University faculty strike enters second day
SHIPPENSBURG - Striking faculty at Shippensburg University began their second day on the picket line with a sense of resolve and determination to stay the course for what they see as a commitment to quality education for their students, but hopeful that state negotiators would soon come back to the bargaining table to try to work out a compromise in their contract dispute.
Meanwhile, on campuses such as SU, few students bothered to go to class on Thursday, knowing their professors would not be there.
SU faculty strike after failed contract negotiations
Student Shumeta Khan described the campus as "kinda dead," with most students either going home or just not leaving their dorms.
"Without the faculty for clubs and events, there isn't much to do," she said.
Wednesday night saw many students going out to party, however, describing those who have not gone home for the duration of the strike as "either bored or drunk."
Students were told before the strike started to go to class in the event of a strike, both to see if their professors did show up and to allow the university to take roll.
Khan said they were told that if a professor did not happen to be in class, wait for 10 minutes before leaving.
"The school says that they don't know which professors are on strike and which are not, so if there is a professor who did cross the picket line and is teaching a class and you miss it, you would be counted as absent.," she said.
She believes the administration does know which professors are on strike, however, because they are mandated to report them.
"They have people come in and check for teachers, not students," she said.
SU students worry about potential faculty strike
Faculty members at all 14 state-owned universities, including SU, were on the picket lines Thursday for a second day. It is the first strike in PSSHE's history and the only strike Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties members have ever undertaken.
Meanwhile, APSCUF negotiators still are waiting for Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education to return to the bargaining table after their abrupt termination of the talks Tuesday night.
APSCUF President Dr. Ken Mash was at the Dixon Center in Harrisburg in front of Chancellor Frank Brogan's office during a live Facebook feed early Thursday afternoon, publically asking Brogan to send his negotiating team back to the table.
He said he is ready to resume negotiations at any time, but the strike would continue until a contract was agreed upon.
State cuts have hurt higher ed
SU Professor Dr. Kim Garris said the mood today on the picket line is one of resolve.
"Yesterday was a bit of a shock for us," she said. "I think yesterday we were all a bit stunned and hurt that the system had so little respect for us that they would walk away without using every last moment to try to come to some resolution."
She said striking faculty has been "amazed" by the support from their students.
"We knew that our students understood how important this issue is, but we could not have imagined that they would be equally committed," she said.
Throughout the day yesterday, students stopped by the picket lines just off campus to encourage the strikers. They brought food to the picket line and marched on the university president's office.
"They aren't just leaving it up to us or the administration to tell them what's right," she said.
The faculty contract expired June 30, 2015, and negotiations have been ongoing since late 2014.
Vicky Taylor, 717-262-4754