Tuesday, September 8th
Update to students:

You might have received messages from President Russi and VP Snyder this morning. Their messages claim that we are being unreasonable. Here’s the thing: after the faculty team bargained for 18 hours over the last 24, the administration produced a completely new document, one that we’d never seen before. If we signed it, we would no longer have input into how we teach and how the university is run as an institution of higher education.

The administration is going to court to try to get an injunction to force us back into the classroom without allowing us to make sure we still have a voice in the kind of education we deliver to you. We contest that our job action is not illegal: we filed an unfair labor practice against them last week saying they would not bargain.

Please understand: we want to make sure that we can control the kind of education you get, not the administration. We are afraid that they want to silence us to create yet another Big Box University. But your Oakland education is why you come here. We will not let them take it away from you, or from the students who come here 5, 10, or 20 years from now. Your children have the right to the same excellent educations you are getting from us!

Please be patient. We want to be back in the classroom, but if the classroom we return to is one that prevents us from teaching you the way you should be taught, what’s the point of higher education? Thank you so much for all your support, and please remember, we’re here for you.