There has been a lot of speculation about a possible upcoming strike at West Chester University and let me tell you, I am not happy. When I first heard about the strike I was pretty angry with the professors, I thought “How could they do this to us?”; however, now that I know why they are possibly going on strike in the first place, I could not be more supportive of their choice.

First of all, the faculty and coaches have been working with expired contracts for nearly 450 days. Instead of threatening screwing with finals or graduation they chose to continue to work without a contract. The Commonwealth refused to meet with the faculty for 4 months and waited nearly a year before proposing over 249 contractual changes.

Second, the state is trying to diminish the quality of our education. The state wants more online classes and for graduate student adjuncts to teach more classes. Not only do these graduate students not have the qualifications to be teaching college courses, but they are receiving a severely low pay for doing so. This shows that the state is more interested in saving money than the actual quality of our education which is pretty messed up.

Third, the state wants to cut the professors pay, in turn giving us lower quality staff. The state wants to cut faculty benefits and give no pay increases for 2 years. After 2 years, they will receive a 1 percent increase in pay. The lowest paid faculty will have their salaries cut nearly 20 percent. Meanwhile, chancellors and university presidents are receiving increased pay.

If the strike happens, no classes neither in person or online will meet at 14 Pennsylvania state schools including: Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester University.

Personally, I strongly believe that the state needs to step it up and present a reasonable contract. The fact that the faculty has been working without a contract for this long is inexcusable. I stand by the faculty in their decision to strike and believe they should not back down until they get what they deserve and what we as students deserve.