In two weeks, a number of Cardiff faculty and lecturers intend to go on strike to protest a proposed slash to their pensions. The university’s response has been to ignore the strike and proceed as if nothing is happening. Our Cleopatra professor, at the start of class, told us that the newsletter that Cardiff University sent us is disingenuous and that he intended to set the record straight in an unbiased manner. He proceeded to editorialize for the next twenty minutes (“I’m not gonna tell you to sign the petition that’s going around, but…sign it.”)
“In the midst of a strike you get really petty,” he told us. “Like, you get into office guerrilla warfare. I stole like three hundred tacks. And I printed out pro-strike posters in color and blue-taped them all over the hallways.”
If the professors go on strike and class is cancelled, there are no negative repercussions for students—the material that we would have covered in class during that time simply won’t be on the exam. If the university arbitrators can’t resolve the issue in the next two weeks, we’re basically going to get an extra spring break. As somebody who isn’t terribly fond of school, I find I have little objection to this.