"Everything Was Cut Immediately": LIU Faculty and Students Protest Lockout & Class Cancellations

democracynow.org - This was supposed to be the second week of classes at Long Island University’s campus in Brooklyn, but the administration barred all 400 members of the faculty union from its Brooklyn campus after their contract expired on August 31. The new proposed contract would slash pay for adjunct professors and also pay faculty lower salaries compared to those earned by colleagues at a satellite campus. As part of the lockout, LIU cut off professors’ email accounts and health insurance, and told them they would be replaced. LIU President Kimberly Cline has assured students the lockout would not affect the beginning of the school year. But since the semester began, classes have been taught by replacement teachers, and many are assigned to teach subjects for which they have no experience. We speak with locked-out professor Srividhya Swaminathan, chair of the English Department at Long Island University Brooklyn. We are also joined by Kiyonda Hester, an LIU social work graduate student who is president of the campus group Activists for Social Justice and joined hundreds of students in walking out of classes on Monday.
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[@richardcopeland5934]

As a British graduate I find this situation truly dispicable. Only in America can stupidity rear its own ugly head

[@HitomiNoRyu]

Over the past year, I got sick and tired of my usual news outlets bombarding me with clickbait when I want to be informed about a current event. Over the past 4 months however I can safely say that I can trust Democracy Now! to provide me with actual news stories. Thank you~!

[@seanjenkins331]

Educators are woefully paid at every level and that breaks my heart. But it criminal what public colleges and Universities charge students in tuition. I don't wanna students who come from wealthier families get to go the schools that offer a stronger education at unfairly disproportionate rates than median income students. However, there need to be schools that are affordable

[@AmenIamHotepRA]

*7 countries where college is free:* *1. Brazil:* Brazil’s universities charge registration fees, Noack notes, but they do not require regular tuition. Many of them also offer courses in English. *2. Germany:* Germany has 900 programs in English, and is eager to attract foreign students to tuition-free universities due to the country’s shortage of skilled workers. *3. Finland:* Finland doesn’t have tuition fees but the government does warn foreigners that they have to cover living expenses. Imagine going to college and only worrying about room and board. *4. France:* France does charge tuition - but normally around 200 dollars at public universities. A far cry from what you’d pay in the United States, even in a state school. *5. Norway:* Norwegian students, including foreigners studying in the country, do not have to pay any college tuition. Be forewarned, however, of the harsh winters and high cost of living. *6. Slovenia:* If Eastern Europe is more your thing, Noack notes that Slovenia has 150 English-language programs, and only charges a registration fee - no tuition. *7. Sweden:* Sweden, a country which has so successfully solved so many of its social problems that there are now U.S. Sitcoms about the glories of moving there, has over 300 English-language programs. Although college there is free, cost of living may be pricey for foreigners. www.salon.com/2014/11/02/7_countries_where_college_is_free_partner/

[@kageeflowers8124]

that's what happens when you privatize education.

[@zatoichi3134]

follow the money, there's a financial fraud afoot.

[@anniedill5021]

The president of LIU -- Kimberly Cline -- is the very definition of incompetence. RESIGN NOW!!!

[@Taffy84]

Get the fucking pitchforks already!

[@warriorwaitress7690]

I'm assuming that LIU a private university? I think a Google search is in order here. If it is indeed private, I want to know where their private funding comes from. Whenever workers (professors) are getting shit on while customers (students) are getting ripped off, there's usually sickening greed involved, so it's always prudent to follow the money.

[@noviceprepper5397]

If what these two ladies are saying is true, the university is behaving totally unprofessionally and are wrong to do so. I support the teachers/students.

[@wburns5486]

It's odd how students continuously rally around teachers, but teachers never or hardly ever rally around students for the exploitation of high excessive tuition, job market, or predatory student loan practices... For instance when students were beaten and maced in the face at UC Davis, I didn't hear very many professors coming to their defense...

[@muramesa21]

A lot of fighting for students happens behind doors and it has lead to a number of professors "early retirements". Others are bound by debt from specking out. (irony at it's best)

[@fabrizio483]

Their contract expired, they didn't accept the new one, so were (rightfully) locked out. What exactly is the problem here?

[@Luke-te2ez]

Very relevant issue.

[@elenaherwagen3529]

The Faculty and students have to sue the administration. Something like this happened in Longy School in Boston, and they won!

[@keithe5549]

If they no longer have accreditation as a University all Federal funds should immediately stopped and they should be forced to refund tuition.

[@vivalafrida_8013]

I hope that president is forced to resign after this

[@robertthorpe7007]

If I were a student there , there would be a part of me that would want to see the administrative building burn to the ground.

[@stevenkalavity9879]

Doesn't this violate the contract of students who paid monies with the expectation of qualified faculty?

[@timothyhansen6581]

Hmm....If so many of the students are outside, & the teachers they want are outside, why don't they just set up classes outside, in a nearby park? As long as it's not on LIU's property, LIU cannot - or SHOULD NOT, at least - be able to do anything about it. And the students who don't attend classes on LIU's property because of this should demand their tuitions back. THAT should REALLY hit the board where it counts.

[@coreycox2345]

Sad.

[@peacefreedom4930]

I bet if the students all drop their schedules they would get this shit together quick

[@JasonCWaite]

Like they were getting an education in the 1st place.

[@jordannicolexxx]

thats sad

[@jacklingharibian554]

Our Education System is failing. The sooner you realize this problem, the sooner you can solve nearly all of the social justice issues that we face in this world. Otherwise, all of the problems associated with sex and violence in our society will persist from one generation to the next generation. The Education System is failing not just the students, but also the teachers, the professors, and the administrators. All students have the human right to earn an education. We need to make education into an inclusive environment. We need to allow all voices to be heard in the system, so that even voices who offer alternative theories and critical assessments of the mainstream social order must be heard. We need to allow all non-mainstream voices to have a place in the system so that they may express their views without experiencing any amount of depression, anxiety, fear, retaliation, and bullying. We cannot afford to dumb down the education system in America. We need to uphold far more higher standards in our system, and these standards should also uphold strong ethics, professionalism, and social justice. In fact, all students should have access to an education system that hires and trains competent teachers and competent professors. In fact, we should have zero tolerance for sexism, classism, racism, ageism, ableism, and speciesism. Also, we need to make sure we develop standards tests that do not create more sexism, classism, and racism in our society; otherwise, we are just making all notions of utopia ("paradise" on earth) into the most miserable and terrible dystopia ("hell" on earth).

[@mercurypoizund404]

amy " walter wynchell "goodman ,hero of east timor, to the rescue in the dakotas, the calvary has arrived.

[@ezrabiggins90]

I guess all of us who have applied for unemployment should feel ashamed. The professor in this interview believes she is irreplaceable. She is not. Faculty cannot be replaced adequately by administrators, obviously, but given a couple months of proper searching a whole faculty could indeed be replaced. I do not say this to suggest that what the university has done is defensible. Far from it. Nor should any scab labor be condoned. But I do object to academics' imagining themselves both "labor" and yet somehow immune to the realities faced by labor. There is more than a little elitism in her remarks, which typifies the academic class and which explains their appalling political quietism during the last decade and a half. At least the full-timers at this university have stood in solidarity with their adjuncts. Now if only they would stand in solidarity with the working class--even those who do not have advanced degrees.

[@omaryahya9405]

thank God I left that dump place

[@hayleyisabella5616]

It’s 2018 and they’re still on some sh**

[@didyasaysomethin2me]

The walk-out is a good thing. But it doesn't go far enough. If you truly wish to send a clear and powerful message to this university about where its real strength lies, TEACH your classes out on the street rather than staging a demonstration in the street. That is something they would NOT be able to turn a blind eye to or down play. And the wrong response, as we know from the incident involving the university that had its police pepper spay students staging a peaceful sit-in, will have long last repercussions for its reputation.

[@red_ford23]

That's either the stupidest way to run a University...Or the smartest way to run it out of business. Go Brooklyn! FOLLOW THE FUCKIN MONEY. Students, this is not a joke. Get your money back now before they act like nothing happened. You don't want to learn from scabs anyway. Seriously. GET A LAWYER AND A REFUND.

[@jordannicolexxx]

damn all those years in college and they cut the teachers pay . big buisness for u

[@JasonCWaite]

The free government/tax payers $ must have ended.

[@FloridaCoast]

AMY GOODMAN FOR PRISON LOCK HER UP

[@cptmiller132]

who would you rather have as president? apparently since they are not properly doing the polls we have started our own poll! share and send to as many people as possible to get the word out! www.strawpoll.me/11207912