Association’s vote doesn’t come as a surprise

Students expressed mixed feelings about the strike, but some said they weren’t too surprised by the Faculty Association’s overwhelming support for their legislative body to call a strike anytime before Feb. 3.

Robert Buckley and Broadwater Wilbur were at the first floor of the Student Center at the same the association’s press conference was taking place a floor above.

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“They need to do what they need to do to get what they want, but I don’t think they’re considering the students, really,” said Buckley, a junior in engineering from Chicago.

However, Wilbur, a junior in advertising from Indianapolis, Ind., sees the vote differently.

“It’s about respect, not money,” she said. “As a student, I really don’t want a strike because it does affect me. But in a way I can understand that at the same time, you go to class and you don’t have enough faculty members to actually teach the class.”

The association’s negotiating team will return to the bargaining table Friday placing added pressure on the administration to join them promptly. Of the 346 voters, 306 chose to support a strike should the negotiations process fail or remain stalled.

Wilbur said her education has already been negatively impacted.

“I had one of my sections cut and that kind of threw me back, so I don’t want them to strike because it affects me that way.” Wilbur said. “But not having enough faculty also affects me so either way as a student, I’m affected strike or no strike.”

Wilbur said there are some students who do not have enough facts and opinions from both sides to judge the association’s actions.

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“You have some students who really don’t know why they’re doing it,” she said. “You have some students that think it’s this reason and some students think it’s that reason. Nobody is really clear on what specifically it is.”

Alexis Wilcox, a freshman from Philadelphia, Pa., majoring in fine arts, believes the administration should take the vote as an urgent sign of low faculty morale and commit action to meet some of their demands.

“I think that if they don’t think they’re being fully respected. I think they should get at least some of their demands because teachers do make the system work,” Wilcox said. “I don’t want teachers that are disgruntled about coming to school, disgruntled about teaching me and half teaching me because there’s really no point in coming to class.”

Reporter Jane Huh can be reached at [email protected]