LU's Education Students Are Back a Week Early

While most Lakehead students return to school on January 9th, Lakehead’s Education students are back one week early. After working full-time at their respective placements until a few days before Christmas, prospective teachers are having their Winter Break cut short. This, of course, would have been a much-welcomed period of rest given that education students were also stripped of their Fall Reading Week in October. 

Perhaps more problematically, Education students living in residence both in Thunder Bay and Orillia are returning to nearly dead campuses with limited access to food services.

In Thunder Bay, the Residence Dinning Hall doesn’t reopen until Saturday, January 7th, from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm. Other food services, including the Main Dining Hall, Subway, Dan Diner and MilkTease will not reopen until Monday, January 9th. Starbucks will be open Tuesday, January 3rd to Friday, January 6th at limited hours 8:00 am to 3:30 pm. (These hours of operation are based on Dec 06, 2022, Media Relations Bulletin).

In Orillia, the cafeteria, for one, will be operating with reduced hours, which makes sense given that every other student is at home enjoying their holidays with family. This change in hours means that students will only have access to the cafeteria from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm this week. Additionally, for this “convenience,” Lakehead Education students will have to pay an additional fee on top of their $5000 meal plan to eat during this week. 

Even more aggravatingly, the first day of the Residence Contract is January 7th, which means that Education students will be paying an extra $30 per day that they are in residence prior to this date. If students return on Tuesday, the first day of classes, this is an additional $120. Considering many Education students were still paying for residence while living at home during their placements beginning in early November, Lakehead is making them pay for times they are absent and pay to come back early. Unless students were working outside of their full-time placement and concurrent assignments/journals, they do not even have the income to sustain these fees. 

Beyond this, Education students, like students from most other disciplines, are feeling burnt out. For many, the first two weeks of holidays are filled with events, visiting family, and traveling. The third week of holidays afforded to most other Lakehead students would have given Education students a chance to take a breath and prepare for the semester to come. Instead, they continue to persevere through many obstacles, both mental and financial, aided almost solely by the sympathy of their professors.

All in all, The Argus welcomes back Education students and encourages every student to take a breather whenever possible. We will get through this crazy year!