A second student rally was held today (Monday) outside the front entrance of UNBC as the Faculty Association and the employer are at odds over a new deal.
First-year Education student Melanie Bellwood has been taking classes at UNBC since 2011, who says a lot of students are taking on unnecessary costs due to the strike.
“For students from out of town or out of the country, they are paying rent, groceries, and utilities all to be here just to sit and wait to see if they can come back to class and it shouldn’t be that way.”
She encourages the rest of the student population to ask questions to administration when it comes to the labour stoppage between the employer and its faculty.
One of the options the university put on the table was extending the semester into the new year, but Bellwood believes this isn’t the best-case scenario.
“If it’s extended into the new year then things would shuffle back all the way into the spring. I don’t think that’s necessary, I don’t think it has to go that way but I don’t know we’ll see.”
She adds there has been too much posturing going on during negotiations.
“It sounds like there has been a lot of talking and then saying ‘hey faculty, come back and talk to us when you’ve got better ideas’ when it should be a negotiation process.”
Bellwood has been attending classes at UNBC since 2011.