As the fifth week of their strike continues, GEO 3550 reports that at least 57 University of Michigan professors (and counting) have publicly committed to what is essentially a grading strike against the university–and more are likely doing so behind the scenes.
This information comes from an open letter penned by dozens of faculty and released on Monday (April 24), UM Faculty Pledge of Collective Grade Strike and Non-Retaliation Until Fair Contract Is Negotiated With GEO. They pledge that:
We the undersigned faculty stand with members of the History Department in hereby pledging to withhold grades until May 12th. If a fair contract is still not negotiated by then, we will collectively reconsider our position on that date.
We also pledge not to punish or report any Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) for striking and/or withholding grades. In accordance with SACUA, we reject attempts to pressure faculty to grade work taught by GSIs and to issue arbitrary grades for ungraded or incomplete work.
The letter comes on the heels of a letter released by an unknown number of faculty in the university's History Department making a similar pledge. That letter has not been released completely publicly and doesn't have public signatories to my knowledge, but has been endorsed here and by several other faculty not on the grade strike letter. Both represent escalations in tactics by sympathetic members of the University of Michigan community; no doubt the arrest of two picketers last week had some influence on the decision.
Another letter broadly condemning the university's response to the strike has also garnered almost 2,000 signatures in the past few days–including around 400 by campus faculty.
Regular picketing also continues, of course. The schedule for picketing this week can be found here, and the virtual picket schedule can be found here.