Students consider dropping out after strike to get refund

Nov 24, 2017 | Campus News

Before coming back to school, Katie Vanderlaan was one of a number of students considering dropping out of school.

By: Adriana Di Santo, Tyson Lautenschlager and Olivia Morris

A five-week long college faculty strike had some students at Humber College questioning whether or not they wanted to drop out and get a tuition refund or continue with their condensed semester.

Katie Vanderlaan was one of those students. She’s in her final year of business administration at Humber, and was seriously considering dropping out of school when her teachers went on strike.

“During the five weeks, I was pretty much 100 per cent convinced I wanted to drop out and get my refund and start over in winter,” she said. “After I actually had my first day back on Tuesday, I started to reconsider that a little bit.”

Now, Vanderlaan has changed her mind, citing faculty support

“Teachers are being super supportive,” she said.

Not all students feel the same way, though.

“The ultimatum they’re giving students makes no sense. I’m definitely going to leave,” construction management student Eric Porcelli said in an interview with Radio Humber.

Humber’s Dean of Students Jen McMillen said students need to think long and hard rather than just dropping out on a whim.

“It’s really important that students talk to someone before they make that decision. We have many, many programs that don’t have a January start that have the same start date they had in September,” said McMillen.

She also said she’s spoken to students who have reconsidered their idea to drop out.

“I do know of some students who thought, ‘That’s it I can’t do it,’ but have reconsidered and have thought this is something they can manage. We’ve worked really hard to make sure the calendar is easier to manage for students.”

Students have until December 5 to decide if they want to drop out without academic penalty. If they do this, they’re eligible for a full refund. Vanderlaan’s decided she’s going to wait out the two-week period to make her final decision.

“I’m taking to the end of the week to make my decision,” she said.