Students likely back to classes on Tuesday
Instructors expected back Monday if back-to-work legislation passed
St. Clair College students will likely return to the classroom Tuesday if back-to-work legislation is passed at Queen’s Park on the weekend and instructors return to the job Monday.
Opposition by the NDP has dragged out the debate over ordering Ontario’s striking college instructors to return to the classroom.
“The plan is once the legislation is passed, we’ll have faculty come in to go over the plans for the rest of the semester and then the students would return the next day,” said Waseem Habash, vice-president academic at St. Clair College.
“We need faculty input to enact the plan. We need them to buy in and point out where we need to add hours or days.”
Habash said the college doesn’t intend to cut anything out of the curriculum despite the 33-day strike, the longest faculty work stoppage in the college system’s 50-year history.
“Most faculty are happy to being going back,” said OPSEU Local 138 president Bernie Nawrocki. “Teachers like to teach and we want to be back in the classroom with our students.
“We have a good relationship with the people at St. Clair and I don’t anticipate any problems. We need to see the details of their plans, but we’ll try to make things work. We want the students to be a success.”
The new plan calls for a semester that will be 14 weeks long, instead of 15, with the start of the second semester being pushed back to approximately the last week of January. Exam week will begin around the third week of January.
“We think it’s important to include everything that was intended to be in the semester,” Wabash said. “We’re not going to water down the content.
“Where faculty feels there needs to be hours added to what can be done in 14 weeks, those hours will be added.”
Habash said that could mean extending three-hour classes to four, adding a class on Friday afternoon or a weekday evening and even writing an exam on a weekend if necessary.
For pre-health student Laurie Wills, who plans to enter the nursing program next year, not getting a pared down curriculum is a big relief. “My biggest concern was we’d be rushed through it or they’d risk leaving something out,” said Wills, who is thrilled to return. “I hope we get a review of the material before any testing. It’s been a long time, even though I’ve been reviewing my notes.”
College officials have assured students there will be no tests, exams or assignments due in the first week back. All the clinical, placement and lab requirements required by certain programs will also be provided.
“Our plans are completely focused on our students and giving them what they need and what they paid for,” Habash said.
However, there’s no getting around the disruption the strike has caused.
“What just are we returning to?” said paralegal student Erica Garrett. “I was supposed to be done in December. Now I’ll be spending the holidays worrying about exams, tests, assignment and mock trials.”
Habash said the second semester will be shortened to 13 weeks from 15 weeks and March break will remain unchanged. The college plans to extend class hours to make up for the shorter time frame.
There will also be accommodations for students who have made travel plans during the Christmas break.
Among the ideas being floated are changing dates for tests and assignments, getting extra tutoring, meeting with teachers in their offices and giving students more help during free hours and following lessons on an online blackboard site.
“As soon as they return, those students need to make arrangements with the faculty in their program,” said Habash, who said extra tutoring would be provided.