The colleges promised that 150,000 students would be able to finish their year despite the strike, possibly in classes taught by managers, but said that details would have to wait until next week as each college developed its own plan.

“It’ll work by first concentrating on the students who are intending to graduate in June,” said Seneca College president Rick Miner, chair of the colleges’ committee of presidents. “We will be in contact with them early next week to talk to them about the alternatives.”

But the Ontario Public Services Employees Union warned that the guarantee, which includes the possibility of members of management doing the jobs of striking faculty members, could end up driving the two sides farther apart.

“If this management group thinks that faculty will cave in because of this kind of a tactic, they will find very quickly that they are wrong,” said Ted Montgomery, a member of the union’s college negotiating committee.

“My advice to the students would be to not take part in such classes. They cannot be of value.”

Montgomery said there are not enough managers to deliver all elements of the curriculum at 24 different institutions. Classes with management instructors instead of regular faculty members could devalue an Ontario college diploma, he added.

“I would trust that the minister and the government are not prepared to go along with this scheme, that college students would simply be given their degrees,” he said.

“They might as well just buy them over the Internet if that’s the way the Ontario college system is intending to operate.”

The Ontario College Student Alliance welcomed the administration’s promise today as a “great guarantee,” but said it was anxious to see the details of the plan.

“It’s a positive announcement in a week that we’ve had no good news for college students in the province,” said Alliance chairman Tyler Charlebois.

“We need more details, more specifics as to how students will be able to finish their semester, and for 44,000 to be able to graduate.”

Both the union and the students called on Premier Dalton McGuinty and Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley to get involved to bring about a quick end to the strike. Neither Bentley nor McGuinty were available for comment today.

There are still no talks scheduled to end the walkout by the 9,100 faculty and staff that began last Tuesday and centres on the issue of class sizes.

The union wants 10 per cent more full-time faculty hired over three years to reduce the average class size to 25 students from 29. The colleges say they can’t afford it.