After having an attendance monitor fill in for their striking instructor, students in History 101A, History of World Civilization to 1500, were taught by former employee Betsy George as the strike continues its second week.

Nearly 70 percent of students attended the 12:35 p.m. introductory history class Tuesday in Lawson Hall. Despite George having the syllabus on hand, students said they were frustrated with the complete difference in lecture content. Dissatisfied with the lecture’s progress, seven students left during a 10-minute span.

Nicholas Lach, a junior from Murphysboro studying automotive technology, and Michael Thomas, a junior from Chicago studying automotive technology, both left the classroom early.

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“It’s a joke,” Lach said. “There is nothing that holds any relevance to the class lesson or the outline.”

Thomas agreed.

“Our teacher was teaching us something completely different than what this lady is teaching us now, it’s like two different subjects,” he said.

Both students said despite their frustration, they will attend their sections.

Desiree Piatt, a senior from San Antonio, studying political science, said the strike has had a detrimental effect on her opinion of the university. She said her physics professor is striking, an absence that she believes derailed the class’s focus.

After logging into Blackboard today, Piatt said she noticed that everything related to the course has been taken down, including assignments, grades and messages. She said only a course syllabus remained.

Piatt said her substitute instructor is a researcher in the department. Instead of adhering to material from the book or lectures from the syllabus, she said he opted for experiments of his choosing that were unrelated to the original course material.

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Piatt said the course, which has 40 to 50 registered students, had only seven students in Tuesday’s lecture. She said the instructor told the class he would no longer be taking attendance and the course would be offered on a pass/fail basis.

Piatt said she’s very concerned by the change in class structure and its possible impact on her grade point average. She said it’s unfair that for the amount of work she put into the course, her final grade would only equate her work as a credit or non-credit summary.

Piatt said she’s already applied to another university and has received her letter of admission.

After transferring to SIU last fall, Piatt said she saw the university as a school where she could focus on her academics. With that now in jeopardy, she said she’s willing to deal with the troubles of transferring to another school for her last semester of undergraduate study.

Piatt said she paid to be taught by specific professors who hold merit and prestige, and if she was unable receive instruction from those qualified individuals, she would attend a university that met her requests.