120 classes have been cancelled at Concordia University for one day only as students in a number of faculties prepare to strike Monday.
It will be “a day of dialogue and reflection” for students in the faculty of fine arts, departments of geography, philosophy and women’s studies and the School of Community and Public Affairs, the university said in an announcement on its website.
“As an institution, we came away with several lessons learned from the spring of 2012, including the need to have continuous, open dialogue on campus and to support our faculty and staff so that everyone has the information they need to effectively respond to different situations that may arise during strike days,” said Concordia’s Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs Benoit-Antoine Bacon.
A number of student groups in the province are planning various strike days and demonstrations to protest against what they are calling the Liberal government’s “austerity measures.”
One protest was held Saturday, while another is planned for Thursday outside the National Assembly to coincide with the unveiling of the budget.
This new movement has been dubbed Spring 2015, reminiscent of 2012’s Maple Spring, when thousands of students voted to walk out of their classes and held nightly marches in downtown Montreal. Striking students also tried to prevent others from attending their classes in some cases.
The notice on Concordia’s website reminds students that despite the strikes, professors are expected to deliver their curriculum and students who do not attend class are expected to meet the requirements of their courses in order to pass.
The university will remain open and classes in all other faculties and departments will go on as scheduled.
No classes will be held for:
- Faculty of Fine Arts – undergraduate students
- Department of Geography – only undergraduate courses beginning with code GEOG
- Department of Philosophy – undergraduate and graduate students
- Women Studies classes – undergraduate courses beginning with code WSDB
- School of Community and Public Affairs – undergraduate courses beginning with code SCPA.
The original version of this article stated that nearly 600 classes were cancelled. We regret the error.