The Scholar Strike and what it really means
Detailing the 48 hour strike headed by college faculty and administrators
Tyler Pugmire / News Editor
Anthea Butler, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, sent out a tweet on Aug. 26 that read, “I would be down as a professor to follow the NBA and Strike for a few days to protest police violence in America.” Shortly after, the movement for the #ScholarStrike would take off.
USD professors were encouraged to partake in the Scholar Strike in an email sent out by Julian Tullis, Ph.D., May Fu, Ph.D., and Evelyn Kirkley, Ph.D., which detailed the scholar strike movement as a pause from regular instruction during the two days after Labor Day in order to focus on the issues that plague Black Americans nowadays.
Professors at the University of San Diego took Butler’s call to action upon themselves, and many participated in the Scholar Strike. A social media post by the Ethnic Studies Department said this movement was, “prompted by the racist police attack on Jacob Blake, the state-sanctioned permission of an armed white militia member to roam the streets after killing people, the W/NBA Strike, Professors Anthea Butler and Kevin Gannon (Grand View University) are calling on all academic faculty and administrators to strike for 48 hours after Labor Day.”
The motive behind shifting the curriculum for the day was for students, professors, and administrators to shift their efforts toward local activism and education towards injustices in America.
Leeva Chung, Ph.D., professor of communication studies, explained the basis of the strike.
“When there are groups of people who feel their voices aren’t heard, and they face an insurmountable amount of injustice, that they never felt they were a part of the group, that’s a social movement,” Chung said.
Tullis’ email to USD staff also discussed ways to transform their classes into teach-in spaces devoted to Black lives, such as: visiting the Scholar Strike Youtube Channel, sharing and talking about the USD Black Student Union letter read aloud, holding discussions to teach about anti-Blackness in America, watching documentaries such as “13th” on Netflix, or to simply facilitate constructive dialogue about the Black Lives Matter movement.
The entire Scholar Strike movement spanned across more than 5,000 scholars, faculty, and administrators across the country. At other schools, the focusses ranged from over-policing in the campus community, to intellectual gatekeeping.
Butler, the woman who started the movement, is an associate professor of religious studies and Africana studies, and explained that “With classes online, this will not be a walkout in a traditional sense but rather a hybrid model of protest that doesn’t stop at pausing lecture for a day.” Although an unconventional form of protest, the Scholar Strike movement made a very prevalent presence in the USD Community.
Professors in each college participated in the strike. Some who participated discussed the Black Lives Matter movement or turned their curriculum to include the history of oppression against Black people in some way.
Professor in the Communication Studies department, Leeva Chung Ph.D., chose to participate in the strike.
“For a person who’s been at USD for 23 years, I teach intercultural communication, I do diversity training,” Chung said. “I felt like I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t support the scholar strike. I felt like I could give voice to what scholars across the US are doing to support racial inequality and injustice … It’s not a matter of agree or disagree, it’s the acknowledgement of voices that need to be heard.”
Chung teaches three different classes and took three different approaches to acknowledge the Scholar Strike for each. For her first-year class, they were to visit the Scholar Strike page on Youtube and discuss three parts of it. For another, she read parts of the USD Black Student Union letter, and for her Interpersonal Communication class, the entire class watched Black Student Union members read the letter to USD aloud.
Matthew Martinez, a sophomore transfer student from the University of Chicago, was in support of the strike.
“The Scholar Strike taking place was very refreshing for someone who is new to campus,” Martinez said. “I think the ability for teachers to talk about real issues in our country is very important to get a proper college education.”
As professors return back to their original course content, the Scholar Strike movement plans to continue to spread awareness for racial injustice and encourages activism in local communities.