Strike Is a Stress Test for Berkeley Undergraduates : Education: Their semester has had everything from the slaying of an anarchist to flashes of the ‘Naked Guy,’ but it may close without final exams or grades if teaching assistants don’t end their walkout.

The semester began with the killing of a machete-wielding teen-age anarchist who broke into the chancellor’s house before dawn.

It was punctuated by fully nude appearances by the “Naked Guy” and the X-Plicit Player drama troupe.

And it wound down this week with UC Berkeley teaching assistants walking picket lines and undergraduates becoming increasingly anxious about who will grade their finals, slated to begin today--or whether exams will even be held.

To paraphrase a Grateful Dead song heard often on the streets of Berkeley: What a long, strange semester it’s been.

Students fear that departments may hire new readers to grade finals if the 3-week-old strike by graduate student instructors and researchers stretches into exam period.

The Assn. of Graduate Student Employees is striking to gain collective bargaining status for these workers, who play a pivotal role in undergraduate education at Berkeley and usually grade undergraduate exams.

Undergraduates say they would suffer if their tests are graded by readers unfamiliar with their work during the semester.

“I definitely feel shortchanged,” said junior Maria Murillo, a social sciences major. “Some outsider is going to come in and give us this test. . . . They haven’t been teaching us. They don’t know where we are in the material. It’s totally unfair.”

“I just don’t think it’s going to happen much, but I wouldn’t rule out anything in this instance,” said Joseph Duggan, associate dean of the graduate division. Instead, professors will probably have to wade through piles of undergraduate exams, he said, adding that “all examinations must be given at the appointed time and place.”

To address student fears, a faculty committee announced last week that courses could be graded “pass/not pass” and that “in progress” marks could be replaced next semester with letter grades when exams are graded.

But on the eve of finals, some students do not know whether they will have exams, or where and when they will be held. For instance, junior Mike Ferry’s English class was canceled when the strike began Nov. 19.

“The confusion is whether we’re going to be given a final or not,” Ferry said. “I have absolutely no clue in that particular class.”

No matter who grades their finals and what marks they get, there is no question that undergraduates have been among the biggest losers in the strike by the 130-member AGSE, a United Auto Workers affiliate.

The strike has shut down many classes and forced many others to meet haphazardly in cafes, churches and fraternity houses, bringing the semester to an uneasy denouement.

Both sides were hoping that an accommodation could be reached when negotiations unexpectedly resumed one week into the strike. But they broke off last week when the union rejected what the university called its final offer.

Campus officials insist that the instructors and researchers are students first, and that their work for the university is a kind of apprenticeship. Recognizing them as employees would endanger the spirit of cooperation between teaching assistants and faculty, the administration said.

Illustrating the delicate nature of this relationship, AGSE executive board member Andy Cowell, a teaching assistant in the French department, must have his doctoral dissertation evaluated by Duggan, a professor in the same department--and Cowell’s adversary across the bargaining table.

University officials claim that nearly 85% of classes have continued to meet in one form or another throughout the strike. Both sides agree that social science and humanities departments have been hit hardest, while science classes have been the least affected.

“While I do feel guilty and apologize profusely every time I cross the picket lines, I have to go to class,” said junior Miche De Rouen, an environmental sciences major and senator-elect to the student government. “It’s a matter of me taking care of myself first.”

She added: “I didn’t pay $1,600 to stay home and protest.”

Faculty members are divided in their support for the strike. Some have made class attendance mandatory and will hold students responsible for all material covered during the strike. Others have given take-home finals on material learned through mid-November.

Even those students honoring the strike are finding ways to cope. The student union is doing a brisk business in “Black Lightning” class notes, which are on the shelves within 72 hours of a lecture. And many students who do not want to cross picket lines are contacting teaching assistants for instruction while they picket.

“There’s been a lot of intellectual conversations happening on the picket lines,” said rhetoric graduate student Ellen Rigby, holding an AGSE placard--”things that could theoretically be on finals.”

But it may not be enough for some students who believe that the strike, coming so close to finals, hit them when they were most vulnerable.

“I’m not sure if I’m going to be ready to move onto the next level next semester,” said junior Edward Guzman, also a senator-elect, whose Spanish class was canceled when its teaching assistant went on strike.