St. Clair College is working in overdrive to resume its semester after the end of the Ontario college strike.
The five-week strike, the longest for Ontario's colleges in the province's history, ended Sunday when the provincial legislature voted on a back-to-work plan that is sending faculty back to the classroom. Faculty are reporting Monday with the students returning on Tuesday.
St. Clair College spokesman John Fairley says the college has had a back-to-school plan ready to go for some time.
"Our semester completion plans are out," says Fairley. "With that there's really been no change to what we'd announced a few weeks ago, in early November."
Now that the strike has been stopped, Fairley says St. Clair now has concrete dates for its semesters. As announced before, the fall term will extend one week beyond schedule to break on December 22. The usual three-week holiday break has been cut to one week with fall classes resuming Wednesday, January 3, 2018.
Fairley says it's unfortunate that the holiday break is cut short since everyone involved with the college will have less time to work a job, or visit family and friends outside the area before the fall term resumes after New Year's.
"There's been a loss of holiday time for our staff as well as, most importantly, our students," says Fairley. "We accept that and we accept the criticism for it, but we had to have the outcomes to make it work, and that's where we're at."
Fall semester exams and final projects will be handed in from January 16 to 20. The winter 2018 term begins on January 22 and will run 13 weeks, ending on its previously-scheduled date of April 27.
The college says classes should not have any assignments due or tests scheduled for the first week back, and that the college will be open over the holiday break to help students prepare for exams or catch up on projects. Facilities such as campus libraries and labs will be open extended hours on evenings and weekends as space and security allows.
Classes should be back running Tuesday at the main Windsor campus, St. Clair Centre for the Arts and MediaPlex, as well as the main Chatham campus.
The college has prepared its comprehensive back-to-school plan for students and staff to review. To see the plan, click here.