College apologetic about communications with SA, discussing reinstating winter intersession, says dean

The Student Association (SA) is demanding answers from George Brown College (GBC) for changes it made to the fall and winter semesters.

Yesterday the SA, which funds The Dialog, posted an open letter addressed to GBC president Anne Sado and other administrators that condemned college’s decision to cancel the winter break, and was critical over what it called a lack of consultations with the college. 

The letter, which was signed by all four executives members of the SA, calls for George Brown to maintain the original schedule of the December break and winter intersession week and asks the college to develop and communicate a contingency plan for the fall and winter semesters.

Bruna Waechter, a GBC business student said she felt represented by the SA’s letter.

“I think the college should take more consideration of the impacts that this has on students, mainly on international students”.

Speaking before the letter was published, SA director of education, Tiffany White said she was angry about the college’s decision to extend the fall semester and cancel winter intersession week.

“There are a lot of students who are going to be very unhappy about this, and there are so many other ways other ways that they could have gone about this and they just did all wrong,” said White.

Dr. Cory Ross, the college’s interim executive dean, said he was apologetic for what he called a “communication failure” regarding the college’s new plan. He also confirmed that he would be meeting the SA today to discuss different scenarios for when the strike is over.

“I believe that by entering into meetings directly with the SA, we will be crafting our destiny and the future together,” he said.

Ross confirmed that reinstating the winter intersession week is under discussion, but said it would depend on the discussions and how long the strike goes on.

On Monday, the college announced the fall semester had been extended to Dec. 22 and the winter intersession break, originally scheduled from Feb. 26 to March 2, had been cancelled.

With files from Steve Cornwell.