College student council urging end to strike

Niagara College student administrative council president Ryan Huckla was one of seven college student council presidents to go to Queen’s Park in Toronto last Thursday in the hopes of sharing with officials the student struggle during the ongoing college faculty strike.

“Even with the best intentions, it’s putting real challenges on the students,” Huckla said of the strike and the fact that negotiations between the College Employer Council (CEC) and Ontario Public Service Employees Union have not resumed.

The goal was to connect with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Advanced Education and Skills Development Minister Deb Matthews, CEC bargaining chair Sonia Del Missier and OPSEU bargaining chair JP Hornick, as outlined in a letter to the aforementioned as well as 15 members of provincial parliament the student council had shared to its Facebook page last week. The letter was penned by eight college student council presidents, including also those at Fanshawe, Mowhawk, Seneca, Sheridan, Confederation, St. Clair and Humber.

In the end, Huckla said seven of them met with Matthews, Del Missier and Hornick separately, but Wynne was unavailable.

Addressed were student concerns about not only the quality of education, but finances, employment and housing. Huckla said he’s also heard from many international students who are concerned about the academic term being extended because of things such as plane tickets home for winter break.

He said he also knows some students put everything on the line in order to get their education, so the strike has them feeling uneasy.

Huckla feels while Matthews may have been aware of these issues, hearing from the student presidents about how great the impact is and how different the issues are from school to school may have made a difference.

“I think we really brought the human side of things,” he said.

At the end of their meeting, he said Matthews connected them with a staffer to keep up-to-date with any changes and news from the government side of things. He said she, like the student union, encourages students to keep up with their courses as best as they can.

As for the meetings with the two bargaining chairs, he said they didn’t go as well as he would have liked.

He said they’re two passionate groups that care a lot about the people they’re representing, but the meeting didn’t advance anything.

Overall, he said he and the other presidents are appreciative to have been able to meet with these people at all, especially considering the letter and request was sent out Oct. 20 and a week later they were able to meet up.

The next move for Niagara College’s student council is a student rally at Queen’s Park on Wednesday. Huckla said it’s going to be a peaceful gathering with the goal of continuing the conversation about how the students are being impacted by the strike.

To get involved, students are welcome to get in contact with the student council through social media, email or in person. A Facebook event for the trip has been created and more information and signup sheets will be available shortly.

Huckla said advocating for students during the strike as they work through what their worries and struggles will continue.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be a challenge that we’re all going to work together to minimize the impact of for the students,” he said.

He would like for whatever comes out of these efforts to help put policies in place to help the students in the event a strike happens again.

As of Sunday morning, there was no sign of CEC and OPSEU returning to the bargaining table, leaving faculty to enter Week 3 of the strike. lbarton@postmedia.com twitter.com/LBartonTribune