USS leader voices concerns

Bill Ross, executive director of Undergraduate Student Senate, says that he strongly discourages faculty members from striking.

“My biggest concerns are that we’re going to lose incoming freshmen because parents don’t want their kids coming to a school on strike,” he said. “The faculty would lose the PR battle on it. It would look bad for the entire university. Parents don’t want kids learning from temporary professors.”

Ross said that he would advise students to “keep their ears to the ground, and be very watchful about what will happen.”

Students must voice their concerns to professors and let them know that they do not want or support a strike, Ross said.

Senior geography major Eric Abiecunas said that he does not think that a faculty strike is likely, but he is still concerned.

“I’m going to be graduating supposedly next spring,” he said. “I really wasn’t planning on being stuck here any longer than I already am.”

Abiecunas said that he wants a knowledgeable professor who can help him, not someone who may be new to the subject he is studying if replacement professors are used.

“The university needs money from students, and if teachers go on strike a lot of students will go other places. They’ll have a hard time finding students to come back,” he said.

Marcella Tomko, senior leisure studies major, is graduating in May.

She said that her mother is concerned with the idea of substitute professors and how well they will know the curriculum.

“I hope that they figure this out before the semester starts,” she said. “I’m graduating in May, and I want to get the education that I need.”

Contact academic affairs reporter Bethany Jones at [email protected].