OPINION
Written by David Horan (student organizer) Jacob Amaro (copy editor)
In a letter addressed to the Rutgers University student body sent out earlier this afternoon, President Holloway proved himself to be ignorant of New Jersey State Law—a strange quality for a State University administrator. Simply put:
Public workers do, however, have less legal protection than other workers. This manifests itself as an injunction, a court order an employer can obtain to force its workforce to end a strike.. These injunctions can carry a few penalties for striking workers (NOT STUDENTS, in our context). Once the injunction is filed, the strike becomes illegal, meaning that professors being arrested isn’t out of the question. Threatening professors with legal action, truly the makings of good leadership.
The letter says the University must consider “budgetary constraints” when negotiating with the faculty union. Fair. It is, after all, the case that the school is running a $125 million dollar deficit. Yet the cost of New Brunswick’s Division I Athletics Department alone is enough to cover this deficit, with 10 million left over. And let’s not forget about the stories of $400 thousand spent in Doordash by the football team, the $4 million dollar salary for the football coach and the now $3.5 million for the basketball coach. Tell me all that money isn’t better spent elsewhere—Perhaps, on meeting the professors unions’ demands. Perhaps instead of a sports casino, Holloway should consider running a University.
The reality of the situation is this: the University has spent $3 million dollars fighting the union and now feels fit to lie to the student body. Perhaps this energy would be better spent negotiating in good faith with the union, to improve conditions for the whole University. The Administration is willing to absolutely burn money, just not on the people who actually run the University.