Fanshawe College pushes back semester, warns students about travel
Students learned in an email on Wednesday from college president
Fanshawe College students learned on Wednesday that their class schedules have been extended into their winter vacation to accommodate for a colleges strike that's reaching its third week.
College president Peter Devlin informed students in an email that the final day of class and exam schedules has been pushed back to Dec. 22. On the college website, the original last day of classes was on Dec. 20. Winter term is set to start on its original date of Jan. 3.
For some students, the scheduled update is throwing off plans – whether work or travel – as the email also warned students to back off on making any travel plans.
"Unfortunately it's really tough for me because that's time that I had set aside to work," said Nahshon Herman, a second-year student who works in retail in London.
"That's the busiest time of year for us so I can make some money during that time off, but now you're telling me that I'm having some of that time taken away to make up for some of the time that we lost because of a strike."
Striking faculty and the council resumed talks on Thursday in an effort to end the labour disruption.
Labour dispute
About half a million Ontario students across 24 colleges have been stuck in a labour dispute between the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) and the college's council.
The union has called for the number of full-time faculty to match the number of faculty members on contract – which the council said would cost more than $250 million per year.
However, for Herman, he said the strike has cost students a chunk of their semester.
"A lot of people are displeased, they feel like their money and time is being wasted," he said.
"Everyone planned to be in school during this time of year and now we're just being put on hold. Like, what are we doing with our lives?"
Roughly 12,000 college instructors and librarians have been picketing since Oct. 15.
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