Strike

Good morning,

Risk Management has just informed us that a student strike had  been mobilised on the main campus and that we must be on red alert.

Kindly inform all staff.

Regards,

This e-mail came at 8.53 am but I was already at campus and found out by myself. I was going to participate in a lecture in Systematic Theology. We are three colleagues co-teaching the module. I was there to introduce myself.

When I arrived on campus I saw a few of the students and asked why they were standing outside. They told me that the doors to the lecture rooms had been locked by security.

One of my colleagues then told me about an e-mail that we received yesterday. It was from management about student funding. Apparently some students are in depth. University wants them to pay at least 50% but the students only want to pay 30%. Negotiations broke down yesterday and hence the strike. More experienced teachers understood that this was going to happen, when they got the e-mail yesterday, which did not speak about any strike. But had contained this sentence:

It should be emphasized that not all students who require funding can be funded
through the limited resources available.

So, the only thing I could do this morning was to go home. We’ll see if there will be classes tomorrow. Hopefully it will.

The door to room NAB 221 was closed ...

... and most of the students on their way home,