AUG 28, 2017 — As the 2017 - 2018 semester approaches at Rider University and Westminster Choir College there is a high likelihood that Rider President Dell’Omo, the Board of Trustees, and the administration are hellbent on forcing a faculty strike or imposing a lock-out of beloved faculty. The best way to make sure that there is not a strike and that the administration backs down from the conditions that it is attempting to impose - conditions that will surely devastate Beloved Rider and Westminster faculty and staff and severely undermine the quality of education for the students - is for students to communicate a clear message to administration that students are unified in support of beloved faculty and its sole bargaining unit, the Rider chapter of AAUP. The best way to communicate this message is to organize for unified picketing with faculty in joining faculty picket lines at entrances of Rider and Westminster campuses, as well as secondary picket lines inside the campuses at the various buildings including administration offices as well as classroom buildings. In the next week, please take the following steps. Sign and share the petition pledging support for AAUP on the picket lines should a strike or lock-out be imposed: https://www.change.org/p/rider-administration-pledge-to-support-rider-aaup-on-picket-line-fall-2017 Confirm your participation in student strike activities on the first day of school, September 7, at the following Facebook event. https://www.facebook.com/events/485715435114919/485953235091139/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity¬if_id=1503937391300984 Meanwhile, we need to support current Westminster Choir College faculty as Rider negotiates with an unnamed institution to take control of Westminster by demanding that the current faculty be retained with the current contract and represented by its current bargaining unit, Rider AAUP with a common contract with Rider faculty by signing and sharing the following petition: https://www.change.org/p/greg-dell-omo-new-institution-managing-westminster-choir-college-must-recognize-rider-aaup?fref=gc For up to date information about the efforts of the Rider Chapter of AAUP to protect the quality of education and the future of Rider University and Westminster Choir College, visit: http://www.rideraaup.net/ SUPPORT BELOVED FACULTY!