Here in Canada, a notable university (luckily not mine) has been closed since early November, due to striking T.A.'s. More information is available here.

A ton of commuter students, res students, and international students have been locked out of the classes, and will remain locked out unless the T.A.'s settle with the university. The Fall Term is over, and we are now into Winter terms at Canadian Universities, meaning that IF classes resume, students will have to attend class through summer. If they had any plans or bookings they will have to change them.
(Tuition here is roughly $5000-$6000 a year for humanities (higher for Science) plus $7000-11,000 for residence (with/without mealplan)



Do you think this should be allowed to happen? Should there be measures installed to prevent situations like this?
Should the university refund the students' money and cancel the school year?
Are there other solutions for students?
Do you think that it's fair for the T.A.'s to strike and close down the university?
Is it fair for the university to push classes into summer to avoid refunding students' money?
Should there be measures taken to compensate international students and students who have moved far away from home in order to attend university (and are now paying rent/or res/food/costs of living etc)




http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/11/05/205958.aspx

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/11/30/york-university-strike-update-no-deal-reached.aspx

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/11/08/2008-york-university-strike-is-cupes-waterloo/

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/11/06/york-university-strike-is-a-power-struggle-and-not-about-wages/

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/552005

Here's more from the Toronto Star (Centre Left) since you asked. They are against the strike.


Is York U. strike devaluing degrees? http://www.thestar.com/article/560741

Anguish at York University   http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/564272

York U Strike Vote Set for Next Week http://www.thestar.com/article/570057

York U. Students Voice Anger Online http://www.thestar.com/article/533878

These are the first results when searching the Toronto Star for York U Strike. Here's a list of more. It's a google page but it's searched only the Toronto Star Website http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=+site:www.thestar.com+toronto+star+york+u+strike


Here's the first results from a far left paper, the Toronto Sun. It's also against the strike.


Toronto U Strike Splits Students
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2008/11/18/7446496-sun.html#/news/2008/11/17/pf-7444146.html (Video)

One Way or Another, End York U Strike
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editorial/2009/01/20/8079941-sun.html

McGuinty won't recall legislature over York U. strike yet
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/01/19/8074656.html

End York U Strike Now
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/innocent_madawo/2008/12/11/7703801-sun.html

York U Students Rally Against Strike
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2008/11/17/7440036.html

Again, here are more articles, google used to search through the sun's website. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=+site:www.torontosun.com+toronto+sun+york+u+strike

No it's not fair but life's not fair greenhorn

I don't go to York, I just thought I'd post about the issue since there's a lot of people affected by it, and there will be more people in the future affected by similar incidences.

yeah i have a ton of friends who go to york too. most just lounge around now and do nothing all day other than like hang out or go to malls or whatever. most didn't get jobs because they thought the strike would be over quickly and didn't want to go to a job for a few weeks and then just suddenly leave.

do you know if the tuition money they paid for the fall term is lost?? if the university term starts again (it's almost already midterms, i have a feeling they're going to be screwed out of the whole year), would they have to pay again for the term they didn't fully complete?

if you could use a fork you could go to york LoL

guess they should have picked a better university!!!

i was also under the impression most TAs were undergrad students or something? almost all of the TAs here teach lab courses or whatever and they're just students trying to get their phd's or to graduate.

800 or so TAs compared to 50,000 students... I honestly felt that they had good reason at first but I quickly changed my mine. Yes, obviously the TAs would rather not strike since they're students themselves. However, they did, and what have they accomplished?

They refused what the school offered them and even refused an arbitrator to settle the deal. I find this ridiculous because a decision made by an arbitrator would be a final decision and it's really a toss up in who ever they would favour. Typically though, an arbitrator would be able to look at both sides and create a reasonable deal. The fact the TAs refused an arbitration deal while the school was in favour of this is what made me loose all sympathy for the TAs.

Btw this also affected those contracted profressors who really had no job security. Some Profs at that school don't even have a permanent position even though they have worked there for years. I'm in favour of creating job security for these teachers but I careless about the TAs. The ironic part of this all is that York TAs get paid the MOST out of all the universities in Ontario. Haha, now think about that... Shouldn't another school be complaining about this, like maybe University of Toronto?

I heard that a lot of the other universities staff are in favour of this because it would pave the way for better wages/job security for each respective school. Heh, I guess no one really cares about the students themselves.

Give em' the boot and offer the students to take their place with credit, and lowering their debt.