Strike hurts Puerto Rico science

Researchers complain as University of Puerto Rico strike exceeds 50 days

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As students at the linkurl:University of Puerto Rico;http://www.upr.edu/ have now blockaded some of its campuses for as long as three weeks in response to a proposed tuition hike, professors are seeing their supplies dwindle and an effect on their ability to conduct research.
Image: Brendan Borrell
"The university is grinding to a halt," said linkurl:Carlos Rinaldi,;http://academic.uprm.edu/crinaldi/rinaldi.html a chemical engineer at the Mayaguez campus who works on biomedical applications of nanoparticles. "For me, even a shutdown of a week is unacceptable," he said, explaining that it can jeopardize his ability to be the first to publish an important finding in this competitive field. In the first week of the strike at Mayaguez, researchers' access to their labs depended on the whims of students manning the gates, but after negotiations, students have a list of researchers they are allowing inside. Even so, with the university switchboard down, support staff out of the office, and vehicles being barred from entry, getting supplies requires ingenuity and manpower.The indefinite strike began on April 23rd at Rio Piedras, the largest campus in the capital of San Juan, and has since spread to all 11 campuses. Students are protesting a proposed $50 increase in the per-credit cost of summer courses and demanding greater transparency in the university's finances, which they believe are being misspent. The per capita income in Puerto Rico is $19,600 -- less than half of the US average -- but most students qualify for Pell Grants, which easily covers the $1600 annual tuition in addition to some living expenses.In the larger context of Puerto Rico's melodramatic political stage, the strike was also born of dissatisfaction of the largely left-leaning students with the current governor, Republican Luis Fortuno, who supports statehood for the U.S. territory. The Rio Piedras campus has shut completely until July 31st, and is not letting in any professors. It's not clear if other campuses will follow its lead or reopen to finish the semester, leaving thousands of seniors in limbo, including students hoping to take part in the Research Experience for Undergraduates program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.Outside the Mayaguez campus over the weekend, hand-painted banners declaring education a right hung from chain link fences surrounding the campus. Near the entrance to the biology building, students had barricaded the university's gates with wooden pallets, and were camping out under tarps and nylon tents, sipping iced tea as they surfed the internet on their laptops. A uniformed officer sat outside, powerless to do anything in light of the UPR's no confrontation policy. After flashing press credentials, I was shepherded past two Great Danes and brought into a circle of a half dozen students badly in need of showers.
Image: Brendan Borrell
The students, for their part, dispute the notion that they have prevented researchers from getting their work done, pointing out that professors are now allowed entry and at least one repairman entered who was not on their official list. They want to paralyze the university so that professors will pressure the administration, they argue, and one goal of the strike is to help preserve the university's research budget and prestige. Alejandra Velez, an undergraduate working on a project in a population genetics lab, said she loves her research, but the strike is more important. "I wish I could be there now, but do I want to think about my own research or the entire system?"That response is not good enough for linkurl:Franklin Carrero-Martinez,;http://www.md.rcm.upr.edu/anatomyneurobiology/franklin_carrero.php a neuroscientist who studies synapse development in fruit flies. He said his environmental chamber broke down and the regular technician refused to cross the picket line. He finally found one willing to sneak through the forest and fix it last week, but now he is now worried about getting 200-pound canisters of carbon-dioxide he needs for experiments. He had to postpone a delivery scheduled for this week because the distributor cannot bring the special cart needed to move the tanks up to the building.Rinaldi said that his dynamic light scattering instrument used for measuring particle sizes broke down before the strike started, but the purchase order to get a new one has not been processed. He's having fluorescent markers and other supplies delivered to his home, and is personally carrying out medical waste so a company can pick it up. Come June 1st, Carrero-Martinez is heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the summer, but may have to interrupt his research there and fly back to Puerto Rico if the semester starts up again. "I think it's cool that students are striking," he said, "but the problem is when they prevent other people from getting their work done."Editor's note (June 17): Last night, the two sides reached an agreement, one part of which states that students will not have to pay an additional quota in August. Each campus must now decide if they accept the agreement -- but if all goes well, the strike is, essentially, over.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Cuba invited to US conference;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57405/
[14th May 2010]*linkurl:Columbia grad students strike;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22127/
[21st April 2004]*linkurl:Few Natural Science Classes Affected By Teaching Assistant Strike In Calif.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/17331/
[6th January 1997]
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