ANTIGONISH: Universities across Nova Scotia took steps to ensure that the work-to-rule job action taken by members of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU) would not impact high school students applying for university programs or the classroom practicum requirements for university students seeking an education degree.
StFX University issued a statement confirming that the Antigonish campus was accepting non-academic reference letters for students applying for StFX courses, and confirmed that applicants will not be penalized if they miss the traditional March 1 deadline to submit their high school transcripts. As well, the university encouraged the use of e-mail to strengthen communication between applicants, the StFX admissions office and high school guidance counselors.
The NSTU announced last Friday that the job action would stop this Friday, as a result of reaching a tentative deal with the province.
Addressing the issue in an interview with The Reporter, Peter Halpin, the executive director of the Association of Atlantic Universities (AAU), explained that StFX is one of several universities across the province that attempted to adjust to the strict conditions of the NSTU’s work-to-rule action, which got underway early in December.
“Historically, teachers have provided [reference letters] to students in Grade 12 who were applying to university right about this time, especially for scholarship applications… As part of the NSTU work-to-rule job action, teachers were told not to write the letters,” Halpin pointed out.
“The universities… don’t want to do anything that’s going to stand in the way of young people applying to university and getting admittance. So they’re doing everything they can, in terms of our admissions officers at our universities, to be as flexible as possible around admittance of applicants and around scholarship decisions as well.”
As for the in-school practicum required by most Bachelor of Education degree programs offered by Nova Scotia universities, the AAU reached out to the NSTU to schedule a joint meeting to deal with this issue.
“Those education students have a teacher practicum which requires them to be in school classrooms for a period of 15 weeks, and some were supposed to have started those in December and more were supposed to have started those in early January,” Halpin pointed out.
Further questions regarding the StFX admissions process can be addressed by e-mailing: admit@stfx.ca or scholarships@stfx.ca.