Graduate students at Boston University went on strike this week after months of stalled negotiations with administrators.
“If we withhold our labor, we will disrupt core functions of the university,” states a strike FAQ on the graduate-student union’s website. “Graduate workers are central to the daily operation of the university.”
One thing they didn’t anticipate when they walked out of their classrooms and offices: being replaced by artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday, an email to faculty from Stan Sclaroff, dean of the university’s College of Arts & Sciences, suggested that instructors turn to generative AI in the classroom while graduate workers remain on the picket line.
“Below, we have listed some creative ways in which, we have heard, some faculty are adapting their course formats and using technology to serve their students,” read Sclaroff’s email, which the university shared with The Chronicle.
Under a header about discussion sections, Sclaroff described several ideas for continuing classroom learning, the last of which read, “Engage generative AI tools to give feedback or facilitate ‘discussion’ on readings or assignments.”
In a statement to The Chronicle on Friday, the university clarified that “neither Dean Sclaroff nor Boston University believe that AI can replace its graduate-student teaching assistants.”
“The assertion that we plan to do so is patently false,” read the statement. Sclaroff’s memo merely encouraged professors to “consider a wide range of teaching tools available to them to offset the absence of a striking teaching assistant,” it said. “Using technology, including generative AI, as part of discussion group activities,” it continued, “is one of about a dozen possibilities that have been used in classroom settings.”
But the damage had already been done. “Yikes! Pretty telling of how little BU values our labor!” the union wrote in a now-deleted tweet about the email, which was first reported on by the Daily Beast.
The dean’s language, even if it was misinterpreted, struck a nerve at a time when unionization efforts and labor disputes involving graduate students are on the rise. Meanwhile, professors and students are struggling to adapt to a world in which AI tools are increasingly powerful and accessible.
At Boston University, the largest higher-ed institution in the city, graduate workers teach classes, lead discussion sections, hold office hours, and grade assignments. Their contract demands include higher pay, more comprehensive health-care coverage, and better benefits, including child-care assistance.
“We are extremely disappointed by the university’s suggestion that the use of AI could even begin to substitute the hard work that graduate workers pour into mentoring students, facilitating discussions, and teaching,” Service Employees International Union Local 509, which represents the graduate-student workers, wrote in an email statement.
The email from Sclaroff made other suggestions for mitigating the impacts of the strike, which included using Zoom sessions, combining discussion sections, and using Blackboard’s discussion-board function to replace class time.
Both the union and the university said they will focus on continued negotiations.
The threat AI poses to workers made headlines most prominently last year during the 148-day Writers Guild of America strike, when the Hollywood writer’s union demanded job protections and limits against the use of AI in scriptwriting. Higher ed hasn’t seen such a movement — yet.
