By Trish Bauder [1]
BELLEVILLE – For at least one student, the five-week-long faculty strike was too much and they decided to drop out.
“I dropped out because of the strike. To be completely honest with you if it would have only been a couple of weeks I would have gone back, but it lasted so long,” said Megan Pounder, a public relations student.
Pounder said she lost all motivation because she was unable to complete assignments. It was then she thought about dropping out.
“I just decided it was best to just not stress myself out by rushing them (the assignments) so I decided to take the rest of the year off,” she said.
If the strike would have been a couple of weeks Pounder says it would have been a different story.
The college faculty strike began on October 16 just a week after the reading week and lasted until Nov.20. , leaving faculty and students a whole six weeks out of class.
Students who have withdrawn – or are planning to – are now eligible for a tuition-only refund. College students have until Dec. 5 to get a full refund.
Cathy Hall, of Loyalist College’s financial aid office, told QNet News it’s unclear how many Loyalist students will be withdrawing and receiving their money back.
Pounder said she was not aware a full refund was available when she first dropped out.
“Yeah actually didn’t even know about it till I came in the other day and signed papers and she told me about it so think I’m going to go for it,” she said.
Withdrawing from college now leaves Pounder with mixed feelings with the unknown of what’s going to happen next.
“I am anxious. I don’t know, I’m second guessing myself. I’m not sure if this was the best idea to do because I ended up giving up a full-time job in my field to go back to school . And now, I just dropped out so I’m kind of worried about my future now,” Pounder said.
For now, Pounder plans to take a few years off to work and do her thing, and will decide to come back to school later to finish the rest of her schooling.