From the Classroom to the Picket Line

With the ongoing budget crisis in California, the chancellor's office is debating whether to revisit the contract with faculty, as the state may not be able to pay for the promised raises. Janet Stemwedel discusses a few reasons why it's difficult for university faculty members to take part in a strike. For starters, she says, teaching is a "caring profession" and that profs do take an interest in their students. She also notes that faculty are used to being squeezed, saying that years in graduate school have "warped us." "It can feel almost like we're tempting the universe to smack us down if we complain too strenuously about our compensation," she writes.