'We're there to help them': college instructors vow to salvage semester
Faculty returned to college campuses across Ontario Monday, ready to get back to work after a five-week strike that's forced a drastic change of schedule for both instructors and their students.
On Sunday the provincial government passed back-to-work legislation, sending unresolved issues between the colleges and the faculty's union to binding arbitration.
On Monday morning staff gathered at eastern Ontario's four colleges — Algonquin, La Cité, St. Lawrence and Loyalist — to start mapping out what remains of the interrupted fall semester, now five weeks behind schedule.
"I think certainly it will be challenging, but not impossible," said Jaswinder Kaur, a first-year business professor at Algonquin College.
"We'll factor in various considerations with respect to the state of the students, their other workloads, holiday plans. Moving forward, we'll all be in this together."
Students will return to class Tuesday to try to pick up where they left off in mid-October. The fall semester has been extended into January, and La Cité has cancelled spring break.
Algonquin College president Cheryl Jensen said she's happy the year won't extend into May and cost students from out of town another month's rent.
"I'm very relieved our students are back and we'll be able to finish the year," she said. "It will be nice to have the whole team together and have the students back in the hallways."
Staff upbeat
Kaur said there's a real sense of excitement among staff to be back to work and focusing on education again.
"Nobody anticipated it would go on so long, nobody anticipated it would be a five-week strike," she said.
Daniel Anderson, an electrical engineering professor who's taught at Algonquin College for nearly 30 years, said he's pleased students weren't forced to abandon the semester, although he said he knows of at least one of his students who did drop out.
"What we want to do when we go back to the classrooms is welcome students back, try to alleviate all their concerns and anxiety, and tell them we're still focused on their education," he said.
"We want them to know we're there to help them."
