University of Michigan President Dr. Mark Schlissel is seeking an injunction to get protesting graduate students back to teaching, The Michigan Daily reported. This comes a day after the Graduate Employees’ Organization voted to extend its strike, citing unmet demands.
Schlissel is asking a county circuit court to require GEO members to work by issuing a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.
The strike began last Tuesday due to the university’s plans to reopen for the fall semester. Other university groups have repeated GEO’s demands for a safer pandemic response, saying that UM “did not provide adequate COVID-19 protections.”
“Following the announcement that GEO will continue to strike and not teach for at least five more days, I made the very difficult decision to seek help from the courts so we can resume all of our remote and in-person classes,” Schlissel said in a video released Monday afternoon. “We welcome the opportunity to discuss the issues that GEO has raised. The University’s offer to continue talks remains open. What we cannot welcome is the profound disruption to the education we’ve promised our undergraduate students.”
