Striking members of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania may get little sympathy from undergraduate students on their way to classes Thursday and Friday.
Last week, a newly formed group began posting flyers with the slogan "SHUT-UP" on kiosks all over campus. The group's flyers mimicked GET-UP's logo and font. Some call for those opposed to the strike to wear red on Thursday and Friday.
A leader of the group described SHUT-UP -- which stands for Students Hurt by Union's Tactics-UPenn -- as a "loose organization" of students opposed to the graduate student union movement.
"We believe that the unionization movement will take its highest toll on the undergraduate population," said the leader, a College junior.
All members of SHUT-UP, which number around 20, have "remained anonymous in order to reduce the risk of retaliation from offended teaching assistants, graders and instructors," he added.
Many students not affiliated with SHUT-UP echoed the sentiments expressed by the group's flyers, saying that a strike by GET-UP would not garner any extra support from undergraduates.
"They're not going to change any opinions of anyone" by striking, Wharton freshman Christopher Jacob said. "We're not going to boycott our education."
Other undergraduates had issues with the fact that a strike might disrupt classes, especially during midterms.
"Demonstrations are good," said Engineering freshman Dan Berger, "but not [those] that would hinder other students' activities or education."
College junior Julie Adelizzi agreed.
"If they want to strike, it's their business," she said, "but they really shouldn't be interfering with me going to class and getting work done."
Because midterms are quickly approaching -- or in some cases already here -- many students said they do not plan to respect GET-UP's picket lines.
"If they strike, they aren't going to keep me out of class," College sophomore Jason Mowery said. "Not when I have midterms coming up."
Students also doubted whether striking would be an effective way for GET-UP to protest the University's policies.
"Having undergrads not go to class may not really be the solution to their problem," College freshman Katie Maglathlin said.
Many undergraduates said they did not even know anything about GET-UP's issues, and they wouldn't support a strike without more information.
"I'm not going to stick up for them without understanding what they're fighting for," Engineering freshman David Kahn said.
"I've seen some flyers about stuff like this," he added, but said that "they weren't very clear about what the problem is."
College exchange student Romain Caillaud suggested that GET-UP "should have tried to make more information about [their demands available] instead of just not showing up" to class.
Whether or not they agreed with GET-UP's decision to strike, some undergraduates felt that picketing would raise the awareness of their issues on campus.
"When you see someone with signs in front of the building that you have to go into, it forces you to look and know what they're doing and why they're striking," College freshman Jordan Danly said.
Wharton freshman Julia Abelkop said she does not currently side with either the University or GET-UP, but "if I don't have recitation because of [a strike], I'll probably want to know what's going on and identify with a side."
Not all undergraduates said they oppose GET-UP's planned strike.
"I have some really great teachers that are grad students, and they deserve more," College freshman Margaret Campbell said.
She added that a single missed class "is not too much of a thing to ask students [to] give up, considering that we all might be grad students soon."
Maglathlin agreed, saying, "I think [TAs] do put a lot of time into what they're doing, so they should be compensated."
But Mowery contended that "since they're getting a free education ... that's compensation in itself."
However, regardless of their stance on the strike, most students did not seem too worried that the protests would affect them directly.
