Oct 22, 2016 3 min read

It’s not every day you see cell biologists and cello players walking picket lines, but that’s been the case recently as two marquee institutions in the region have been confronted with strikes by their employees.

First, musicians with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have put down their violins and oboes and taken up placards in a dispute over pensions, pay and the orchestra’s size. It’s a blow to the region’s cultural life and has also led to the cancellation of non-symphony events at Heinz Hall as some acts, such as Elvis Costello, refuse to cross the picket line.

But a second strike, by faculty members of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which came to an end Friday after a tentative deal was reached, would have affected a broader number of people from a wider range of backgrounds. Without a contract since June 2015, 5,000 educators from the 14 institutions in the state system, including California University of Pennsylvania and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, walked out Wednesday morning. For three days, it left more than 100,000 students throughout the system without a faculty member at the head of their classrooms.

It caused more than a bit of confusion and consternation at Cal U. late in the week, as reported in the Friday edition of the Observer-Reporter. Students had been told, as per the State System’s website, that, strike or not, they were “required to report to scheduled classes unless the university indicates otherwise,” and a contingency plan would be implemented.

But, even with a contingency plan, it seemed unlikely that students would have received an education of the same caliber minus the regular faculty. It probably would not have been worthy of the more than $7,000 it costs in tuition for an undergraduate education at one of the schools in the State System, or worthy of the debt many students are amassing year after year.

Students who are looking to graduate at the end of the fall semester, have internships or jobs lined up, or whose objectives otherwise hinge on completing this semester on schedule, would have found their plans scrambled.

Aside from leaving current students in a lurch, a prolonged strike would not have helped the long-term prospects of the State System of Higher Education. A report released earlier this month found that enrollment within State System institutions had declined by 12 percent since 2010, with schools like Cal U., Indiana, Edinboro, Millersville and West Chester losing more than 14,000 students in that period – almost twice the number of undergraduates and graduates enrolled at Cal U. Slippery Rock University was the only State System school on the western side of the commonwealth to see a modest increase.

To be sure, some of the declines are due to demographic shifts, with fewer graduates coming out of the commonwealth’s high schools. But a strike, had it dragged on, combined with levels of state aid that are stuck at 1999 levels, could have prompted some prospective students to look elsewhere.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the union representing the educators, said it offered concessions on wages and benefits in exchange for the State System backing off proposed contract changes that, among other things, would have included increased teaching loads by graduate students and adjunct faculty and a heavier emphasis on distance education.

Whether the State System or the faculty “won” will become clear in the days ahead. But it’s obvious who the losers would have been in an extended strike – the students.