Victoria Silman | Assistant News Editor
Featured Image: The summer terms will be condensed, and courses taught by CUPE 3903 members will not be offered. | Fatema Ali
Despite many winter classes still on strike, York announced last week that they are continuing with the summer semester, albeit on a reduced basis. The course offerings are limited as CUPE 3903 faculty are still on strike, and will not be teaching any classes.
Chief Spokesperson and Director of Media Relations, Barbara Joy, touched on the release of summer course options. “We have had to set the summer schedule by May 11 for students, for practical planning reasons and that means reduced courses. Given that CUPE 3903 members are still on strike, we are making our plans for summer course offerings with full time faculty.
“Officially, all summer courses taught by CUPE instructors were withdrawn by May 11. They are not currently posted but some may be re-posted if the administration can convince YUFA members without full schedules to teach them,” CUPE 3903 unit two Vice President Julian Arend explains.
According to an email sent to students by Interim Provost and Vice President Academics, Lisa Phillips, “the list of offerings is greatly reduced from what was originally planned. We expect that there may be a small number of courses added next week as planning is completed. No S2 courses are planned at this time.”
The email, sent May 11, explained the university will be in contact with students, should their classes be cancelled for the summer semester.
Nikhar Srivastava, a third-year international BBA student at Schulich has expressed her frustration with the strike.
“I had to take summer courses to complete my credits, but a course has been cancelled and I was not informed in time. Now all the online courses are full. I live in India, so I can only take fully online courses,” she explains.
Pertaining to her winter classes, Srivastava continues: “They released the assessed marks the day I was leaving, and made it impossible for me to attend any remedy classes.”
Robin Verrall, a teaching assistant in the department of Political Science, assures that despite the summer and winter semesters possibly running simultaneously, students will be accommodated.
“In terms of classes, there is still a lot of confusion. Winter courses still will not resume until the strike is over. Some summer courses may be starting May 22, but many will not.”
Verrall encourages students to continue to check passport York, or contact the host department directly to ask about which courses may be running.
“Regardless, students are still protected by the Senate Policy and are entitled to accommodations for both winter and summer courses during a strike,” Verrall states.
Kim Michasiw, the Writing Department Chair and a member of the Executive Senate, has also outlined how students who are slated to graduate will be able to do so.
In an email sent to the writing department, Michasiw explained: “Some time this week, those who have applied to graduate and have not had grades submitted—whether because their Course Director is on strike, or because they have not submitted sufficient work in a YUFA-led course to qualify for an assessed grade—will be assigned a provisional grade in the course. This grade will be based on your cumulative GPA, thus will have no effect on their graduating average.
“The provisional grade will be assigned in all courses for which no other grade has been filed. It will allow students to graduate, and to have a complete transcript for graduation and professional school applications, for job applications, and for any other purposes to which transcripts are required,” he continued.
This will be a university-wide accommodation, with the exception of “students in programs subject to accreditation by external, professional organizations, such as engineering and nursing.”
