McGill law students strike; Osgoode students demand equitable learning as in-person classes resume

As universities move away from remote learning and resume in-person classes for the winter 2022 semester, students have had to adapt despite the ongoing pandemic. While some may be ready to return to the classroom, others are not, which has resulted in a student strike at McGill University and a demand letter from Osgoode Hall Law School students calling on the administration for safe and equitable learning.

The McGill Law Students Association (LSA) voted to strike on Jan. 28 and the motion passed with 56.6 per cent in support.

Charlotte Sullivan, the vice-president academic of the LSA, said the strike “originated out of a sense amongst the student body that the current accommodations and safety measures offered at the Faculty of Law aren’t adequate to support students who, for personal or medical reasons, don’t feel safe or comfortable returning to lectures fully in-person.”

“The resolution that was voted upon during our referendum,” she explained, “basically states that the students of the Faculty of Law are demanding hybrid or alternative methods of course delivery permitting students to conduct their own assessments on whether or not to attend their classes in person.”

“In addition,” she noted, “there is a demand that mandatory attendance and participation grades requiring in-person attendance for their fulfilment should be adapted to permit online participation, or changed, or removed entirely.”

Sullivan said the students also want to “make it clear to the administration that we, as students, expect not only to be considered in decision making when the decisions being made affect our lives, but we also want to be considered an integral part of that process.”

“We don’t want them ignoring our needs and our requests, and we want, more broadly, for legal education to be more accessible to everyone regardless of associations, such as family and care giving obligations, or ability,” she emphasized.

Sullivan clarified that, currently, the McGill law students are on a “targeted strike.”

“Essentially, students are striking against all courses that are being held in-person only without a hybrid or online alternative,” she explained, noting that the LSA has been “speaking to professors individually to see where they stand; what they’re willing to change.”

“We’ve seen great flexibility on the part of instructors,” she said, adding that “full-time faculty members also put out a statement in solidarity with us, which was really wonderful to see.”

“The administration, however, has been a little bit more reluctant to come to the table. I think they’re hoping this sort of blows over, but we are making it clear to them that these are our demands, and we are sticking to them,” she added.

The Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) issued a statement on Jan. 31, noting that “as a faculty association,” it has “a profound concern for all of our faculty’s colleagues and for our community.”

“We are deeply troubled that we find ourselves — faculty and students — potentially divided both from each other and amongst ourselves over commitments to in-person or hybrid ways of teaching, when in reality we all share a commitment to transformative in-person teaching when doing so does not expose ourselves or others to reasonably avoidable health risks,” the statement added.

The statement also noted that “McGill’s administration has not done all it reasonably could — and that is done elsewhere — in this regard.”

The administration, the statement explained, has “framed the situation as a mutually exclusive choice around in-person instruction, rather than focusing on making our classrooms as safe as possible.”

“This policy has, rather foreseeably, downloaded difficult choices about deeply felt concerns onto individual instructors and students, who are all struggling to make the best decisions they can,” the statement added.

The AMPL statement called on McGill to “provide robust support and flexibility to our colleagues and students during this challenging time, and also to enter into good-faith negotiations with our students’ representatives.”

Sullivan told The Lawyer’s Daily that the LSA “represents all undergrad students at the Faculty of Law” and there are approximately “700 undergraduate students” at the faculty currently.

“Over 500 of those students voted in the referendum,” she said, noting that the targeted strike is mostly impacting “the first-year cohort” as “it’s their courses that are especially being held in person, disproportionately so without accommodations.”

She noted that the first-year cohort has approximately “180 students” and “the majority of those are enrolled in at least one class that is currently targeted by the strike action.”

“The motion that we voted on during the referendum stated that we would be going [on strike] until February 21 or at such a time that our demands are met, if that’s earlier,” Sullivan added, noting that the students will “revisit” to “see if we need to prolong the strike.”

“However, from where I stand, we’re seeing a lot of positive responses from faculty members, in particular, who are willing to adapt their teaching styles to accommodate students with particular needs,” she explained, noting that it is her hope that the students will be able to “return to normal” soon, “but that will definitely depend on whether students are comfortable with the approaches being taken and on whether their access needs are being met.”

Sullivan noted that the law students aren’t the only ones striking at McGill. Graduate students in Education and the Faculty of Social Work are also on strike, she explained.

“We also know that the University of Toronto is currently running a campaign to try and get hybrid learning across the board; so their student union is involved in that. We also spoke with some organizers at Osgoode this week who are interested in seeing how they can take lessons from the action taken at McGill and apply that to their own faculty. So that’s been really great to hear, and we certainly have been in touch with other law students, and it’s entirely possible that this will gain some traction elsewhere,” she added.

Sullivan said the pandemic has been “very challenging” for students and has “fundamentally changed our approach to our education.”

“I’m a second-year law student. Last year, my cohort was entirely on Zoom which I think made it challenging to make connections with other students and to really feel like you’re being immersed in a new degree. Then, of course, this fall we did return to campus, but we’re always plagued by these uncertainties about the ongoing public health crisis and whether or not we would be staying in person, whether the safety measures undertaken on campus were adequate to protect students’ health, especially the health of vulnerable and immunosuppressed students,” she explained, noting that the pandemic has led a lot of students to “reevaluate their approach to their studies.

She also knows that “there are lots of students who have no interest in striking.”

“No one wants to have their education more disrupted than it already has been. We’re striking because we want to ensure that every single student is able to advance their education right now and not just those who are able to return to campus in person,” she stressed.

“What we have seen over the course of this pandemic is obviously a lot of hardships for everyone, but we’ve also seen a period where there’s been tremendous adaptability. We’ve seen that education can happen beyond the four walls of the classroom. Technology can be implemented in really innovative ways. I know that courtrooms have also adapted,” she said, noting that now that “accessibility is possible,” she would like to see “universities, for everyone in the legal profession, to embrace that and harness that power so that everybody can be included going forward.”

Shirley Cardenas, a media relations officer for McGill, said that “while the public health situation in Quebec continues to evolve, we are confident in our collective capacity to deliver academic programs and university services in a way that meets the standards of excellence expected of McGill University while continuing to ensure the safety of our community.”

She noted that as of Jan. 17, Premier Francois Legault allowed universities to “resume full in-person academic activities.”

“McGill therefore followed its plan to transition to in-person classes for most teaching activities on January 24, with most lectures with over 200 students remaining online,” she explained, adding that “COVID accommodations, which have been in place since the start of the pandemic, are a vital part of a safe return to campus.”

“Our faculties and instructors have been encouraged to provide academic accommodations to students that are compassionate, reasonable and feasible, without compromising academic standards,” she said.

Cardenas explained that in the fall, the university’s senate “approved a motion allowing instructors to teach up to 20 per cent of their course remotely without authorization from their chair or director.”

“Faculties set the precise proportion depending on their needs, so the threshold therefore varies across the university. In most faculties, instructors can take advantage of this remote option to help transition back to in-person learning,” she added.

“Wherever possible, we provide accommodations to those who are vulnerable to severe illness from COVID infection so that they are not at increased risk. Academic accommodations are also available for students who have to isolate because of COVID symptoms or who have tested positive, as they were last term. Students may request short-term academic accommodations through an online form. Instructors are also encouraged to record lectures whenever possible, and can also consider extensions to assignments, or setting up some technology to allow a student to participate remotely,” she noted.

Cardenas said that “many students and instructors are very eager to come back in-person though some are anxious about in-person activities.”

“We understand these concerns. This a situation faced by all universities and therefore students alike. Students are allowed to protest, demonstrate and express themselves peacefully, so long as they do not interfere with university activities or otherwise violate the student code of conduct,” she explained, noting that “the health and well-being of our community remain our top priority, and all necessary health and safety measures will continue to be implemented to ensure that our campuses remain safe places to learn and to work.”

On Feb. 1, an open letter was issued by the Osgoode Hall Law Union, Disability Collective of Osgoode, and the Osgoode Mature Students Association, highlighting concerns the students have about returning to in-person learning on Feb. 7.

“The return to campus plan needlessly endangers students, faculty, staff, and their communities. We are alarmed that the administration is mandating in-person learning at a time when COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths in Ontario have significantly increased. [Note: at the time of this article’s publication, COVID case counts in Ontario have been declining.] At the town hall on January 21, 2022, York administration expressly acknowledged that social distancing will not be possible on campus, and conceded that there will be positive cases of COVID in classrooms,” the letter stated, noting that in-person learning “will increase community transmission and cause many students to get sick, with immunocompromised students and students with disabilities bearing the highest risk.”

“The pandemic continues to disproportionately impact marginalized communities along disability, race, class, and other lines. While a mandatory return to in-person classes poses risks to all students, safety and learning challenges are exacerbated for students from equity-seeking groups. We are concerned this inflexible decision has been made without sufficient consultation with students and is dismissive of the diverse lived realities of students,” the letter added.

The letter, addressed to Osgoode Hall and York University’s administration, demands a “learning model that prioritizes and centres the diverse needs of disabled, mature, racialized, and low-income students who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and are being endangered, marginalized, and excluded by the current return plan.”

The letter urged the administration to “adopt the following measures for the Winter 2022 semester:” “students should have the option to participate synchronously and remotely in all courses;” “final exams must be offered with remote and take-home options to meet students’ learning needs and ensure that students do not contract or transmit COVID while writing exams;” “accommodations should be granted to students without penalty, and without an onerous request process;” and “York University must provide accessible rapid tests and a supply of N95 masks for students, faculty, and staff who are on campus and at clinics.”

The letter also noted that “equity concerns should be at the forefront of a learning model during COVID.”

“Students who have disabilities, caregiving needs, and who are low-income are being severely burdened by the administration’s mandated return to class in-person,” the letter explained, highlighting examples for each group.

The letter stressed that an “intersectional approach recognizes that many students experience” challenges “simultaneously, which is further shaped by race, gender, and class.”

“A safe and equitable learning environment requires that the needs of all students are met, and that students from equity-seeking groups are not left behind,” the letter added, noting that the “pandemic has shown us how interconnected our safety is.”

“We all have a responsibility to take care of this community — to take collective action and ensure that everyone is safe,” the letter concluded.

Mary Condon, the dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, said “Osgoode takes the concerns of all its students very seriously.”

“The return to in-person learning was a decision taken at the university level following much consultation with health and safety experts. Students who require remote access to classes as an accommodation on human rights grounds — such as on the ground of disability or on the ground of family status — are being provided with remote access to their classes. Osgoode has also provided all students with flexibility to access recordings of lecture classes and to earn participation grades remotely. Additional measures we have taken to keep community members safe include requiring proof of vaccination and daily screening for symptoms. N95 masks are also available in the building. We are very keen to continue to work with our students to address any remaining concerns,” she added.

Pictured: Charlotte Sullivan, vice-president academic, McGill Law Students Association.

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