Labour disruption fresh in students’ minds: YFS pres

Antonella Cangelosi
Staff writer
Two years have passed since the CUPE 3903 strike shut down York  University for three long months and led faculty and teaching assistants to the picket lines.
Kaley Ames, a fourth-year classical studies major student, said she doesn’t think “the university has recovered from the strike,” adding that students who were at York during the strike will always have it ingrained in their memory, “or at least after they graduate.”
Krisna Saravanamuttu, president of the York Federation of Students, agreed.
“I think that for students like myself that went through the labor
disruption it’s still fresh in our memories.” He also noted that anytime there is a labour disruption at a university, it harms the reputation of the institution.
Rob Tiffin, vice-president students at York, said “[York] essentially
saw a 14 percent decline in applications over [strike] period and since then applications have come back, but I must say they still have not returned to the same levels as prior to the strike.”
Tiffin explained that York’s enrolment numbers have significantly increased since last year. He says the university currently has 44,586 undergraduate students, in contrast to the 44,031 that were enrolled this time last year.
In a recent poll, Excalibur asked 100 randomly chosen students whether they think the university has recovered from the strike. Sixty percent of students responded “yes,” 39 percent said “no” and only one student responded “not sure.”