The Strike is Over; Let’s Have One Last Look at What Happened
If you are a student at any Pennsylvania state school, you probably just received a text or email letting you know that the strike has ended and that classes will be back on Monday. But what exactly went down on Bloomsburg’s campus when we were all away?
- Out of approximately 425-450 faculty, only 45 showed up to campus today. All remaining faculty were required to sign-in if they wished to be paid for the day.
- Interestingly enough, there are around 100 faculty members who are not members of the teaching union. This means that about 55 non-union members did not show up during the strike.
- There were a few unproductive Q&A sessions. Evidently students were not happy with the vague and rehearsed answers which were being fed to them from all sides.
- Many professors began to panic as midterm grades are due next week. “Wednesday, midterm grades are due. Then the kids should really start to worry and get pissed off,” said one faculty member. Fortunately, it looks like none of us have much to be pissed off at now that the strike has ended.
- Many of the dorms were half-empty. Apparently a lot of students were confident that the strike would give them a five-day weekend, so they decided not to stick around. It looks like this one worked out in their favor.
Now that negotiations are over, things should return to normal for students and faculty. However, it’s safe to say that most of us will remember this past week for a very long time.
