Dear colleagues:

Over the last year, the University of Illinois System joined other public universities in talks with the State Universities Civil Service System (SUCSS) to develop new procedures for exempting positions from the civil service system.

I write to share the news that an agreement has been reached that complies with state law while still allowing us to exempt academic professional positions from the civil service system, as appropriate. The system and university human resource offices are in the process of communicating the details of the new procedures and implementation plans.

This has been a tremendous effort by many stakeholders across the state, including our system and university human resources staff, system and university leadership, employee advisory committees, and members of our Board of Trustees who also serve on the SUCSS merit board.

I am grateful to all of them and to SUCSS for their vital role in developing innovative solutions that maintain our ability to hire academic professional positions. Staffing colleges, departments, and units with the best and most qualified talent to carry out our mission is crucial to our success.

Sincerely,

Tim

President