Since adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago went on strike nearly two months ago, many of the school’s 6,500 undergraduates have expressed ardent support for their teachers, who make up about two-thirds of the professors at the arts-focused college.
To keep classes going, the college replaced many of those faculty members, who walked off the job on Oct. 30 — a walkout prompted by the college cutting hundreds of classes to help fill a $20 million budget gap.
Damian Cutler, an introverted film major, has stood on picket lines beside many of them since the first day of their strike.
“This whole event is the most outspoken and outgoing I have had to be in … basically my life,” Cutler said.
But other students feel caught in a conflict that is disrupting their studies. The union says nearly 600 of the part-time adjuncts went on strike, leaving their classrooms initially without an instructor. Columbia College says those classes were picked up by “361 adjuncts who are not striking,” and another 260 full-time faculty. Columbia College didn’t say whether those 361 adjuncts were newly hired, but a union official said fewer than 50 members have crossed the picket line.
Zoe Falcon said the part-time professors in all her classes have been replaced by other faculty who “don’t know what they’re teaching.”
“I had one professor take two classes, and in one of them she was reading directly off the original teacher’s slides,” the film student said. “In the other, she told us she didn’t have anything else to teach us.”
These abrupt changes at the tail end of the fall semester — which ends Saturday — are making the sophomore from Atlanta question her future at the college.
And they’re making acting major Anahkah Sims doubt that Columbia — the college she dreamed of attending since high school — will ever be the same without the small class sizes and the working professionals who made her want to attend the school in the first place.
Columbia officials say they had no choice but to cut the course sections because of the budget deficit. They say school leaders already made $40 million worth of spending cuts, including eliminating 124 positions, mostly on the administrative side, to bridge a budget shortfall they said began after the start of the pandemic. The school has also since seen a decline in enrollment.
“While students find themselves completing the semester in a way they did not envision, many students have expressed appreciation for the opportunity to learn from other teachers because of the professional perspectives they bring to the subject matter,” spokesperson Lambrini Lukidis said in a statement. “All replacement faculty teaching are dedicated experts who are committed to students’ successfully completing the semester despite the interruption.”
But Falcon, Culter and Sims tell a different story. Here is how these three students have experienced the strike, as told to WBEZ reporter Anna Savchenko.
Zoe Falcon: The big thing that kind of launched everything was a student-led rally at the end of October, I believe. I attended that rally where the initial issues of the class cuts were addressed. And then from there, we spent a week kind of like, “Is the school gonna go on strike?” And the strike was announced the next week.
Anahkah Sims: We went without classes for four weeks. And then all of a sudden, they said, “Hey, you’re coming back and you have new teachers and it’s on. It’s on you to show up or your grade will tank.”
Damian Cutler: I’ve personally had two classes that went fully on strike and [my professors] have now been substituted, which is frustrating for me as a student. I’d much rather continue being instructed by the professor that I had from Day 1 because, no offense, but at least from what I’ve experienced so far, they were better.
Sims: Every adjunct teacher in the theater department has been replaced, which is a large majority of them. I have three theater courses, and every single one of them now has replacement teachers.
Falcon: One of my classmates said that he was kind of feeling cramps in his stomach because of the stress. … I was crying because of it. Because it was just so strange. And like, “Where’s our professor? You’re not giving us answers.”
Sims: It’s saddening, but at the same time my teachers, especially my original teachers, have encouraged us all to use our voice and to stand up for what we believe in.
Cutler: I’ve been out here [on the picket line] since Day 1, fighting alongside the [faculty] union. And I will be until this is all resolved.
Sims: I’m so unsure about the spring and nervous about it. I want to be in a classroom where I have teachers who I’ve built a bond with.
Cutler: Like any student right now, I am getting impacted by fewer classes for stuff that I want to get into, which makes it harder for registration. And I know if the college continues to go in the direction of cutting more and more classes, it’s just going to be getting harder and harder each semester.
Falcon: I don’t know if I will be coming back up here for school next semester, or if I will be coming back up here to collect my stuff from my dorm.
Sims: Of course, having new experiences and learning from new people is important. But I want to know that I have the people who I rely on there. I’m going to come back. I want to come back. But without our adjunct faculty, I’m just not sure it’s the right decision.
Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ.
Contributing: WBEZ higher education reporter Lisa Philip
