Hundreds of striking graduate students and supporters gathered outside of commencement ceremonies Friday on the University of Rochester’s River Campus.
Striking PhD students say they support this year’s graduates but are protesting the university administration, which they say is acting in bad faith and refusing to allow students to vote on forming a union.
The administration has said that students can go to the National Labor Relations Board instead.
“I think there's a way to walk a line here where we are not thumbing our nose at graduating seniors,” said George Elkind, a third-year visual and cultural studies PhD student, “but also saying, ‘Admin, ... you should be ashamed to show your face in public as long as you're refusing to resolve this labor dispute.”
A university spokesperson on Friday provided no comment on the protest, but said the administration’s position that the National Labor Relations Board is the proper venue. That board is currently in upheaval.
"To not have that board is really -- I think it's ... disgusting that the U of R has taken advantage of that,” said Richard Winter, vice president of Communications Workers of America Local 1170.
Winter, a decades-long union member, was one of several hundred graduate students and their supporters who gathered Friday morning along the riverbank across the street from Fauver Stadium where graduation ceremonies were happening.
“They use these U of R grad students to teach classes, to teach students, to assist professors who make very generous salaries, and then they don't want to compensate them fairly,” Winter said. “I think workers have to stick together, (it) doesn't matter what kind of work you do.”
Commencement began about 45 minutes late, according to a university spokesperson. Rich Handler, chairman of the UR board of trustees, was one of the first speakers of the program.
Demonstrators booed him early on in his speech.
“I don't care. Let's keep going,” Handler laughed.
As he ended his address, he referenced the demonstrators.
“Each of you know what's right and what's wrong in your hearts,” Handler said to graduating students seated along the football field. “You know this day is for you. You know this day is for your parents and your grandparents and your loved ones. You also know that this day wasn't taken away by other people with their issues.”
Like Handler, UR President Sarah Mangelsdorf’s address to graduates also was peppered with noise and chants from the rallying crowd outside the event.
“You have learned to be leaders. You have learned to listen to all voices with respect. Some people haven't learned that, but that's okay,” she said to an outpouring of boos and jeers. She laughed and continued: “And (you have learned to) seek out viewpoints that might challenge your own.”
The event marked the fourth week of an ongoing strike by PhD students that began in late April.
