As the College figures out new academic policies for the rest of the semester in light of the current strike by the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers (WOAW), students across years and majors have been coping with changes to their academic schedule and degree plans.
On the morning of March 27, the first day of the strike, Provost Courtney Coile sent out an email detailing the College’s plan for students to receive the credit despite many classes being cancelled. Coile asked students to enroll in new courses taught by tenure-track faculty to make up for lost contact hours and announced that students would receive 0.5 credits for courses taught by striking union members.
It had been a little over eight weeks of course instruction at that point into the semester and given accreditation policies enforced by the New England Commission of Higher Education, the College deemed the credit change and course registration necessary to comply with the requirements for contact hours in order to maintain its accreditation.
But for many students, these new policies have brought a wave of confusion, anxiety, and frustration.
Ava Wilcox ’25, a senior history major, described her initial reaction as one of “fear and anxiety,” as she knew she would fall below full-time status, compounded by the already tense atmosphere on campus. Wilcox said, “I immediately reached out to the Class Dean, but the email was very vague. I didn’t know what to do.”
Wilcox enrolled in a new class in the Women and Gender Studies Department to keep her full-time status. However, she notes that the class only meets for two of the remaining four class sessions. “There was so much worry about contact hours, but I’m not even going to be in this class for more than six hours. The class itself is serious, but my participation in it feels like a joke.”
Wilcox expressed dissatisfaction with her “hollow” educational experience. “It just feels like a filler, like I’m just doing this so I can’t ask for my tuition back, but it doesn’t actually have value as a credit,” she said.
Wilcox also felt skeptical about the administration’s motives, stating “my feeling is that educational value has kind of been swept aside just to get more leverage for admin in the union negotiations under the guise of education. There is some sort of obfuscation from the administration about what the impulses behind the plan are, and people are upset about that generally.”
First-year Ava Cantaoi ’28, a prospective political science major, was similarly taken aback by the abrupt changes. “I was definitely taken aback, especially given it was the day the strike started,” she said. “It was very overwhelming. There wasn’t even a lot of time for me to react.”
Cantaoi was originally enrolled in four classes, three of which were taught by NTT faculty. When the new credit policies were announced, she found herself below the threshold for full-time status, and she had to enroll in three new classes. “But because I didn’t have [the] prerequisites for other classes, I’ve been learning different things from before.”
Cantaoi stated that the transition has been challenging to the new classes. “Professors are doing as much as they can to help out, but I don’t really know what’s happening, and I’m also expected to keep moving forward with the new content,” said Cantaoi.
“I’ve been going with the mentality of doing the minimum to pass. I’m just trying to get my money’s worth out of this semester and go through so I can pass,” Cantaoi said, describing a sense of resignation both for her and amongst her peers. “These policies will have short-term and long-term effects for students.”
On the campus community, Cantaoi added, “As a student, as a product of these policies and what is happening to the school right now, it feels like not a lot of students can find comfort or community in this because nothing like this has happened before.”
Wilcox added that the credit changes have only strengthened her support for the union. “As soon as they announced the credits, I wanted to go to the picket line and it made me want to support the union more.”
As of last week, WOAW has announced the strike is over and students and faculty have returned back to the classroom.
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Sazma Sarwar and Valida Pau
