Local college students have been looking for chances to keep learning, despite the fact their profs are on the picket lines.
Over 12,000 professors, instructors, librarians, and counsellors across Ontario are on strike at the province’s 24 public colleges. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. Monday, with no timeline for a resolution.
Some students say they’re worried their academic year could be at risk if the strike lasts too long.
So, what do they do?
First-year Algonquin College journalism student Tyler Kidd tells Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon some of his classmates are working together to keep their education going.
“We’ve had students who, as of 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, were organizing study groups to go to the school and cover material and try to stay on top of things and practice interviewing,” Kidd says. “Whatever skills we could, we want to do it.”
Kidd says it’s a way for students to take some power back into their own hands.
“We feel very much powerless,” he tells Solomon.
Kidd says he made the jump from the construction trade to become a journalism student because he was seeking a new challenge. The strike, for him, is frustrating.
“Five weeks in, I’m sitting at home,” he says. “Everything at Algonquin had been off to a fantastic start and then… here we are.”
But there are others who are looking out for these students caught in the middle.
Gary Dimmock, a senior reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, offered interested students a chance to learn from working journalists, sending out a tweet Monday afternoon.
Dear out-of-school @AlgonquinColleg journo students, PM if you want free training during the strike.
— Gary Dimmock (@crimegarden) October 16, 2017
Dimmock says, for students, the classroom is their home and this strike has left them effectively homeless.
“I’m looking at these students and they’re all telling these stories about how they’re out-of-school students,” he says. “They’re innocent bystanders. Why wouldn’t anybody devote their extra time to help out students?”
Dimmock says, since he sent out his tweet, he’s heard from 37 students as well as several journalists, both working and retired, from across Canada who are willing to share their skills.
That’s how Kidd ended up in contact with Solomon.
“I asked Tyler on the phone, ‘what are you interested in? You’re interested in politics?’ Who better to set a student interested in politics up with than Evan Solomon?” Dimmock says. “That student was stoked; Evan Solomon’s response was immediate, and supportive, and positive, and that’s what we need.”
Dimmock adds several students have also taken him up on his offer to sit in on the Basil Borutski trial at the Elgin Street courthouse for a day.
Kidd says one of his classmates told him about Dimmock’s tweet and he jumped at the chance.
“I had never met [Dimmock] before,” Kidd says. “I fired him off a message and made sure to reach out him as soon as possible. He offered me an opportunity and I said, ‘Yeah, whatever I can do!’”
Solomon says he was happy to oblige.
“Gary texts me about this and he says, ‘I’ve got a student who wants to come in and check it out.’ I said, ‘Of course I’ll help out. Everybody needs a hand.’ What’s great [about Kidd] is [he’s] showing initiative,” Solomon says.
In the meantime, Kidd says he’s hopeful the strike ends soon.
“I just want my education,” he says.