As college strike continues, Algonquin students worry about making up lost time
Algonquin College nursing student Mia Menard is studying on her own at home in Orléans while her professors are on strike.
But she can’t replace the two shifts a week at the Queensway Carleton Hospital that were giving her the practical experience required to complete her degree this spring.
With the strike by faculty at Ontario’s 24 colleges entering its sixth day on Saturday, questions are mounting among students — who have asked the Ontario government to intervene and get the two sides back to the bargaining table — about how they will salvage their semester.
Menard has received no information about how and when those hours of clinical experience will be made up. She is “a hundred per cent supportive” of professors walking the picket line who are asking, among other things, for more job security for part-time faculty.
“But I do hope this doesn’t last much longer. The longer it lasts, the more backed up we’ll be.”
Algonquin College president Cheryl Jensen has told students they will not lose their academic year because of the conflict between the colleges and 12,000 professors, part-time instructors, librarians and counsellors who walked off the job across Ontario on Monday.
Clinical placements will resume when the strike is over, according to a statement from the college: “While we don’t have a calendar of what that will look like yet, we will make sure that all students who require clinical placements complete their required hours.”
A notice posted on the Algonquin strike information website suggests students not make travel plans because the academic year may be restructured. “Unfortunately, at this time we cannot guarantee when classes will resume or how the exam schedule may be revised.”
Menard said she assumes that means the semester may extend into the Christmas break. But she’s anxious for more details about her missed hospital shifts, during which she works under the supervision of an Algonquin instructor and a nurse. That clinical experience is crucial for nurses when they enter the workforce, she said.
“What if they don’t know how to put in a catheter because they didn’t get that experience?”
Menard said she’s a “hands-on” learner.
“That’s why I chose Algonquin. Now I feel like I’m not getting that.”
Greg Kung, an Ottawa resident who moved temporarily to Toronto to take a paramedic course at Humber College, is in a similar position. He needs hours of “ride-along” experience with paramedics to complete his twoyear course this spring.
Kung and friend Amir Allana started an online petition demanding that students be refunded a portion of their tuition for every day of the strike.
As of Friday, it had 93,000 signatures.
“Students suffer the most, yet we are not part of the conversation,” said the petition. “Students pay the same tuition regardless of how much time and learning we lose if a strike occurs. Administrators continue to earn their comfortable salaries even if classrooms are empty.”
Kung said students are being used as “bargaining chips.”
The petition doesn’t take sides, but is meant to pressure both union and management to get back to bargaining, he said in an interview.
The president of the Algonquin faculty union, Pat Kennedy, says he agrees students deserve a refund. If you pay for a service, you should receive it, he said. “If you buy a hundred bucks worth of groceries and pay for it, they can’t say, ‘Well, just leave half of it in the store.’ ”
Kennedy also said Algonquin should immediately tell students in every program how their work will be made up. “What exactly is the plan, and why aren’t they telling us?”
The situation is particularly difficult for apprentices in the trades, who alternate between working for an employer and studying at the college, Kennedy said. If their courses are extended, they’ll lose income and have to make arrangements with employers. “It’s not like they can just say, ‘Let’s squeeze this in on a Saturday.’ ”
Algonquin says it is making contingency plans for students, and will release information as it becomes available.
Algonquin has posted information for apprentices. For those who have finished seven weeks of an eight-week training block, “We will consult with faculty upon their return and calculate a pass/fail grade based on assessments compiled prior to the work stoppage,” said the college. Apprentices in week 2 or 3 will resume classes where they left off.
The college has also said that all cancelled classes will resume on the second weekday after the strike ends to give professors time to prepare.
There is no indication of when that might be.
As of Friday afternoon, no talks were scheduled. However, JP Hornick, the chief negotiator for the union, said she was awaiting confirmation that the colleges were willing to go back to negotiating. jmiller@postmedia.com twitter.com/JacquieAMiller