Recent claims by the University of Illinois administration that the strike was called due to an “11th-hour” issue that had not been part of the negotiations until Saturday,” is a smoke screen and utterly without merit. It is dishonest and shameful, but a perfect representation of the administration’s commitment to strategic incompetence. Their approach to resolving the pressing issues facing the students they represent is not a strategy that failed, but a continuing strategy of failure that succeeded.

The administration’s strategic incompetence is an attempt to disenfranchise students. Until the threat of a strike the administration disengaged and remains dismissive and indifferent. This led to an unprecedented 92% of participating GEO members to authorize a strike against the Board of Trustees.

The GEO compromised on salaries, parental rights, health care benefits, and other issues. Tuition waivers have been a primary issue from the outset of bargaining as clearly stated in GEO literature and press releases. You should consider how you might react after finishing years of coursework, finishing the qualifying exams for your PhD, years of sacrifice, working on a dissertation and hearing that tuition waivers are cut; meaning you are unable to complete your degree and find employment.

The ‘concessions’ of the administration equate to the substantive utility of a man’s nipples; -superficial, surface-level titillation (for some; at best) where only the absence could be more absurd then the presence.

David J. Roof,

graduate student