Temple undergrads caught in tug-of-war as 1,000 attend afternoon walkout and rally

For Temple University freshman Julia Barth, the graduate student strike has been a lesson in mixed messages.

She hasn’t had her general education class, “Gender and World Societies,” in two weeks, and on Friday, Temple told her it had hired a new instructor, and that person will teach through the rest of the semester, and give out final grades.

Not so, her former teacher, graduate student Samantha Sproviero, said in an email two days later.

“This is a lie,” wrote Sproviero, a doctoral student in the history department. “Because our strike is a legal strike, Temple cannot fire us for participating. Once this is over (regardless of the outcome— win or lose) we, legally, must be allowed to return to work.

» READ MORE: Striking graduate students feel the toll of Temple's tactics but remain steadfast

“You can best support our strike by not attending or participating in the class being taught by a scab,” the term used for someone who crosses a picket line.

Barth, 18, a psychology major from Langhorne, isn’t sure what to do.

“It’s stressful,” she said. “It’s a lot of back and forth and I don’t know who to believe.”

About 1,000 students and faculty, some of them who walked out of class, attended nearly a two-hour rally and march on campus Wednesday that briefly halted traffic on part of Broad Street. Students gave passionate speeches, calling on Temple’s administration to pay members of the Temple University Graduate Students Association better salaries.

“They teach us more than the professors do,” said Sadaisa Jordan, a sophomore. “They should get what they deserve.”

Some of the signs students carried targeted Temple President Jason Wingard, but he wasn’t on campus Wednesday.

Bethany Kosmicki, a member of the negotiating team and past TUGSA president, said she was heartened by the support.

“People attending here for the education and the people who are providing it are on the same side,” she said.

But Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer, said while the rally was a nice show of support for TUGSA, it doesn’t change negotiations. Temple can’t afford to give graduate workers a 50% increase in their stipends, as they are asking, he said.

“It still comes down to what’s best for Temple long-term,” he said from an office in the administration building, as protesters yelled and chanted outside. “Everyone in the administration is looking forward to continuing productive conversations with TUGSA tomorrow.”

TUGSA members are in their third week of a strike for better pay and benefits. Temple has withdrawn tuition remission for the striking graduate students and they must pay for their health insurance, which has raised the ire of some public officials and national union leaders. Both sides reported “productive” discussions on Tuesday in advance of Thursday’s planned session.

» READ MORE: Temple withdraws tuition remission for graduate students

The university did not provide an estimate on how many students have not had classes over the last two weeks, but said only five to eight general education classes in the college of liberal arts are not yet covered. The university has said that 80% of graduate students have not honored the picket line and have continued to work, while the school was getting replacements for those on strike. The union has contended that the number of graduate students on strike is twice what the university claims.

“There’s been a lot of conflicting information coming out,” said Gianni Quattrocchi, student body president.

He said he doesn’t think many students have been affected by the strike, and while a good number of students don’t have strong feelings about it, others are supportive of the graduate students “simply because they’ve had more interaction with the TAs over the course of their college experience than they have had with the administration.”

Temple’s student government put out a statement, calling on the university to reinstate tuition remission and payment for students’ health insurance and to “reach an agreement without passing the costs onto students Temple is tasked with supporting.”

» READ MORE: National union and political leaders rally for striking Temple graduate students, while school issues warning

The university has acknowledged that some of the classes taught by striking graduate students have been moved online to accommodate the schedule of the new instructors and because of “intimidation.”

“I am very disappointed to let you know that students and faculty reported that they have been the victims of intimidation,” Annette McMenamin Bakley, senior vice dean of the College of Liberal Arts, wrote in an email to students. “...in the interest of preserving the peace and educational experience of our students and faculty, we have moved some classes online for the duration of the strike or the remainder of the term.”

University spokesperson Steve Orbanek said Temple has received “many anecdotal reports of TUGSA members sitting in on classes and harassing students or faculty; individuals hanging fliers in classrooms; and students being shouted out and called scabs.”

Temple’s police department has gotten one report of a classroom being disrupted and has asked for more information, he said.

Kosmicki, the union member, said she was not aware of intimidation or harassment by her members.

“The way Temple has handled everything since we’ve been on strike, we feel is inappropriate,” she said.

Barth’s gender class, which used to meet in person, will now meet “asynchronously,” meaning students and the instructor sign on at different times and work at their own pace. The new instructor is an adjunct assistant professor at Temple.

She also has a second class — “Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences” — that was taught by a graduate student. That one will meet once a week online and be taught by another Temple doctoral student.

Barth said she is particularly concerned about that class because it was challenging when it met three times a week in person.

Her prior professor for that course, Raegan Davis, also urged her not to attend class with the new instructor and said she would be back when the strike is over.

“It is still me who determines your grades and know that I would never penalize you for standing with TUGSA and boycotting classes of ours taught by a strike breaker,” she wrote in an email. “When we return, I will be picking up exactly where we left off and teaching as if no classes had occurred in my absence.”

Barth’s mother, a nurse practitioner, is torn.

“It’s a tough position,” said Amy Graham Barth. “I support the grad students — it sounds like they’re not being compensated fairly. But as a parent paying a lot of money in tuition and having these classes get canceled, it stinks, especially for these kids who lost a year and a half from COVID.”

Staff writers Nate File and Jesse Bunch contributed to this report.