[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
Students hit the University of Hawaii students returning to school today after the 13-day faculty strike can expect to spend their weekends in the classroom, but they should graduate as scheduled according to university administrators.
ground running
Despite lost time, teachers remain
confident that students will be
able to make up classesBy Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinSchedules to make up missed classes will be released this morning and students enrolled at all 10 campuses are urged to check the UH Web site at www.hawaii.edu/welcomeback to see when the make-up classes will take place.
James Wills, associate dean of business, said "the faculty will be tasked with completing the syllabus and the university will give them time to do it," noting that it would probably mean coming in on Saturdays and Sundays for the next few weeks.
As part of the settlement with the state, any professor who picketed through the entire strike will be paid extra for working Saturdays and Sundays.
Students who cannot arrange to attend class on the weekends will have to negotiate with professors and may be encouraged to take incompletes, he said.
Randy Hitz, dean of the college of education, said Tuesday's strike settlement came in the nick of time for this year's crop of new teachers.
Although student teachers were dealt a double-whammy when both their university professors and public school supervisors went on strike April 5, even those who have not completed 15 weeks of practical training will be able to graduate, according to Hitz.
Student teachers have already satisfied national accreditation requirements of 10 weeks in the classroom. If the public school teachers strike is not settled in time for the students to finish the additional five weeks required by UH, faculty will come up with alternative assignments for graduating students to complete their courses.
Nursing faculty are also devising alternative ways to get instruction to their students, while dental hygiene faculty are committed to spending 8 hours a day in the classroom, including weekends, for the rest of the semester, said Rosanne Harrigan, dean of the School of Nursing, where dental hygiene is housed.
"They have a required amount of (dental) chair hours to complete their boards," she said.
Dental hygiene students have already taken the first part of the licensing test and only have a small window to complete the second part, she explained. If the required hours are not completed before final exam week begins on May 7, they will have to wait six months to take the exam again.
At the William S. Richardson School of Law, where classroom time is counted to the minute to meet accreditation requirements by the American Bar Association, a little flexibility has been granted.
"We don't have to match it minute per minute or day to day, but we're going to come close," said Larry Foster, dean of the school
Foster expects that most professors will begin lecturing more to make sure students gain all the necessary knowledge and "all they'll be out is a very small amount of skills training time and not enough to make a significant difference in their careers."
Edwin Cadman, dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, said medical students are the least likely to be affected by the strike because 140 faculty overseeing patient care were declared essential workers and 1,200 other faculty for students performing clinical work are private physicians and not part of the union.
Students in their first year of medical school take mostly small tutorials, which were held off campus, he said. Only a few lectures and seminars did not take place.
"There's no problem here," he said.
As for weekend work, the students have already been putting in 60 hours a week because "patient care is a 24 hour business," Cadman said.
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