When graduate students at Yale University went on “strike” at the beginning of the year, all manner of delicious comedy was sure to result. We have not been disappointed.
At Yale, 95 percent of graduate students receive free tuition and nearly $ 10,000 a year for teaching one course per semester. Deciding they could no longer tolerate such oppression, some of the grad students unionized (with the dining workers” union) and struck. Dozens of teaching assistants even withheld their students” grades for a time. Showing unexpected spine, the faculty and administration resisted, and the strike petered out.
But not before the Modern Language Association could get in on the act. At its annual convention, shortly following the strike, the MLA voted overwhelmingly to support the strike and condemn the administration. Its resolution describing the strike and the students” intolerable working conditions was classic MLA: outraged, selfrighteous, and inaccurate in every particular.
So far, so normal, say veteran MLA-watchers, who long ago stopped expecting intellectual seriousness from the organization. But some of Yale’s faculty have declared themselves “appalled.” In fiery letters to MLA directors, they call the resolution “groundless” and “pointlessly damaging.” That’s a neat description of almost everything that comes out of the MLA. Glad to see the folks at Yale are finally catching on.
