I also wanted to extend my sympathy to your son with regard to the grad student strikes. My older daughter just graduated from a university that experienced a lot of strikes (two grad student strikes, one lecturer strike, RA strike, food services strike…) during her four years there. Whether the motivations are reasonable or not, the strikes are incredibly disruptive, especially for underclassmen.
These are kids who have experienced a lot of uncertainty since covid, and the strikes often add a new layer of instability. The strikes definitely made an already difficult freshman year even harder for my daughter. That said, she has become so much more resilient than she likely ever would have been because of these experiences. I’m not trying to influence his transfer decision at all – although doing well, she still has some mental health scars and I would never feel qualified to judge another situation to know what is best. For her, though, returning to school ended up being the right move and she is happy she did.