Fanshawe College students are continuing to hit the books, even as a faculty strike that has cancelled all classes drags on through its third week.
Roughly 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors, and librarians from Ontario's 24 public colleges walked off the job in mid-October. But despite the job action, students thirst for knowledge remains high, according to Michele Beaudoin, the VP of Student Services at Fanshawe.
Using analytics, Beaudoin has determined a large number of students are continuing to log onto daily to Fanshawe Online, a source that gives students access to course materials.
"At the beginning of the strike, based on our logins, we had about 16,000 logins on a given day. It's gone down a little to about 10,000 logins in a day now. But that is still quite high," said Beaudoin. "It means students are still online trying to get ahead in what they can, maybe some assignments that they knew they had to do before the strike and they are trying to get through that. It's good to see."
Roughly 600 students each day have also been going to the campus library to check out books and other media and the First Nations Centre has also seen a fair amount of activity.
While students appear to be continuing on with their studies, the question of how long the strike can continue before the school year is lost remains unanswered.
"We don't have a time line on that only because what we are trying to do is aim everything toward how we can adjust to ensure that their learning outcomes are met and that they can get through their course material," said Beaudoin. "Most of the time that we dedicate from a planning point of view is around looking at how we can make adjustments overall to the term dates to be able to get through the material and ensure that we are reducing barriers for faculty and students when they get back."
Among the ideas being floated is extending the winter term by one week, to December 22.
Talks between the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the College Employer Council are expected to resume on Thursday. It will be the first time since the start of October that the two sides have met.
Job security is a key bargaining issue for the union. It is asking for a 50/50 split of full time and contract positions and an increased role in academic decision-making. Currently, 68% of the faculty at Fanshawe are lower paid contract employees.
