UPI has selected as topics of needed compromise before a contract settlement can be reached.

Active UPI chief negotiator John Allison said not much progressed in Thursday’s talks.

“We really didn’t reach agreement on any of those issues,” Allison said. “There was some movement, but not sufficient movement.”

He said negotiations have not yet yielded an agreement faculty will approve.

“We pretty clearly haven’t been offered something that we feel confident that the faculty will approve,” he said. “No contract is possible unless the faculty votes for it, unless there is a majority of faculty who say, ‘yes, we accept this.'”

Negotiations are always more difficult during a troubled budgetary period, Wayland said, but he hopes Monday’s mediated talks will be the last session.

“I’d like to think it’d be the last one,” Wayland said. “I know people’s patience is kind of wearing thin.”

Allison said faculty will hold a “demonstration of concern” at the Board of Trustees meeting at 8:30 a.m. Monday in the Grand Ballroom, especially since the board is not directly involved in the process of negotiations.

“We just want the board to be aware of the concerns we have,” he said. “We intend to gather … and then enter the Grand Ballroom and stand for 10 minutes to show that we aren’t a faceless abstraction, but real people.”