Elections for leaders of the university faculty union will be in March, but the position nominations were announced Tuesday.

Eastern’s chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois received nominations for executive committee positions and other state delegates or representatives.

“We’re in the position now of having multiple candidates from some of these positions; which we’ve never had,” UPI president David Radavich said.

Charles Delman, the current contract chief negotiator, was nominated for chapter president. English professor John Allison and secondary education professor Pat Fewell were nominated for vice president.

Allison was the active chief negotiator for a month during negotiations.

Radavich said the chapter president serves a three-year term and vice president serves two years.

State UPI president Sue Kaufman was nominated for the union local president.

Radavich said Kaufman was nominated because of her background at Eastern. She is now on leave as a journalism professor at Eastern while she serves as acting chair of the state’s Higher Education Committee.

Three candidates were nominated for the chapter executive assistant.

Other nominations included a position for a Unit A or tenured faculty representative, Unit B representative and Unit B academic support professionals representative.

Delegates also were nominated to attend the conference of Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.

Radavich said the local chapter usually sends six delegates to each conference held every two years.

The delegates bring resolutions on such issues as health insurance and tenure-track to the IFT, which can then be sent to be reviewed at a national level with the AFT, he said.

Radavich was not nominated, but previously expressed not wanting to move for another term as chapter president.

“I said that I wanted to step down. I think it’s really healthy to bring in new people,” he said.

Radavich said it’s advantageous to bring union officials and representatives from varied academic departments, such as Delman, a mathematics professor, for president.

“We haven’t had someone in the sciences,” he said.

As a past president following elections, Radavich said he will still serve on the union chapter’s executive committee.

The state-wide elections will be in late March with winners announced later that month or early April, he said.