NEW YORK ― Students at the New York City campus of Long Island University say they have begun the school year with classes being taught by replacement teachers of questionable quality after the administration locked out their regular professors as part of a bitter labor dispute.
About 400 full-time and adjunct members of the faculty at the private Brooklyn school were barred from their classrooms and had their email accounts and health insurance cut off just days before classes were scheduled to begin on Sept. 7.
The university, which has about 8,000 students, has remained open, but some students say they have arrived for classes that were taught by replacement teachers who only took attendance or didn’t know their subjects.
Caroline Ortiz, a sophomore majoring in chemistry, said she commuted one hour from Queens for classes that lasted only 10 minutes, where the instructor left after taking attendance.
A biology class last week, she said, “was taught by a pharmacist. I don’t think he’s in the biology field.”
She said the laboratory session scheduled after the class was cancelled.
Some students have been joining locked-out faculty on picket lines. In one demonstration Tuesday, students chanted, “You say lockout, we say walkout!” as they gathered outside the main entrance. Some students were looking to enroll at other colleges, and some professors said they were looking for other jobs.
