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Mixed emotions as college students head back to class (10 photos)

Students relieved to be back in class, but face daunting catch-up in condensed academic year; some students may even quit college

Tuesday marked the first day back to classes for 500,000 students at Ontario’s 24 community colleges, affected by a five week strike by 12,000 OPSEU-represented college professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians.

SooToday visited Sault College and found a range of emotions and facial expressions among students, from sombre to jubilant, as classes resumed after the longest college strike in Ontario history.  

What’s the general mood of students as they head back to school, their academic year and lives disrupted by a strike which had to be ended by provincial government back-to-work legislation passed on Sunday?

“I definitely wouldn’t say ‘happy,’” said student Blaise Hamilton.

Hamilton, of Owen Sound, and Brandon Shrigley of Kitchener, are currently enrolled in Sault College’s pre-health sciences program with a view to getting into the school’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.

“I’m nervous about how they’re going to figure out what to do with the five weeks lost…we haven’t heard anything yet. We already have a test on Friday, and we didn’t know exactly what we should be doing in some of our courses (while instructors were on strike),” Shrigley said.

“Definitely there’s a mix of anger, disappointment, being nervous. Programs are difficult enough in postsecondary without having what happened. They’re taking away some of our Christmas vacation,” Hamilton said.

Spring break will not be cancelled to make up for lost time, College officials told SooToday Tuesday.

Hamilton also criticized the province’s promise to extend more OSAP funding to students whose academic years have been extended as a result of the strike as just more money to pay back upon graduation. 

“Are we going to get the education we paid for? I feel the students got the short end of the stick,” Hamilton said.

“It’s kind of nerve-racking coming back here and getting back into the swing of things after five weeks,” said Helena Mills, a first year practical nursing student who previously graduated from the personal support worker program. 

“It’s a pretty rough load so it’ll be hard to catch up on everything.” 

“We’re so crammed with homework in the first place, we’ve got seven classes, an exam here and an exam there, and you try to catch up as much as you can,” said Mills, who expressed her disappointment at not having been able to approach instructors with course-related questions while they walked the picket line.

“We were supposed to do our clinicals (field placements in hospital, nursing homes or walk-in clinics) in October but because of the strike we weren’t able to do that and it’s set us back a lot.”

“I think we’re supposed to be able to do clinicals in December, but I’m not sure because they haven’t told us anything about that yet. We haven’t been able to practice that much in the lab,” Mills said.

Students in most courses will break for Christmas Dec. 22 (later than usual) and resume classes Jan. 3.

Under the government’s back-to-work ruling, there are allowances for some students who feel too overwhelmed to catch up in their school work to leave college and receive a full tuition refund within two weeks of the restart of classes.

Did any of the students we spoke to feel like packing it in, or know of classmates who wish to withdraw?

“Oh yeah. There are a lot of people in my class who said ‘I’m dropping out,’ and writing on Facebook saying ‘the union and the school screwed me over in my education,’” Mills said, adding many of those, if they indeed quit, plan to return to school next year.

"My girlfriend was talking about dropping out of her program,” Shrigley said.

“She’s in aviation, which is really hard as it is. They don’t know what they’re going to do to make up all that time. They’ll condense it and it’s already a hard program…I’m going to try to stick it out,” Shrigley said, adding he is dealing with an illness in his family in addition to academic woes.

“Personally I’m waiting a week to see what happens, to see how good of a transition it is, getting back. Why didn’t the government step in during week two of the strike?” Hamilton said, adding he worries about other students who might suffer mental health meltdowns as a result of the stress of dealing with a condensed academic year.

Amid a sombre atmosphere among many students, we did see some smiles as we spoke with first year aviation students Jordan Enns, Bianca Doucet and Stuart Finley.

“It feels very nice (to be back in class),” Enns beamed.

“I’m stressed but I’m really glad to be back in school,” Doucet said, while Finley added “I’m happy to be back and doing something with my life.” 

“It’s affected me pretty bad…we’ve lost a lot of class time,” Enns said, while Doucet said “everyone was super stressed about having to reapply next year.”

“A lot of people have talked about quitting, because the program has a big workload,” Enns said.

“I feel like they’re going to blast us with a bunch of stuff and it’s just going to be more stressful than before so I think more people will consider dropping out,” Finley said, though he, Enns and Doucet said they will forge ahead with their academic dreams.

Students who withdraw will be required to go through the application process again if entering into the first year of any program. Seats will not be held.

The three aviation students said their instructors seemed upbeat in their mood (despite being legislated back to work), saying the students were given verbal assurances the faculty have the students interests at heart.

“So far it’s been really good, one of my teacher’s been ecstatic to be back, they seem okay,” nursing student Mills said.

In a news release issued Monday, the Ontario government stated:

 

  • Full-time domestic and international students will be eligible to receive up to $500 for incremental unexpected costs they incurred
  • Students who decide to withdraw from college because of the strike will receive a full tuition refund. Apprentices can also apply for a full refund of classroom fees if they are unable to complete their in-school training for reasons related to the strike.
  • Students currently receiving OSAP who were likely to graduate before Dec. 31 of this year, and who have their current semester extended, will receive additional OSAP for the length of the extension. 

 

OPSEU-represented faculty walked off the job Oct. 16, wanting more full-time faculty positions, greater job security for part-time faculty and greater academic freedom.

The College Employer Council (CEC), representing all 24 Ontario community colleges, said OPSEU’s demands for more full-time faculty were financially unrealistic, and offered a 7.75 per cent salary increase over four years and a promise to enhance full-time employment opportunities for part-time teaching staff.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ordered a faculty vote to be held Nov. 14 to 16 on the CEC’s offer.

OPSEU reported provincially, there was a 95 per cent voter turnout and a 86 per cent rejection of the Council’s offer.

Locally there was a 92 per cent voter turnout and a 88 per cent rejection of the Council’s offer.

The impasse ultimately led to the government’s tabling of back-to-work legislation.


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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