#gtff

@fendi #GTFF ROUND MI WITH DAT WILD GUN 🔥... BITCH ASS NIGGA! 💀 #fendi #blessfendi #bfffendi #mieshafendi1984 #KINGKONG 🙊 (at Hammond, Louisiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3qlM8Ept_X/?igshid=t3mjnt2fgvao

"I'd rather be grading/ then out here parading, I'd rather be writing / then out here and fighting, I'd rather be reading / then out here impeding" This was part of a chant yesterday.  And it got me to thinking about how frustrated I am that not only has this strike gone on as long as it has, but that it has grown into something so much more then workers demanding basic human benefits.  U of O has implemented measures that fundamentally undercut learning integrity for its students.  It has used this to break the GTFF 3544 and union labor in general in what can only be described as a power move to assert itself over who runs the university.  It has made me question what my degree with be worth when I receive it years from now.  And, sadly, it makes me want to Master out, and find a different school and start this process all over again. But you know what? No.  This was the choice I made.  The teachers in my program are amazing, the learning community here hasn't changed.  And I truly enjoy the opportunity to teach undergrads (which is not necessary, a part of other similar programs.)  To start applying to other schools would be giving up on the University of Oregon as a whole, surrendering it to corporatization and seeing it continue to win football championships while handing out essentially worthless degrees. (Including those players who serve the school so well.) So, while I would rather be finishing up final papers instead of watching social media for the next breaking news.  While I would rather be buying and playing Dragon Age Inquisition rather than questioning my academy's integrity and conduct.  While I would rather be making plans to see The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies and Into the Woods with friends instead of wondering what clothes to wear to the picket line on Monday . . . This remains a fight worth fighting. I do apologize to all my wonderful friends who are impacted by my (especially intense) vagueness in terms of plans.  It sucks that I can't commit to anything with definitive certainty.  Trust me, I would love to have these things nailed down. In short, U of O admins . . . you have interrupted my nerd-stream.  While this may seem the most trivial of things to get my hackles up about, it speaks to a fundamental part of who I am and I promise you I will strike an take action in anything my union does (or if the opportunity arises, does not) plan to bring this strike to an equitable and swift solution.

Breaking News (Corrected): For several days, the University of Oregon has been embroiled in a strike by the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, composed of graduate employees who teach courses in their own right or assist professors in l...(tharr be more)arge courses. Today, the University of Oregon administration escalated its tactics against the striking graduate employees that will have profoundly negative implications for undergraduates. The College of Arts and Sciences decreed unilaterally that final examinations and end-of-term assignments will be optional in graduate-assisted courses taught in the Departments of Linguistics, Philosophy, and Ethnic Studies. If the GTFF strike continues after Dec. 12, the Associate Dean for Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences will assign all grades in the affected courses, based on only a portion of the graded assignments and tests listed in course syllabi. In the Department of Philosophy, the department head and all graduate instructors have been removed as instructors of record. More departments may suffer a similar fate. This course of action threatens to damage the mentorship between teachers and students, relations of trust among colleagues, and between the university community and the administration. It also interferes with the ability of teachers to do what they do best: to educate students. This harms students who hoped to improve their grades with end-of-term writing assignments and final examinations. The apparent goal of this attack is to break the GTFF and not, as the administration insists, to maintain “academic continuity.” Every effort by faculty members and the university senate to deal with the problem of assigning grades during the strike in a manner that upholds the professional integrity of teachers and the expectations set out in course syllabi has been rejected. Furthermore, because the administration has declared final examinations to be optional, grades will not have the same value for all students. Such callous disregard for academic freedom and the welfare of students forces faculty and students between a rock and a hard place. Rather than work with faculty to create meaningful options for grades to be delayed, the administration has chosen to compromise the integrity of undergraduate education at the University of Oregon.

Inside Higher ED article about strike Dec 3

Corporatization of the University of Oregon continues apace.