In travels to campuses in other countries, I have noted that the student government often exerts much more clout than in typical US universities. Our SRC, Student Representative Council, called a strike last week. According to my colleagues, a year or two ago they closed down the whole campus for 2 weeks. Wow!
I was, of course, totally bewildered by all this. I assumed it would NOT impact me. Perhaps some of my weaker students would cut class, but that is no different from non-strike weeks. I had heard a word here and there about students coming into classrooms and disrupting class. I had also heard rumors of students on strike assaulting lecturers and students.
We were doing our third try at freshmen orientation last Tuesday afternoon. About 45 min into it, we heard the telltale sounds of strikers coming. The students in the room grew visibly tense. Some started gathering their belongings, preparing to flee I supposed. A few faculty members stirred a bit, but I just sat there, dumbly, as is my usual response.
After a few minutes the strikers apparently moved on, so things returned to normal. The next day I was sitting in my office, and heard the strikers coming, so, of course, I did the right thing. I grabbed my camera and ran toward the noise.
Here are the strikers. It turns out that they menace everyone by... singing. It was 200-300 of them kind of chanting-singing in unison. I kinda liked it. I guess I coulda been assaulted, but i escaped this time.
G^d preserves us from a lot of bad stuff. I don't seem to notice that, I just notice when I have to experience bad stuff.
Thank you L^rd from all the unseen perils from which you have protected me, including violent singing strikers!
I was, of course, totally bewildered by all this. I assumed it would NOT impact me. Perhaps some of my weaker students would cut class, but that is no different from non-strike weeks. I had heard a word here and there about students coming into classrooms and disrupting class. I had also heard rumors of students on strike assaulting lecturers and students.
We were doing our third try at freshmen orientation last Tuesday afternoon. About 45 min into it, we heard the telltale sounds of strikers coming. The students in the room grew visibly tense. Some started gathering their belongings, preparing to flee I supposed. A few faculty members stirred a bit, but I just sat there, dumbly, as is my usual response.
After a few minutes the strikers apparently moved on, so things returned to normal. The next day I was sitting in my office, and heard the strikers coming, so, of course, I did the right thing. I grabbed my camera and ran toward the noise.
G^d preserves us from a lot of bad stuff. I don't seem to notice that, I just notice when I have to experience bad stuff.
Thank you L^rd from all the unseen perils from which you have protected me, including violent singing strikers!
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