It obviously is not the result officials at St. Clair College had hoped for, but the director of corporate communication says there is still hope the semester will be saved.
"[It's] not part of my vocabulary right now," says John Fairley. "This was not the week that ends the semester. We feel that we'll have a way out of this for our students."
About 10,000 students will have to wait even longer to resume classes after their faculty rejected the latest offer by the College Employer's Council.
"We know there's a lot of frustration from students," admits Fairley. "It certainly hasn't gone the way [we] wished it had gone. We thought there would be a resolution quicker than this, but it is what it is."
The result is not entirely unexpected. The faculty's union, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, did recommend members reject the offer after the Ontario Labour Relations Board imposed the vote last week.
Individual results are not available for each college, but overall 86% of members who cast a ballot voted no.
"This is our family. This is our brand; what St. Clair College is all about, whether it's Chatham-Kent or Windsor-Essex," says Fairley. "There's just differences in the family right now."
College officials are meeting with the different student governments at its campuses Thursday to discuss the results and the plan to move forward.
St. Clair released a contingency plan back earlier this month, and Fairley says so far, it has not changed.