St. Clair College to provide 275 bursary to qualifying students should Transit Windsor strike

Thousands of students are expected to receive a bursary from St. Clair College in the event of a Transit Windsor strike. 

The college will provide a $275.00 credit that will be applied to student accounts to offset any additional expenses they may incur in finding alternate transportation. 

John Fairley, Vice President, College Communications & Community Relations says students who hold a valid Transit Windsor Saints bus pass qualify for the bursary.

"We believe that there's going to be a cost occurred for those people that can't use the buses to get to the campus. Whether it's those [getting] across Windsor from the county that are dependent on Transit Windsor to our two campuses obviously in south Windsor and our campuses downtown."

Fairley says new winter semester students who paid for the Saints pass also qualify. 

As the college expects extra traffic related to dropping off and picking up students, Fairley says they will temporarily allow cars into the bus loop by the front entrance.

"What that is, is allowing people to drop off like you've seen in high schools or public schools, the drop off areas. We have extra security up there patrolling that will allow people to drop off and for those that are waiting to be picked up, we're looking at doing something over at one of our lots in south Windsor."

He says the college is emphasizing to faculty and staff that this transportation disruption may severely interfere with the ability of many students to attend their classes.

"Many students who come from all different parts of Windsor use the bus, so we're talking a few thousand people and obviously from the county as well. So we just want to be prepared. And glad to hear that the talks are still going on and we're hopeful that this plan could be shelved and not needed for Monday morning."

Fairley says the college is confident that "those caring educators will take the steps necessary to assist those affected students, by ensuring (for instance) that all in-class material and lecture notes are made available via Blackboard and/or other electronic means."