This morning, approximately 500,000 students woke up to find picket lines outside all 24 Ontario colleges. More than 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors and librarians are currently on strike.
With the strike in the air, many students are wondering what will happen to their already paid tuition and their education. Many students are in the middle of mid-terms.
College Boreal student Jessica Latendresse said she moved to Sudbury to study the practical nursing program and is unsure how her studies will be affected. Latendresse was born and raised in Elliot Lake and is in her second year of the program. She decided to go through the Second Careers program after her first career as an office administrator did not offer the same benefits and opportunities as a nursing career would.
“I’m 26 years old and I just got married two years ago,” she said through a Skype interview. “I studied office admin online when I was 20 and worked in the field for two years. I hated it. It wasn’t for me. I’m more of a hands on person and I love medicine. I love this program. How am I going to be affected, as well as those other students?”
Latendresse said she supports the teachers and hopes that a deal can be made soon for the sake of the students.
“After all the hard work and money we put into this, I hope we can get back to class. This program is hardcore and I should be preparing for a placement, but I can’t because of this strike.”
With an unknown end date for the strike, Latendresse said she’s going to continue to study at home with some other classmates.
“There’s a girl in my class who comes from England and it’s going to affect her student visa,” she explained. “I want to help her study and be ready for class whenever they start again.”
In September, 70 per cent of college instructors voted to strike.
After the two sides could not resolve their differences, the strike took affect starting at 12:01 a.m. this morning. The two sides currently do not have talks to resolve this issue scheduled.
The Ontario Public Services Employees Union said that it is up to the College Employer Council, which bargains for the colleges, to re-start talks.
As for tuition refunds? Latendresse said that with every week the teachers are not in class, the students should be refunded for their tuition.
“It’s not fair,” she said. “Some programs are like, $8,000 a year and some students paid cash for their tuition and books and props. We should be refunded for some time off. We didn’t ask for it so why are we penalized?”
Tens of thousands of students have signed a circulated petition asking for fee refunds of $40 for each day that the strike is ongoing. The government said that it hopes the strike will be short to minimize lost class time and no fee refunds will be necessary.
According to Latendresse, she hopes the strike will be over by Friday.
“You never know what can happen,” she said. “I just hope to get back into school. What others fail to see is that some students have children who are in day care and now they will be losing the funding for that. Honestly, the government should be giving us free education for this.”
“I just want to go to school and be a nurse.”