SRU faculty members of APSCUF were on campus Wednesday morning for a student voter cookout, which aimed to get students to register for the upcoming election.
The event, dubbed “Burgers & Ballots”, was sponsored by the Pennsylvania American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (PA AFL-CIO). It ran from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday morning in the quad.
Ben Shaevitz, APSCUF SRU President and physics professor at SRU, helped to run the event.
He said the AFL-CIO is touring all of the universities in the state system to do a voter registration drive. Shaevitz said APSCUF helped with the event to show support for labor unions.
Information was also handed out to students that gave the background from the APSCUF perspective of the ongoing contract dispute. Students were also encouraged to email PASSHE Chancellor Frank Brogan.
“We’re asking students if they want to send a message to the chancellor to kind of get their attention,” Shaevitz said. “We’re not forcing students to take a side.”
Shaevitz also encouraged the university to share more information with students, saying the university may have created unnecessary anxiety by sending out limited and vague emails.
“We are trying our best to share our side of the story,” Shaevitz said. “I don’t believe that our information is politically driven but that it’s objective but each person has to decide for themselves,” Shaevitz said.
Shaevitz said that a lot of students that he spoke with were supportive and that they understand why a resolution to the contract negotiation needs to be reached.
The next contract negotiation date is Friday, Sept. 16.
