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41 YELLOW SPRINGS NEWS The GUIDE to YELLOW SPRINGS 2019 – 20 937-767-1144 / 215 XENIA AVE / WWW.WINDSCAFE.COM LUNCH 11:30AM - 2PM DINNER 5PM - 10:00 PM BRUNCH 10AM - 3PM TUESDAY- SATURDAY SUNDAY CLOSED MONDAY HOMEGROWN IN YELLOW SPRINGS, KEEPING IT LOCAL FOR OVER YEARS. 937-767-9441 / 215 XENIA AVE WWW.WINDSCAFE.COM/WINE-CELLAR 11AM - 9PM TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY 11AM - 9PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY CLOSED MONDAY & SUNDAY LARGE SELECTION OF CRAFT BEER, CIDER AND HIGH QUALITY WINES EMPHASIZING INDEPENDENT WINEMAKERS WITH ARTISAN SPIRITS AND OLD WORLD WINE VALUES. 229 Xenia Ave. YSO • 937.767.2091 www.Epic-Bookshop.com New & used books on most subjects Specializing in the Spiritual, the Mystical & the Meditative Open weekdays 12-6 Sat. 10-6 Sun. 12-6 est. 1974 This article is excerpted from stories written by Gary McBride and Megan Bachman. Wright State University faculty members went on strike for nearly three weeks in early 2019 in what was widely reported as the longest higher education strike in the state’s history. Numerous Yellow Springs residents who work at WSU were among the union lead- ers and supporters of the effort for fair wages and working conditions. The strike began after the university uni - laterally imposed a contract on union fac- ulty that imposed major changes to overall compensation and workloads. The offer included no raises, reduced health care benefits and higher premiums, the elimina - tion of future negotiation over healthcare and the erosion of tenure protection. As a result of the contract, imposed without negotiation, 85% of union faculty voted to strike. On the strike's first day, Jan. 22, Yellow Springs resident Opolot Okia said he was striking "so the university is not dragged down by the administration." He added the strike is in the interests of ensuring students get a quality education. “The students are number one, always," he said. The strike began after the university administration’s “last, best offer” of Friday, Jan. 4, was imposed without negotia - tion. Following a tense three weeks, faculty returned to their classrooms on Feb. 12, after an agreement between the union and the WSU board of trustees was reached the night before. Overall, the agreement was hailed as a victory for faculty by union leadership and on social media. Although the faculty conceded in many areas, they retained the right to bargain over their healthcare. Villager Sirisha Naidu, an associate professor of economics at WSU and the union’s grievance officer, was among those who praised it. “We gave them a lot of concessions, but we maintained the right to bargain,” she said. That will have impacts even beyond the WSU campus, Naidu added. “We have defended the right to bargain. That is pretty significant, and I think if we had lost that, that would have had reverber- ations across the state and across the coun - try,” she said. “Faculty at other universities know that this can be done,” she added. Yellow Springs resident Don Cipollini, a professor of biological sciences at WSU for 20 years, said he was proud of his fellow faculty members for standing together. “There was ... some sadness that we even had to do this,” Cipollini said. “But I’m very proud to have stood with my fellow faculty and that we prevailed.” Another villager, John Stireman, also a professor of biological sciences, said it was important that every union faculty member faced their own choice about whether or not to strike. “I didn’t tell anyone what I was going to do, and I didn’t know what they were going to do,” he said. “We all just did it of our own accord. We all made that choice because we knew it was the right thing to do.” The ultimate agreement came at the end of a week in which the union escalated its protests, which Naidu believes put pressure WSU strike longest in Ohio higher ed on the WSU board to return to negotiations. Over the week, striking faculty and their allies lined up from one entrance of WSU to the other, marched 400-strong to the administration building on the WSU campus and, that Friday, visited the Ohio statehouse and met with lawmakers. “We were really stepping up our efforts,” Naidu said. Although it has been “a rough time” for striking faculty, the strike also brought the educators closer, Naidu said. Ultimately, faculty were relieved to be back in the classroom, she said.  ♦ PHOTO BY GARY MCBRIDE Yellow Springs resident Opolot Okia, a professor of African history, stood outside in 17-degree weather on the first day of the Wright State University faculty strike in January 2019.