Students, staff grapple with strike fallout
David Thomassin and his classmates in Algonquin College’s environmental technician program were ready to begin their shoreline naturalization project on Nov. 7.
They had conducted their research and picked out the shrubs they’d plant along the shoreline of Muskrat Lake near Cobden, but by the time they finished the necessary groundwork their project had been put in limbo.
The 2017 Ontario colleges strike stalled the project and, as the fiveweek strike dragged on, Thomassin and his partners eventually lost their external funding.
Upon their return to classes, they were met with a condensed schedule that simultaneously cut course material and stuffed multiple lessons into one. But Thomassin and his classmates plowed through, volunteering their time to continue the naturalization project, which had to be modified due to the changing climate. In one of Thomassin’s courses, students and teachers agreed to show up two hours early to fit in the required lessons.
Thomassin took the disruptions in stride. “It wasn’t the end of the world,” he said.
The 35-year-old father and army veteran credits his life experiences for helping him through.
“My priorities weren’t in the same place” at 19, he said. He understands how many other students at colleges across the province struggled to adjust.
The compressed schedule was a tremendous challenge for many students and teachers, and though it continues to impact them, this semester shouldn’t be as damaging.
Enrico DeFrancesco, a professor at Algonquin’s school of hospitality and tourism, said it will be much easier to blend one extra week of work into 14 weeks. He said that between the five weeks lost over the strike and the four remaining weeks available last semester after the strike, teachers had to cram nine weeks of material into one month.
“What about (students who are) single parents? People who work full-time?” DeFrancesco said, wondering how they could fit in a full course load even on a regular schedule, let alone one that was condensed.
The school, meanwhile, said the current semester is “business as usual,” and expects it to run “smoothly.”
Megan Bennett, another environmental technician student at Algonquin, doesn’t agree with that assessment. She was supposed to work for the federal government after her intended graduation day on Dec. 14, but one of her online courses was so delayed by the strike that it was extended into January and February. She is currently finishing the course, but her delayed graduation has held up her job opportunity, and she is now on a temporary contract with the government as opposed to working full-time.
“I’m not happy I still have to do a course,” she said.
Bennett may not be alone. DeFrancesco said he lost several students over the strike because they had to choose their jobs over a compacted semester.
In total, more than 2,000 fulltime Algonquin students withdrew from their courses in the fall 2017 semester.
Judy Purrit, a business communications professor at Algonquin, said one of her colleague’s students had a full-blown panic attack in the class and paramedics had to be called. Purrit said last semester’s condensed schedule was “really, really stressful” for teachers and students. She noticed that marks among her classes veered toward the extremes; stronger students, who had fewer assignments that were graded heavier, received “stellar marks,” while students who would normally struggle in a standard semester “barely passed.”
“It’s like you’ve shut off an engine and started it again five weeks later,” she said.
Students weren’t the only ones who had to step up. Teachers worked through the winter break, marking exams, essays and final projects while preparing for the next semester.
DeFrancesco, a union representative for his program, said he appreciates how Algonquin College managed the situation, opting to keep a winter break and long weekend for students who needed to “recharge their batteries.” And because the winter semester exams are scheduled to end as they typically do in April, students whose leases end at that time won’t have to fret over their living situations while they’re studying.
Thomassin echoed a similar feeling and said, “The school did the best they could.”
But DeFrancesco also had complaints. A major demand during the strike was greater academic freedom for teachers, which is still being disputed between the union and the Ontario colleges. However, Algonquin left the modification of the course material up to the discretion of teachers in the condensed schedule.
“One minute, you’re not viable for academic freedom and the next they’re asking us to modify the course material,” he said.
There are also concerns among students that their value to employers was damaged because of the strike, as they had to rush through lessons to complete their courses. But DeFrancesco sees the opposite. “The adversity they had to go through … as an employer I’d view this graduating class as stronger.”