BY LESLIE MARSH

Guest blogger Leslie Marsh is an undergraduate in her senior year at Wright State University (WSU). Below is her response to a letter from Alpana Sharma, chair of the English languages and literature department, notifying her about the conversion of her full-semester course to a compressed seven-week course due to the ongoing WSU faculty strike.

Dr. Sharma, 

I am incredibly disappointed that the Board has come to the decision to cancel full-term classes and offer them as 7-week B-term classes. I know this will do deep damage to the university, the students, and all of the faculty at Wright State University. While I believe some students and faculty will accept whatever is offered during upcoming negotiations, I doubt that the organization will regain its strength as quickly as the Board and President Schrader would like to believe. I also believe the university will suffer an exodus of a majority of their best and brightest faculty, staff, and students.  

I will consult with AAUP and their legal counsel as well as with the advisors during the upcoming advising sessions, although I am currently not inclined to attempt to complete these courses in the very short time they are now being offered. This decision does not do any favors for me as a student, nor does it do justice to any future students I would face in my own classrooms with the last-minute education I would receive in these inadequately prepared classes.  

In addition, I feel it is entirely inappropriate to ask students to turn in work prepared for another professor in order to “help her/him in the designing of the 7-week course.” This is work that was prepared thanks to the efforts of the professors who are currently being railroaded out by this administration and any materials handed over to incoming adjuncts would be stolen intellectual property.  

Although I am disheartened by the actions of the administration after all the work I have done in good faith, I am trying to believe that there are still people with morals who will stand with the professors for the right of collective bargaining. I believe keeping that right is vital to ensure beneficial working conditions for professors and excellent learning conditions for students like me. 

Sincerely, 

Leslie Marsh