Sign the petition

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Dear York University, 

Over the course of its existence, York University has been celebrated as an unwavering academe dedicated to educating the young minds of the next generation. The diverse body of learners and teachers it attracts, the extensive array of disciplines it includes, and the virtually endless opportunities it offers, all merge to give York University the prestigious eminence that it can boast of today. It is a well-grounded institution that thrives on seeking and professing knowledge to all who wish to seek and profess it. 

But the high esteem that the university has maintained by working tirelessly for fifty years may all be dismantled in a matter of just three months. The “unparalleled academic experience” it has claimed to offer no longer holds true, unless it incorporates extended periods of absence from class.  

Eager students chose York University as a means to fulfill their soaring ambitions. Anxious parents trusted York University to transform their naïve children into mature adults. And most importantly, the community financed York University to perform its only task- delivering a new generation of productive and edified members of society.  

In an unyielding contest of money, power, and obstinacy between the divided administration and staff of York, the ideals of the university and the needs of the students have been sacrificed. No longer can the public regard it with the same admiration and conviction that it had venerated the institution for prior to the strike. Instead of dutifully educating the influx of students keen on benefiting from their experience at York, the university instead robbed them of their valuable time, privileged education and modest pockets. 

Much of the loss that the students have suffered is irreplaceable. The time past, comprising chiefly of days allotted for studying on campus, cannot ever be recovered. The schooling missed will not be sufficiently imparted in a compressed semester. And yet there remains a small fraction of the loss that can indeed be recovered. 

Upon being granted and accepting admission into York University, students of the institution entered into a binding contract stating that in exchange for the money they offered, they will be given York’s esteemed education and other respective services. For the tuition fees, they will benefit from the lectures and classes, eventually leading up to a degree of their choice. For the room and board fees, they will benefit from schooling throughout the duration of their stay. For the meal plans, they will be nourished amply in order to attend their lessons well fed and thus, alert. 

Regardless of the fact that indeed the students will receive the education they paid for, it will be compressed and subsequently less effectual than if the class had run its due course. Moreover, many students supplied the school with residence and meal plan fees, which naturally went to waste as for two months students had no need to live on campus since classes were not in session. International students took a heavier blow as their expenses are higher, and hence, their losses greater.  

For a domestic student taking a full course load, simply tuition fees are approximately $5,000 and housing can be just as costly, if not more. Only a student is aware of how every penny saved makes a difference after coming to the realization that in fact knowledge has quite a pricey value. Universities have had strikes in the past and have had the empathy to refund a portion of the students’ expenses, such as St. Thomas University in New Brunswick. Why should York become notorious as a stingy and deceitful institution that failed to provide its students with the education it promised for the price it demanded?

When the whole essence of the pact between student and university has been fractured, the party in an unexpected loss should be reimbursed. In blatant terms, students made payments to York University for their services from September 2008 to April 2009. As the university failed to keep its end of the bargain by withholding a complete education, thus rendering every other service unnecessary, students have every right to be refunded. 

Blame is not being dealt to any specific party; every individual who partook in depriving students of their education should be held responsible. Whether it is the unyielding administration, or the unrelenting union, every accomplice should be mortified and repentant for not fulfilling the one duty society has assigned to them: educating. 

As deprived students, cheated parents, and a discouraged community, we beg York University to reinstate itself as a trusted institution of higher education by righting its wrongs. Directly, it is the students who have suffered most profoundly. However, it is not too late to regain the respect York University possessed just a short while ago. Give us our money back.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned