As Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania plans to move forward with a strike on Thursday and Friday, administrators are working to minimize effects on faculty and undergraduates.
"I see the kind of action that some of the graduate students are proposing as something that could be disruptive to our undergraduate students and to their educational process," University Provost Robert Barchi said. "We as an administration will do whatever we can to minimize that disruption."
Though no concrete plans have materialized, administrators intend to release a statement today detailing what students and faculty can do in the event of a graduate student strike, according to School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston.
"If faculty members know that one of the sections for which they are responsible may not be held, we hope the faculty member fills in," Preston said.
"Faculty will choose what they want to do with regard to going to their own classes," College Dean Rebecca Bushnell said. "We're going to be encouraging faculty to hold their classes on Thursday and Friday."
However, Bushnell noted, "I would imagine that there are some faculty who wouldn't hold class because they sympathize with the strikers."
Despite such preparations, administrators contend that a strike will have minimal effects on students and faculty.
"Graduate students right now account for less than 15 percent of the total contact hours that undergraduates have, and graduate students teach less than 3 percent of the undergraduate courses under their own initiative," Barchi said. "While they certainly participate in the educational activities as part of their training here, they are not in any way an indispensible part of that whole continuum of the undergraduate education."
Though GET-UP has yet to release any membership numbers, administrators are also confident that the group represents a minority, based on the number of students who show up for demonstrations, Preston said.
However, the GET-UP membership seems to be concentrated in specific departments -- which could leave some disciplines more hard hit than others come Thursday.
"The GET-UP movement seems to be pretty heavily concentrated in four departments -- English, History, Political Science and Sociology," Preston said.
Though a strike would be GET-UP's most visible action to date, the University is confident that such a demonstration will not garner any additional support for the organization -- and certainly not from undergraduates.
"It might well alienate our undergraduates who are being drawn into this almost against their will," Faculty Senate Chairman Lance Donaldson-Evans said. "My feeling is that they will not appreciate being put in the position of having to decide whether to go to class or not."
"I think it will certainly point out to the undergraduates how difficult these kinds of issues and strikes can be to the ongoing educational mission of the University and the potential disruption that a strike of this kind might create," Barchi said.
"It's certainly been a good attention-getter," Bushnell said.
In the face of the strike, administrators remain steadfast in their position toward graduate students and GET-UP members.
"Nothing has changed in terms of the University's position," Barchi said. "We feel that we are very, very committed to graduate education here."
