Despite the Faculty Association strike, officials at Southern Illinois University Carbondale say daily operations are being disrupted as little as possible.
SIU Chancellor Rita Cheng 107 faculty art taking part in the strike. She says that's out of an instructional fore of 1,994 tenured/tenure track, non tenure track, and teaching assistants.
Faculty Association lead negotiator Morteza Daneshdoost says the university's count is low. During a media briefing Friday evening, Daneshdoost said the Faculty Association estimates that 175 to 200 of its members are honoring the strike.
University officials say 60 classes Thursday were impacted by professors who are on the picket line. In some of those cases, the classes were taught by non-striking faculty. University Spokesperson Rod Sievers says in one instance, a recently retired mathematics professor volunteered to return to campus and taught some classes on Thursday. Daneshdoost says by the Faculty Association count about 7,000 students have been affected by the strike. He says the number does not represent 7,000 distinct students because some of those students were likely in more than on class that was counted.
Sievers says there are no talks scheduled this weekend between the administration and the Faculty Association.
