By Kayla Perry

As you all know, or at least learned from the front page of Lambda, a strike between Laurentian Uni­versity and the Laurentian Univer­sity Faculty Association was nar­rowly avoided last week, when a tentative agreement was made between the two parties involved.

Prior to the agreement, some questions were raised: what would happen if there was a strike? How would students be affected? Would those in fourth year still graduate?

However, other than these ques­tions and a few more of their kind, it almost seemed as if Lauren­tian University students were un-concerned about their academic situation here at LU.

In fact, many of the students I spoke with personally regarding the possible strike actually sup­ported the strike – and these were, for the most part, students with high academic standings and hopes for furthering their ed­ucation.

Why, you ask? Well, the answer may surprise you.

The many students that I spoke with who welcomed the strike were not concerned with the faculties work loads, or salaries, which are actually much lower than many other university facul­ty salaries in Ontario, despite of Laurentian’s claim that it is “one of Canada’s fastest growing uni­versities” (as can be heard any time anyone called the LU hot­line).

Instead, Laurentian students were welcoming the idea of a strike because it would bring a break from courses, and at the very least, a break from lectures.

And this, I believe, begs the ques­tion: are we so busy/stressed/tired as students that we actu­ally welcome a faculty strike, an undoubtedly huge deal and what would have been only the third ever strike at Laurentian?

Apparently, we are. Whether it is a question of too-high workloads (which I doubt) or lack of motiva­tion (which is much more likely), some students would rather wel­come the chance to sleep in and relax, than continue to attend classes and improve their GPA’s.

And that, in my opinion, is a bit troubling.