Locked Out Long Island University Professors Hold Teach-In Outside Brooklyn Campus

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — Long Island University professors held a teach-in Friday morning outside of the Fort Greene campus in Brooklyn.

Four hundred faculty, including full-time and part-time professors, are banned from stepping foot on campus during their ongoing contract dispute, and have been without pay or health insurance since Sep. 3.

The Friday teach-in builds upon a growing protest movement at LIU, where hundreds of current students continue to demonstrate for the return of their professors.

After claiming to have experienced less-than-satisfactory instruction with fill-in instructors during the first day of class, hundreds of LIU students staged a walk out on Thursday demanding that their regular professors be welcomed back to teach.

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James made a fiery speech outside of the Brooklyn campus Friday stating "this teach-in is instruction on how to do things right, and to respect the labor union movement," emphasizing the importance of student activism that has historically affected change in the U.S.

Politico reported that the "union representing faculty at Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y. filed an unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board Thursday, alleging that the university’s termination of employees’ healthcare benefits last week and subsequent faculty lockout violated the National Labor Relations Act."

LIU Brooklyn students are threatening to drop classes in order to recoup tuition which runs over $30,000 for a full-time course-load amongst growing dissatisfaction with the LIU administration, and what students view as a decline in the quality of instruction.

Lead image/Aaron Simon