Students support Faculty Association in front of Warriner Monday morning

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Students held a sit-down protest at 7 a.m. in front of Warriner Hall Monday in support of the striking faculty.

“I’ve been met by so many faculty and students who have supported me,” said Detroit sophomore Vincent Thurman, who had been at Warriner since 9 a.m. and said he planned to stay all day.

Thurman said University President George Ross visited his leadership class, and he asked Ross what he wanted from future CMU leaders. Ross responded by saying he wanted students to stand up and get involved.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Thurman said. “I’ve lost a lot of the esteem I had for President Ross because he’s not leading with integrity.”

Faculty Association members started striking Monday morning, after being without a contract since June 30. An FA bargaining team and CMU officials met throughout the week of Aug. 15, but no deal was made, leading the faculty to declare the strike.

Middleville sophomore Lydia Scholtens said the administration is trying to bully the professors.

“My mother is a teacher, and we’ve had this conversation at the dinner table before,” Scholtens said. “We believe that education has taken a back seat.”

Scholtens said she does not understand why teachers and professors are now the public enemy.

“We just have to stand up,” Scholtens said. “This isn’t fair to the teachers.”

Students need to research the situation and form a more concrete opinion based on facts, Scholtens said.

“I see a lot of people on Facebook complaining about the teachers, saying that they’re stupid for striking,” Scholtens said. “I understand that students are upset because there’s no class, but they need to do their research and form a real, fact-based opinion.”

Scholtens and Thurman agreed they hoped more students would turn out.

“There’s been a good turnout so far,” Scholtens said. “Some people are sitting and some people are walking around, so it’s hard to see how many people are really here, but they’re here.”

Otisville sophomore Alex Middlewood was at the event when it started.

“To me, I don’t feel like it’s fair for our faculty to take pay cuts and health care cuts if they still raise our tuition,” Middlewood said.

Middlewood said she felt that the administration should take cuts before the teachers.

“We’re asking for a little bit of shared sacrifice,” said Jackson senior Bryant English. “If President Ross is going to ask for cuts, he should be the leader that he says he is and take cuts first.”