News analysis: Strike plan unlikely to affect most undergrads

Given the attention-grabbing tactics used by Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania in the past, the planned strikes will surely create an audible presence on campus this Thursday and Friday.

Yet despite the expected crowd of 400 picketers, undergraduate students will be impacted minimally if events go as planned.

School officials have stated that the University will remain open as usual and that they intend to allow undergraduates to move smoothly around campus. Moreover, GET-UP members have also said that they do not intend to interfere with undergraduates headed to class.

Students, for their part, have said that they expect their routines to remain unaltered.

GET-UP members have asked undergraduates to attend their classes taught by faculty and adjuncts, but not those taught by graduate students. They also ask faculty to teach their classes as usual, but not to hold the classes taught by graduate students.

Teaching assistants taking part in the strike have expressed their concern for their students and have said they will try to minimize any damage.

Andreas Ringstad, a doctoral candidate in the Political Science Department, is a TA for "Introduction to Political Science." He plans to participate in the strike and has canceled Thursday and Friday recitations, although he has rescheduled his sections to meet on Monday.

"I hope it doesn't affect [students] much," Ringstad said. "The idea with participating in this is not to punish undergraduates. I think that the graduate students do have in mind the interests of the undergraduates."

Ringstad is on par with many other TAs participating in the strike who will also reschedule recitation sections to minimize academic harm to their students.

Regardless of graduate student intentions, many faculty members are taking precautionary measures to ensure that recitations accompanying their classes are held on schedule.

Classical Studies professor Peter Struck has a midterm scheduled during the recitation sections of his "Greek and Roman Mythology" course this Thursday and Friday. As stipulated in School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston's e-mail sent out to all faculty members in SAS, Struck is not allowed to directly ask his graduate teaching assistants if they will be participating in the strike.

Struck said that he senses his TAs will not be striking but that "we're going to make contingency plans if they do, and that will be my responsibility to take care of that ... . We'll make sure the midterm is delivered on time."

Struck felt it would not be fair to change the date for his students, who have been studying for the scheduled exam. He said that he hopes the strike will not hinder undergraduate students' academic intentions.

"All I can say is that the situation is one where I can make accommodations for, so I don't expect the effect to be too substantial ... . My hope is that there is no effect at all on my undergraduates. If you're talking about a detrimental effect that may get in the way of their education, then no, I don't believe that will happen, and I wouldn't let it happen."

While many faculty members like Struck will cross the picket line and hold their classes as usual, GET-UP members have been trying to gain support from professors. Currently, at least 32 faculty members have signed a petition that calls for the administration to drop its legal appeal and to let the votes from last February's election be counted.

But while most faculty have said they hold a definite position on the strike, undergraduate students are more ambivalent to the upcoming events. A small number of undergraduates have pledged their support for GET-UP and will be out on the picket line, but most have not given much thought to the matter.

Regardless of their position, most undergraduate students agreed that the strike will minimally affect them.

"I don't really think it will have too much of an impact on my academics, personally. I'll probably go to class, because each time I miss class, I feel like I miss a lot, just from an educational standpoint," College junior Kristina Go said.

"I was talking with some friends earlier, and I was thinking of school in terms of tuition, and if you miss a class, you're losing out on, like, $200 worth of instruction, so I'm probably going to have to cross the picket line, even though I might make some people mad," Go said.

College senior Mariama Jerrell added, "My sentiments are that undergraduates aren't really up in arms, but they are a little apathetic to the cause."

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