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VIU releases contingency plans for students

Cancelling exams or extending the semester are the options Vancouver Island University administrators are offering to students in academic degree and diploma programs to make up for missing classes due to the faculty strike.

Cancelling exams or extending the semester are the options Vancouver Island University administrators are offering to students in academic degree and diploma programs to make up for missing classes due to the faculty strike.

If classes resume on or before April 11, classes will be extended to April 29 and exams cancelled. If the strike extends beyond that date, classes will extend into May, with the length of extension determined when the labour dispute is resolved.

Field trips scheduled to depart before April 29 are under review, while those scheduled to depart later will proceed if classes resume April 11.

Contingency plans for trades and applied technology, education and health and human services students were not available Monday when the above dates were set for degree and diploma students.

"We're waiting for additional information on those programs," said Toni O'Keeffe, VIU spokeswoman, on Tuesday.

Those programs have unique aspects to them, some of which cannot be rescheduled, such as special labs, practicums and certification exams, she said, and deans in those program areas are still working out contingency plans for these students.

Plans for those areas will be posted on the VIU website on or before March 31.

Steve Beasley, executive director of the Vancouver Island University Students' Union, said many students still stand to lose a semester if the strike goes past April 11.

Many students have summer jobs that start in May and many are from out of town and have given up their lodgings at the end of April, he said.

The students' union will seek compensation for any student who loses the semester due to the strike, Beasley added, not only for the semester's expenses but also for a lost year of employment if students' education is delayed.

"We would expect students to be fully compensated for direct and indirect costs," he said.