St. Clair College working on contingency plans
St. Clair officials list extending semester, rescheduling exams as possible options
As the strike by community college faculty enters its third week, St. Clair College officials are working on contingency plans that include lengthening the semester and rescheduling exams.
“We’re looking at different options if it goes more than three, four weeks,” said John Fairley, St. Clair’s vice-president of communications and community relations.
“We’ll have to see exactly what we’re dealing with before any decisions are made. Getting into the third week is definitely more concerning.”
Fairley said the college doesn’t have a set date in mind for how long the strike must continue to force modifications to the semester.
Extending the semester further into December or possibly through the first week after Christmas break in January are options being considered by the college.
Currently the final day of the first semester is Dec. 8. The first week of December is final exams week for the vast majority of students.
The second semester is scheduled to start Jan. 9 for students, while faculty are scheduled to return to work on Jan. 2.
“We could push (final exams) into December closer to the 20th,” Fairley said. “The other option is to hold exams on weekends.
“We’ve never done that, but it’s something other colleges and the university (of Windsor) have done. That would give us the option of two more days.”
Fairley said the college’s extensive placement system shouldn’t be too badly affected in the first semester.
“The majority of placements aren’t until the spring, so at least we’re not up against that,” Fairley said.
“If that were the case, it’s a whole different conversation.”
In the previous three strikes involving faculty — in 1984, 1989 and 2006 — the work stoppages lasted about three weeks on average.
Lost class time was made up by extending the school year into May once and a February reading week was cancelled another time. Lab times were extended for students on each occasion.
In the current strike, the two sides haven’t talked since the walkout began at Ontario’s 24 community colleges on Oct. 16.
More than 12,000 faculty are on strike, resulting in the cancellation of classes for more than 300,000 students.
Among the key issues is OPSEU’s desire to see more part-time teachers be made full-time staff, academic freedom and improved job security for sessional teachers.
“I would hope things start moving this week,” Fairley said.
“We’re only three to four per cent of faculty here in Windsor and Chatham. If it’s growing louder in the GTA, where the bigger schools are, that will have more affect in influencing negotiations to get going.”
Fairley added that, once a settlement is reached, it won’t take long for classes to resume.
Scheduling will prove the main challenge to restoring normal operations.
“We’ll have to see what programs still have left to do,” Fairley said.
“Once we have an agreement, it will only take a few days. The faculty has been out, but the facility has still been open. All the normal maintenance operations have been ongoing, so it’s not like we have to start things back up again.”
Despite picket lines around the college’s two local campuses in South Windsor and downtown, Fairley said there have not been any concerning incidents.
He expects no conflicts at events hosted at the St. Clair College Centre for the Arts in downtown Windsor.
“OPSEU has been sensitive to what the Centre for the Arts means,” Fairley said. “I don’t anticipate any problems.
“They (OPSEU members) have a presence during the day. They’ve not hurt any events at night like weddings or banquets ... There’s no teaching going on then.”
The only event cancelled at the Centre for the Arts was the Windsor Firefighters Chilifest.
“The firefighters are unionized and they didn’t want to cross a picket line during the day to do the luncheon,” Fairley said. “They will reschedule the event when the strike is done.”