Canadian Press

TORONTO -  All 24 of Ontario's colleges are set to pledge to their 150,000 students that they won't lose their semester over the strike by faculty.

Robert Gillett, the president of Algonquin College, says newspaper ads Wednesday will say all the colleges are committed to finishing the winter semester despite the week-long strike by 9,100 faculty members.

Gillett says that with or without faculty back in class, the colleges will determine the essential work necessary to complete each course and management will teach the classes if required.

Gillett says Algonquin wants to finish every class if possible by April 29, the original last day of the semester.

He says there are problems extending the year because many students can't stay at their apartments beyond the end of April, don't have the cash to continue classes longer than expected, or have summer jobs they're slated to start.

Ontario Public Service Employees Union negotiator Ted Montgomery says teachers can't promise students they won't lose their year since it's up to Ontario's College Relations Commission to advise the government if the year is in jeopardy.

Then it's up to the government to decide what action it wants to take.

During two faculty strikes in the 1980s the commission determined the students' year was in jeopardy.

In one instance the government legislated faculty back to work, and in the second the colleges and faculty agreed to go back to work and settle their dispute using arbitration.