The UIUC Professional Advisory Committee (PAC) consists of ten academic professionals elected from ten constituencies on the campus--large units or collections of smaller units. "By authority of the [UI statutes . . . PAC is] empowered to investigate grievances submitted by academic professional staff members and to make recommendations to the Chancellor or the President based on its findings." It does not hear grievances based on allegations of illegal acts, such as discrimination or harassment. It is important to note that the PAC is purely an advisory body, not an advocacy organization.
As AAP's liaison to PAC, I have attended the last three PAC monthly meetings, which are open to all academic professionals-except for the closed sessions in which grievances are heard. I learned that the committee does try to take a somewhat broad view of its function, discussing various projects (such as surveys and training sessions) designed to advance the interests of academic professionals. But there appears to be a great reluctance to suggest anything that might conceivably displease some larger wheel in the campus bureaucracy.
The grievances processed by the PAC most often arise from the issuance of a terminal contract (T-contract) to an academic professional who is at odds with a supervisor. Of the dozen or so cases of this kind addressed in the past few years, not one has resulted in a recommendation to rehire the grievant--presumably in some other unit. (I'm told that one case might have come to this if the grievance had not been withdrawn.) It is an open question whether any such outcome ever could or would be acted upon by the provost or president.
Given the limited scope and power of PAC, academic professionals must look elsewhere for a strong voice to protect their rights and advocate their cases.