Valerie Rufo reported to a cafeteria for the first class of her senior year at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus on Wednesday. The lecture, a nursing requirement, had been combined with four other sections in a single room. Rufo estimated that there were about 100 students assigned to one professor—an interim, who said she typically taught at Adelphi University.

"She was trying to teach but nothing was really correlating with our syllabus, so we just left class," Rufo said. "Even if you wanted to write something, you were writing on your lap. It took her about half an hour to get her PowerPoint working."

Outside, dozens of full-time and adjunct professors marched beneath a giant blow-up rat—which unions use to draw attention to the use of non-union labor—protesting the university's decision to bar the entirety of its unionized teaching staff from campus. Over Labor Day weekend, about 400 faculty members were informed that they will not be welcome on campus until an agreement is reached on their five-year contract, which expired on August 31st. Their health insurance was suspended, and they were locked out of their e-mail accounts.

Interim teachers have been recruited from other schools. While LIU described these professors as "adjuncts with advanced degrees," students said some are teaching assistants, and many don't seem qualified. Some work in administrative offices at LIU, according to the Long Island University Faculty Federation (LIUFF), LIU Brooklyn's teacher union.

"The weirdest thing they did was bring in these sort-of pretend teachers," said Lewis Warsh, 71, a tenured Creative Writing and Literature professor. "Nobody knows even what their qualifications are to teach."

The tactic, called a lockout, is different from a strike in that the union members have no choice in the matter. ﻿Kevin Pollitt, a labor relations specialist with New York State United Teachers, told The Nation this week that, to his knowledge, this is the first time a higher-education faculty has ever been locked out.

"This started out as a fight for our faculty, but the broader, deeper implications are really terrifying for higher education," said Andrea Libin, an adjunct professor in the English department. "That a precedent could be set of trying to break the union and bringing in outsiders."

The sub had the nerve to tell us to buy the textbook. I ain't paying a dime till we get our professors back. #LIUlockout — Sharda Mohammed (@S_MohammedX) September 7, 2016

One of LIUFF's goals is to secure higher starting wages for professors, equal to those at LIU's C.W. Post campus in Nassau County. Brooklyn professors worry that their campus, which serves more black, Latino and low-income students than C.W. Post, is undervalued by the administration. Tuition is the same at both campuses—$34,352 per year.

Teachers also maintain that the contract should include higher base-pay for adjunct professors, who typically have fewer benefits, lower salaries, and less of a say in their teaching schedules than full-time staff.

The base salary for new professors at the C.W. Post campus is $96,000, according to DNAinfo, while the base salary for full professors LIU Brooklyn outlined in the new contract is $80,000. Faculty are more likely to be hired as assistant professors, who would make $65,747 under the proposed contract—compared to $76,971 at Post—or instructors, who would make $59,158, compared to $69,335 at Post.

"I'm a full professor," Walsh said. "The equivalent person at Post is making $10,000 more than I am. How did that happen?"



(Emma Whitford / Gothamist)

Faculty say that LIU President Kimberly Cline, who took office in 2013, has been focused on improving the school's credit rating (which was very low when she took office), to the detriment of teachers' well-being and the quality of education at LIU.

The administration has countered that the contract it's proposed is part of a broader commitment to keep tuition increases at or under two percent, through 2020. In a letter to the student body, Dr. Jeffrey Kane, Senior VP of Academic Affairs, said that, "With the understanding that every additional dollar spent on faculty salaries and benefits is a dollar not spent on student scholarships, new labs and facilities or campus safety, we've offered the faculty a generous proposal."

Students accused the university of attempting to pit them against their teachers. They staged a sit-in on Wednesday and circulated flyers urging their fellow students to walk out of classes. "We've gotten so close to these people," said Stephanie Fermin, 24, a graduate student studying speech therapy. "They do so much more than just teach, and you're going to send someone else in here?"

"The tuition is still very high," added Leauntea Gillian, 19, a sophomore studying Sociology and Business. No one showed up to teach her English class Wednesday morning. "We should all get discounts for the classes, or at least get some kind of refund, if they are going to keep classes running but not teach us. It doesn't make sense."

The LIU administration has also said that the lockout is in the students' best interest, based on the union's historical willingness to strike. In May, the union voted in favor of possibly striking if negotiations went south, though a lawyer for the union told the NY Times that the move is standard—"something to have in our back pocket." During 2011 contract negotiations, LIU professors went on strike for several days before the contract was settled.

"These work stoppages were designed to cause the most disruption and impact to the student learning experience," LIU stated.

"I'd like to ask them now how it's worked out today," said Emily Drabinski, an associate professor and university librarian, from the picket line. "If they've prevented chaos."

Drabinski showed Gothamist an email from LIU administrators, stating that temporary instructors will receive $500 per day for the first two days of the lockout, and up to $3,000 for teaching an entire course. For comparison, the Atlantic spoke to a current adjunct who said he made about $1,800 per course, and stood to lose income under the proposed contract thanks to the possible elimination of paid office hours and an adjunct benefits trust fund.

"This [money] could cover a bunch of the things faculty are asking for and the administration is saying they can't afford," she said. "This is about power, not money. They simply want to eliminate the power that faculty have as a unionized workforce."

In response to student's concerns about their Monday classes, LIU Vice President Gale Haynes said, "By and large classes are staffed by qualified teachers and the semester is moving forward."

LIUFF rejected LIU's latest contract offer on Tuesday. "The University will continue to bargain in good faith, with the goal of welcoming its valued faculty back to the classroom upon timely resolution of the contract," Haynes said.