With a potential faculty strike loomings, Associated Students, Inc. and campus administrators are trying to keep students informed.
“The faculty strike is imminent,” Provost Lynnette Zelezny said. “We are working very hard behind-the-scenes to make sure that this is the time where we want to be very respectful and honor the faculty’s right to strike, and also that all members that are present on campus are behaving in a dignified way that preserves high integrity.”
Zelezny said she is sure there will be students who are confused during the strike, and she wanted to be proactive and set up tables around campus where students can ask questions or have conversations with people who know more information.
“It’s just to support students during a time which might be confusing for them,” Zelezny said.
ASI vice president of external affairs, Kaitlyn Sims said a FAQ document about the strike had been created and the document would be released on all the social media platforms a week before the strike.
Sims said ASI is remaining as neutral as possible on the strike in order to fairly represent and protect the rights of all the students.
If the California State University system (CSU) and California Faculty Association (CFA) cannot reach a consensus on collective bargaining after the five strike days, the CFA is allowed to continue with concerted activities, Sims said.
She said she does not know exactly when the concerted activities may occur, but that it was possible that there could be continuing strikes either this semester or next semester.
“On this front, the CFA has been really great about communicating ‘these are the days of the strike, this is what’s going to happen, this is what to expect,’” Sims said. “So I would hope that we can expect those kinds of communication as well about future strikes.”
Sims said students have a right to stand on the picket line, so long as it is on their personal time, not just ditching classes, and also that professors cannot require students to participate in the strike.
Another issue at the meeting was the drop-deadline change.
ASI President Abigail Hudson read parts of a resolution that she plans on taking to the Academic Senate.
“From two weeks after the semester instruction begins up through census date, a student may drop a course by obtaining a signature to drop the course on the appropriate form by the instructor or department office in which the course is offered,” Hudson said. “No record of enrollment in the course will appear on the student’s transcript.”
Hudson said in the resolution, after obtaining the required signatures, students would then turn the signed paper to the admission and records windows.
Hudson said though it would not be an ideal situation, a small fee up to $5 could also be implemented if used as a bargaining chip with the Academic Senate to pass the resolution.
“I don’t think you all [ASI] understand how hard it was even to get to this compromise,” Hudson said. “We were very lucky. If this would have been heard on Monday, we probably would have lost. This is the closest, and it may fail.”
