Queen’s administration is failing the Class of 2025

We started at Queen’s in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2021. Now, as we approach the end of our undergraduate careers, we find ourselves trying to graduate during the first academic strike at Queen’s in 183 years.

For the Class of 2025, uncertainty and instability have defined our time at this institution. The administration’s refusal to negotiate with the 2,000 graduate student workers who are part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) 901, Unit 1, is now making our final months at Queen’s just as precarious as our first.

I wholeheartedly support the PSAC 901 workers in their strike. Graduate students, whose labour is foundational to both the University and undergraduate learning, deserve a livable wage. The University’s continued refusal to bargain isn’t only deeply disappointing—it also reveals a broader disregard for the well-being of its graduate workers and, by extension, it’s undergraduate students.

Queen’s administration owes it to the Class of 2025 to return to the bargaining table in good faith.

I arrived here in 2021 as a first-year undergraduate student when the Queen’s experience was heavily compromised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our cohort missed out on a traditional orientation, a rite of passage that helps students build community and navigate the challenges of university life. At the end of our first semester, we were sent home early due to rising COVID-19 cases. Most of our second semester unfolded remotely because of the Omicron outbreak, cutting us off from meaningful engagement with professors, peers, and campus life.

While the disruption caused by COVID-19 was outside the University’s control, the fallout for students was significant.

Academically and socially, our experience was fragmented. We lost the in-person interaction that many of us had been looking forward to for years, especially after ending high school online. When we finally returned to campus in second and third year, we had the opportunity to participate more fully in university life—joining clubs, attending classes in person, and forming connections with peers and faculty. These years allowed us to reclaim some semblance of a normal university experience. But just as we’re about to graduate, the uncertainty has re-emerged.

Many of us are now facing the possibility of graduating without receiving final grades. In social circles and online spaces, conversations revolve around how this strike might affect our futures. We’re navigating unanswered questions and anxieties about whether our academic records will reflect our hard work.

This is especially concerning for those pursuing further education, who are expected to submit complete transcripts with final grades. The prospect of receiving placeholder marks like CR (credit) or GD (grade deferred) places us in a vulnerable position when applying to competitive graduate or professional programs.

The Class of 2025 has devoted four years of hard work to earn our degrees. Yet, we now face the possibility that our efforts may not be properly recognized or validated due to the University’s inaction.

Queen’s is fully aware that our cohort already lost essential years of in-person learning to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current situation compounds those losses, not because of public health necessity, but because the administration refuses to meet the basic demands of its own academic workers.

It’s becoming more apparent that the administration is indifferent to student concerns. Their unwillingness to provide graduate workers with fair wages—particularly wages that reflect inflation and cost-of living increases demonstrates a troubling set of priorities. By continuing to delay negotiations, they’re signaling that the academic and personal well-being of both graduate and undergraduate students isn’t a priority.

The undergraduate academic experience is deeply intertwined with the contributions of graduate student workers. Teaching Fellows, Teaching Assistants, and Research Assistants, are often our first point of contact for course content and academic support. They lead tutorials, mark our assignments, and offer mentorship. When the administration fails to support graduate students, it’s also compromising the quality and continuity of undergraduate education. The two cannot be separated.

As members of the Class of 2025, we’re now finishing our final semester remotely, with little or no in-person class time. This abrupt return to online education without the infrastructure, planning, or intentionality that characterized earlier pandemic semesters—feels unsettlingly familiar. For many of us, this situation mirrors the way we ended high school and began university: online, disconnected, and uncertain about the future.

If the strike continues into the coming weeks, the University has stated that CR and GD grades may be assigned. A CR grade indicates that a student has passed a course but doesn’t show the grade earned. Typically, CR grades are used in exceptional personal circumstances and aren’t standard for an entire graduating class. A GD is used when grades are delayed.

For graduating students applying to graduate or professional programs, it’s uncertain if the use of these designations can complicate applications, delay decisions, or, in some cases, jeopardize opportunities altogether. Years of effort, consistent performance, and academic success are reduced to a placeholder mark—not because of our own choices, but due to administrative indifference.

We enrolled at Queen’s expecting to attend one of Canada’s leading academic institutions. That expectation came with the belief that our education would be valued and our futures protected.

Yet, Queen’s is failing us by remaining apathetic to the ongoing situation. A degree from Queen’s University is supposed to mean something—what does it mean if half of the Class of 2025 have CR or GDs on their transcripts?

Queen’s should be invested in promoting its students’ achievements. The skills, efforts, and accomplishments of the Class of 2025 deserve to be reflected in our transcripts. The University should strive to ensure that our successes are visible to the world. The current approach, however, suggests a disregard for what students need to move forward with confidence and opportunity.

I expected more from Queen’s. Fair wages for graduate workers and proper grading for undergraduates are the bare minimum. If a top-ranked institution cannot meet those basic obligations, then something is deeply wrong. The Class of 2025 deserves the quality education we were promised— especially after enduring years of pandemic-related disruption. We cannot afford to lose even more due to administrative neglect.

It’s time for students to make our voices heard. We must stand in solidarity with PSAC workers. Showing up to the picket line, e-mailing the administration, and signing Open Letters are all actions that matter. We have power as students, and we must use it to demand a university that supports its workers, protects its students, and upholds its commitments to education and equity.

Tags

Covid-19, PSAC 901, PSAC 901 Strike 2025, senior year, Undergrad

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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