The Attack on Teachers Goes to College
The dramatic lockout of faculty at Long Island University in Brooklyn this fall brought home the reality that what is happening in higher education is closely related to the attack on education in our K-12 public schools.
On August 31, 2016 the contract between the faculty on the Brooklyn campus and Long Island University (LIU) was due to expire. The negotiating team was told on that day if they did not accept the contract, faculty would be locked out.
The faculty members turned down the contract offer but did not vote to strike. In response, LIU cut off professors’ email accounts and health insurance. The professors were locked out of their classrooms and told they would be replaced. If faculty members went into the university buildings where their offices and classrooms were, they were told they could be criminally charged for trespassing.
Some of those faculty members had been teaching at LIU for twenty or thirty years.
As I listened to some of them express their shock at being treated so poorly to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, I was reminded of what I have heard K-12 teachers in schools across the country say about endless budget cuts, union-busting, and the threat of being replaced by less-skilled (and cheaper) employees.
One of the issues of concern in the LIU contract was a two-tier wage system that would pay new full time and adjunct instructors less. In addition, the university wanted to stop funding the Adjunct Benefits Trust Fund which helps adjunct professors buy health insurance.
After the lockout was announced, the school administration replaced the faculty with non-faculty employees, and placed advertisements on Monster.com for replacement instructors.
The students did not stand for the actions taken by the school administration and joined the teachers in protest, chanting," LIU professors locked out, students walkout!"
On September 15, the twelve-day Long Island University lockout of the school’s faculty The Attack on Teachers Goes to College | The Progressive: