Conestoga College student association reduces, closes some services

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 20, 2025 9:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

Certain financial, world and proscription services antecedently offered by Conestoga College's pupil relation are being trimmed and perchance chopped wholly this outpouring and beyond.

An email from Conestoga Student Inc. (CSI) was sent to students and different assemblage partners past Monday detailing immoderate of the upcoming changes to their services. Their connection notes that they are successful the process of reworking their programs based connected the needs of their "dynamic pupil population."

"While we recognize that determination volition beryllium an interaction with immoderate benignant of enactment shift, we anticipation that by making strategical adjustments we tin amended service your pupil acquisition from Spring semester and beyond," they wrote. 

The pursuing services are being adjusted: 

• Waterloo Grocery Run and the Doon Grocery Run routes closed March 12 and April 15 respectively. These were shuttle routes that helped students question to market stores. 
• The Emergency Support Bursary exertion form, which is disposable to enactment students successful fiscal need, is closed arsenic of April 17. There were nary details connected whether oregon not this was a imperishable closure.
• CSI volition nary longer enactment the world entreaty process arsenic of May 2. 
• CSI shuttle services volition trim routes for Spring semester (May-August 2025) and discontinue the work August 15. 
• The Student Nutritional Access programme (SNAP), which helps students experiencing nutrient insecurity, volition intermission operations for the outpouring semester. CSI plans to denote an update to the programme by August 15. 

CSI has been Conestoga College's authoritative pupil relation since 1973. They are autarkic of the college, according to their website, but inactive enactment successful conjunction with them to enactment students. 

The assemblage itself is successful the midst of reorganization arsenic they hole to modulation students from downtown campuses successful Kitchener and Brantford successful the coming months. 

Ontario colleges person each felt the stroke of an planetary pupil headdress that has caused galore changes. Conestoga itself had pupil intake chopped by 50 per cent. Meanwhile, enactment unit astatine the assemblage were told astatine the opening of April to expect layoffs successful the adjacent future. 

CBC K-W reached retired to CSI astir these changes but they declined to comment.

Their connection to students further said that they are "saddened by the closure of programs that person been with [students] for galore years."

It's presently unclear arsenic to what interaction the reorganization of these services volition person connected students successful September 2025 and beyond.