Striking out

By: Maeb Shaban

I am not the most knowledgeable student when it comes to strikes. What I do know is that the effects of the current college faculty strike have affected me and many other students greatly. This needs to be addressed as it is impeding on our education.

Being in a college and university-based program has its perks, but when it comes to this strike, we students are definitely getting the short end of the stick.

The majority of classes in the nursing program function through the Mohawk College, but now with it being on strike most McMaster/college students are left with maybe one course to attend. The strike has been going for more than four weeks now. That means four weeks of missed class and labs for students in McMaster’s nursing, Bachelor of Technology, medical and radiation sciences and specific social science classes.

Not only did we pay an immense amount of money for a schedule of courses we now cannot attend, we may be forced to be in the classroom for a longer period of time due to the delay. Our winter break may even be cut short as a result. For students who have booked tickets to go home and be with their families for the holidays, getting a refund and breaking the news to your families must be difficult to do, but the alternate just puts you at a greater delay.

Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected.

As of now, Mohawk-McMaster students are unaware of how their schedules are going to play out. There are so many students who are living off campus, paying rent and full tuition for what has become only one class. Can you imagine a student paying $600 a month in rent, then $4,000 for a full semester and only be learning one of those five courses? Mo-Mac students are not only losing money but also being forced to add time to their undergraduate careers.

Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected.

It’s fair to say that we’re more stressed out about all this time wasted out of the classroom than we would be if we were in the classroom.

After watching a video on how the bargaining between the union and the labour board was going, I became infuriated. It was clear how stubborn the labour board was being and how they were not willing to settle easily. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem had our future have been considered and accounted for in the process.

From my understanding (and what the Ontario college bargaining team stated) Ontario Public Service Employee Union was given everything they wanted: increasing pay, greater rights for contract faculty, better job security for contract faculty and academic freedom guarantees. So why not return to the classroom and get back to what they are being paid to do to begin with?

As educators, instructors are setting a poor example for students who look up to them for a brighter future. Students are not asking for much. We are merely asking that we get what we are paying for, and since what we are paying for is our education, I don’t think we are asking for much.

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