KU students plan Labor Day strike to demand campus close
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KSNT)- Students at the University of Kansas plan to strike on Monday, Labor day, as reported coronavirus cases on-campus near 550.
A student organization, Jayhawkers Liberation Front, are the organizers of the strike in hopes of getting classes moved fully online.
“In reopening campus to all students and allowing students to take in-person classes then the university has opened up and given the opportunity to spread that risky behavior,” Jackson Hoffmann, a member of the Jayhawkers Liberation Front said. “Behavior they’ve taken to all of the faculty, staff, and other students that will be on campus.”
Students participating in the strike hope to make a change using their voice.
They said their wants are straightforward: Classes to go fully remote, and they want the university to provide exit testing for all students free of charge and provide university housing to students in need, among other demands.
“If we all come together and collectivize then KU has to listen to us,” Ryan Reza, a KU student planning to attend the strike said. “And because we make up a majority of this university, we provide the university with the funds that it runs on, we provide the university with campus culture and we’re the ones who hold the power in the situation.”
The student organizers of the strike said the university administration has yet to reply to them in response to their Labor Day plans.