Advocate Online

Standing in Revolution Square, Bucharest, listening to a young Romanian describe the moment when the people gathered into the square by order of Nikolai Ceausescu realized they didn't have to listen to him—that they had strength to reject the hated regime—I was reminded of the events leading up to the recent University of Hawaii faculty strike.

With the torture and killing of prisoners, Ceaucescu had gone a step too far. The resultant anger and outrage were enough to overcome years of habituated resignation and feelings of powerlessness, as thousands realized that as a collective they had the power to resist.

In Hawaii the faculty had, under the impact of budget cuts and continual threats of worse to come, felt increasingly unable to determine the fate of their institution.

They were alienated, morale was at an all-time low, but what could one do? Best to wait out the present governor and university president and hope for better out of the next regime.

But the governor also went a step too far; he threatened cuts in health and retirement benefits for the faculty. The resulting sense of outrage was enough not merely to produce a decisive strike vote, but to bring faculty, en masse, to the picket lines on the first day of the strike.

Once it was clear that the faculty was unified, that every campus was closed, the awareness of collective power began to build.

Still, the governor didn't realize he had pushed the faculty past the crucial turning point. Failing to appreciate what he had precipitated and expecting the faculty to cave in, the governor did not negotiate seriously.

This manifest contempt for the process of negotiation raised the level of faculty outrage to the point where this normally passive body, after rallying at the state capitol, readily moved to surround and invade the federal building where what passed for negotiations were taking place.

Serious negotiations did eventually occur. And the strike ended when a settlement was reached and a relatively generous back-to-work package negotiated.

Revolutions never bring utopia, and strikes don't resolve fundamental employment relations problems. But perhaps it will no longer be presumed that Hawaii faculty will unresistingly accept deteriorating conditions at the university now that the faculty has proved itself assertive when voicing its concerns.

Marcia A. Armstrong and Mary Tiles co-chair the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly collective bargaining committee.

I'd like to say!

A syllabus 23 pages long?
Are you guys serious? Perhaps Professor Strada (June Thriving in Academe) has confused a syllabus with lecture notes.

I wonder if you ever polled students at the end of the semester to learn what percentage actually read all of the syllabus, most of it, a bit of it, or never actually read it because they have lost the syllabus the first week of classes anyway.

I have yet to encounter a student who would a read a syllabus four pages long. My students are only interested in grading policy, exam dates, and sometimes, the spelling of my name.

I tried to keep my syllabus below two pages, but with additions mandated by various administrative offices-institutional goals, affirmative action clause, Americans With Disabilities Act clause, non-discrimination clause, student help services info-it has grown to four densely written pages. I think it's already way too big.

—Mikolaj "Mik" Sawicki
John A. Logan College

Thanks for your response to my recent essay about course syllabi. It's fine with me if you wish to maintain a hard line about preferring brief syllabi. However, if you care to see my 23-pager, you can access it at: www.polsci.wvu.edu/facdis/syllabi.html

—Mike Strada