'Frustration' on UPEI campus as students return to class

After a faculty strike that lasted almost four weeks, University of Prince Edward Island students were back in class Monday, though some say they'd rather not be.

The strike ended Friday with an agreement between the faculty association and administration. 

Formal exams have been cancelled in order to maximize class time until April 28, though some students still have tests worth up to 50 per cent of their grade. UPEI Student Union president Adam MacKenzie said that plan doesn't sit well with some students,

"These students are, for lack of a better term, fed up," he said. "I think people are really kind of done going to university for the semester."

He said the strike has taken a toll on everyone, himself included.

"I have heard from many students who don't really want to be on campus for the next two weeks. I think they understand why we are, but they really are feeling burnout and frustration."

Kiara Fehan, a second-year student at UPEI, was among a group of students voicing their frustration on Monday.

"We were all just very angry with the whole situation and we didn't want our semester extended, she said..

"We had a vote on it, actually, with the student union and… extending the semester was the least voted for. But that's what we ended up with. So I think just time and time again, students are getting thrown under the bus and we didn't want to stay quiet anymore."

The Charlottetown-based university said it will be giving back some of the tuition its students paid, after calculating how much money was saved from not having to pay staff during the strike, less any extra expenses incurred because of the labour disruption.

MacKenzie said they're still waiting for details on that plan. 

Students can opt for pass/fail

Students are being allowed to drop classes without academic penalty by Tuesday, and can opt to appeal for their grades to be listed as pass/fail after getting the numbers. 

A UPEI Student Union survey sent to full-time students found almost 54 per cent of students wanted a refund, and 43 per cent wanted credits to be awarded as normal or on a pass/fail basis. 

MacKenzie warns students to do their research before choosing a pass/fail option because it could affect their graduate school applications and some professional accreditations. 

Margot Rejskind, the UPEI Faculty Association's vice-president and a sessional instructor at UPEI's faculty of music, said the goal has always been to make the university "the best that it can be." And while she's relieved the strike is over, she said she shares the students' frustration.

"We do understand that it was a very frustrating time for students. It was a frustrating time for us as well. And we're hoping that — as I know a lot of people are very anxious as they get into class today — they get to talk to their professors, get an understanding of how things are going to go forward, that they'll feel less anxious.

"But I — you know, I don't blame them."

Accommodations for students

UPEI interim president Greg Keefe said professors are expected to be as accommodating as possible to "rightfully concerned" students. He pointed out that if the semester had just wrapped up on Friday as the strike ended, many students would not have met their graduation requirements.

"Clearly there's no kind of a one-size fits all for this, and so at the end of the day, professors were given a lot of discretion on how they would end the semester."

Fehan said the situation is not fair to students.

"All of my assignments are due in the next two weeks. None of them were cut short or anything, and I know that is the same for a lot of my fellow students. They still have exams even though it's not being held in a gym. They're still exams worth half of their grade, and I just don't see how that's fair when we've missed a month of our semester."

Convocation will go ahead as planned in mid-May, the university has said.