As Ontario’s college students face another Monday morning with no classes, The Varsity joins them in calling for increased government involvement to end this strike and get students back in the classroom.
The laissez-faire attitude demonstrated by the McGuinty government in bringing together college administrators and teachers (as represented by OPSEU) to resolve this conflict has been most disheartening. Though university professors are not similarly unionized, and therefore a province-wide strike is all but impossible, it is hard to imagine that the government would be so slow to act if it were university students that were barred access to education.
Colleges have moved beyond a junior partner status in education. The general media has declared support for the students, bringing an attention to this issue that’s usually reserved for university protests. For the government to take the colleges less seriously because they do not have the august tradition or theoretical curricula of Ontario’s universities is wrong and short-sighted.
With Ontario facing a significant shortage in skilled workers in the trades and automotive industries, colleges are essential in producing those that will keep our society functioning. To delay action on the strike is to punish the social workers and entrepreneurs of the future who depend on these years as a foundation for life, just as much as tomorrow’s professors and doctors who toil on our campus do.
In fact, such a division of training is no longer the reality. Increasingly, students require a mix of university and college education for success in their chosen field. It is therefore natural that both streams of education be given the same priority, especially in times of labour strife.
College administrators have proposed a “semester completion strategy” that would see graduating students complete their term once the strike is resolved. This public attempt to save face is laughable considering that many college students live out of town and have to deal with new jobs and expiring leases come May 1. Such a bending of the schedule might have been possible after a high school teachers’ strike, but not at this level.
As with most strikes, there are gains and concessions to be made on both sides here. But until the government exerts more pressure on the teachers’ union and management to get results fast, the students-especially those who should be enjoying their final few weeks of preparation and getting ready for full-time work-will continue to lose out.
The Varsity calls for a quick and effective resolution to this dispute that restores the rights and important status of students in the system. Teachers and administrators are all for the students, till their own interests need to be addressed. To truly rectify this situation, both sides need to put the students-their current and future clients-first.
To look upon any student as second-class, at no matter what level or in what type of scholastic setting, is an affront to us all.
