University of Hawai‘i students plan to walk out of class Thursday morning in an effort to avert a potential faculty strike.
Student organizers say they will stage the protest to try to pressure the governor’s office and faculty union back to the negotiating table for a contract settlement. The walkout is sponsored by the Student Caucus, a student government organization that includes members of every campus’ student government association, and will come one day before the UH faculty union stages its own protest at the State Capitol.
While faculty will call for a pay raise, students plan to try to rescue their semester.
"The students are now in a position where we are about to lose a semester of school," said Calvin Keith, vice president of student government at Honolulu Community College. "A lot of us are starting to get very upset. We feel like it’s ridiculous this impasse has gone on this long."
Some of the 100 posters students at HCC have already made and plan to display in a march along Dillingham Boulevard: A semester is a terrible thing to waste; Someone please do something; Why are we being punished?
The faculty union and the governor’s office have spent more than two years unsuccessfully negotiating a contract for faculty members at the 10-campus system. While some recent offers and counteroffers have been made, the University of Hawai‘i Professional Assembly is heading for a strike vote March 19-21. Faculty members have not had a pay raise since 1998 and are asking for about 15 percent over four years, while Gov. Ben Cayetano’s negotiators have offered 6-7 percent over two years with the chance to earn a merit raise. The salary range for the entire 10-campus UH system ranges from $30,000 to $149,000, with most faculty members falling toward the bottom end of that scale.
Student government officers on each campus are coordinating the protests and are collecting signatures on petitions. While the level of involvement will vary campus to campus, there should be some show of support from each part of the UH system, said Keith.
"This is a statewide effort," said Louisa Pereira, treasurer of the UH-Hilo Student Association. "From the Big Island to Kaua‘i, we are all going to do the walk simultaneously. The Caucus agreed that we should all do it together."
Pereira, a senior majoring in sociology, has been working on getting police permits for a march. "Our hope is that it will avert a strike and give our teachers a fair contract," she said. "Give our teachers something they can accept. Many of us on the line are graduating. If the strike takes longer than anticipated, what happens to us?"
The students will leave class by 10 a.m., some of them to demonstrate in visible areas on their own campus, while others will head to the Capitol.
"I’ll definitely be there at the Capitol," said Chris Garnier, the Manoa campus’ president of the University of Hawai‘i Association of Students. "It’s to show the teachers we support them. If we lose the semester it’s going to be terrible for the entire state."
Students are spreading the word through fliers and e-mail trees, Garnier said. But they are making clear that a walkout is strictly voluntary. The community colleges have led the charge for an organized and coordinated walkout, but Garnier said he wants to show support from Manoa. "We’re encouraging it," he said. "It’s to show that there’s unification."
