“There are no more alternatives after this,” said Jean Beauchesne, president of the Fédération des CEGEPs. “There is no more room to manoeuvre after these makeup sessions. Beyond that, there will be failures.”
Beauchesne said that while a minority of students support the strike, he wants them to know they need to save their semester – especially the 4,000 to 5,000 CEGEP students slated to start university in September.
He said those who opt to strike rather than attend the makeup sessions scheduled for mid-August till the end of September, as outlined in Bill 78, will likely be sacrificing their semester.
“If they can’t start university classes in October, it will be the end,” he said, unless they have some medical or other valid reason.
Éliane Laberge, president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, said students who will vote in general assemblies the week of Aug. 17 will be informed of the risks involved.
“We will tell them it might be a bigger sacrifice now than in the spring,” she said in an interview. “Of course, the situation is more complicated now.”
But she said it’s still not known exactly how things will play out.
Universities preparing to accept students from colleges who were on strike for much of their final CEGEP semester seem to have a variety of options for incoming students. In some cases, students may have an option to defer their start in university until January. Of course, if they are boycotting classes and don’t attend the makeup sessions to complete their last semester, they will be missing the required college diploma.
At Concordia University, where there will be about 470 students entering who didn’t complete their final CEGEP semester, communications adviser Cléa Desjardins said students have the option of concurrently completing their CEGEP classes while beginning university or deferring their start till January for some programs.
It is similar at McGill University, which is expecting about 300 students affected by the boycotts. Some could attempt to begin McGill while finishing up a couple of CEGEP classes, or they can defer till January, or some in science will be able to do the makeup session and then start classes in October.
At the Université de Montréal and Université du Québec à Montréal, which had the greatest number of striking students, the emphasis is on completing the makeup sessions and then starting the fall semester on Oct. 1. At U de M, for example, there is no option to defer till January because fall courses won’t be offered then.
Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: Karen Seidman
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