As Brandon University’s faculty strike entered Manitoba history last week - now 30 days and counting - increasingly frustrated students are demanding their tuition be refunded for the class time they’ve missed.

The Brandon University Students’ Union (BUSU) launched a petition, collecting student support to demand that BU pay back tuition fees for every day professors have walked the picket line.

More than 1,000 students have signed the petition so far, BUSU president Deandra Tousignant said, noting the goal is to get as many 3,000 signatures.

“The petition is to serve as a sort of pressure” on negotiations, she said.

“Students are not getting the contact hours they paid for. If, in fact, the education of students is compromised, they should be reimbursed.”

However, students are unlikely to see any sort of refund, even as mediators have declared negotiations to be at an “impasse.”

The Brandon University Faculty Association and BU administration have been in talks since May 19. The two sides refuse to budge regarding wages.

It’s unclear how much longer the strike will last. On Monday, the mediator for the strike called for binding arbitration, according to a CBC report.

“The university remains hopeful negotiations will be completed and the issue won’t arise,” strike negotiator Grant Mitchell, who also serves as BU’s legal counsel, told The Uniter last week.

Mitchell acknowledged the school does not have a tuition refund policy in the event of a strike. It is unlikely the university will draft such a policy once the strike is resolved, he added.

That’s because no school has ever cancelled a semester due to a strike, Mitchell said. In 2008, a BU faculty strike lasted for 17 days.

In 1997, a strike at York University in Ontario lasted 55 days. In 1976, a strike at Laval University in Quebec went on for four months, he added.

Accordingly, BU will make accommodations for students to complete their coursework and earn their credits, Mitchell said.

BUSU is currently drafting a back-to-school policy to help outline how students will earn those credits as the semester break and the holiday season approaches.

Part of that policy may include how to deal with tuition refunds in the event of future strike, Tousignant said.

“It’s something we will advocate for if this is something students want,” she said.  “Students are definitely getting frustrated. We’re getting antsy. It’s five weeks until final exams.”

Marissa Dornian, a second-year psychiatric nursing student, said BU should have originally provided options for students who didn’t want to sit through the strike.

“I wish that we had the option to drop the class when the strike happened, get our money back and take it a different semester,” she said, adding she’s unsure if the strike will push her studies back a year.

The university has done little to ease concerns over the logistics of extending the semester because communication has been poor, she said.

“Into the winter, some people have full-time jobs or travel plans,” she said. “We don’t plan for (a strike) and not being able to attend class. It’s a big inconvenience.”

Published in Volume 66, Number 11 of The Uniter (November 9, 2011)