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Fredericton – The union representing students at the University of New Brunswick say their members should be compensated financially for lost class time during the strike.

The faculty strike ended last week with a tentative deal, putting students out class for about three weeks.

The university says it plans to cancel March break and extend the school year to make up for lost time.

However, the University of New Brunswick Student Union says members should receive financial compensation.

“These could be things like flights home. Students had to change their flights because their term got delayed so that’s something we feel students should be reimbursed for,” said Greg Bailey, Vice-President External for the student union. “Students are still going to be out by about a week, so we would like to see that reflected by some sort of student rebate.”

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The union figures students could be owed around $50 per day for tuition.

However, student reaction to their proposal was mixed.

Miranda Jack says students will make up most of their lost time before the year ends.

“The school is giving us the extra time at the end so we aren’t technically missing any class, so I don’t believe we should get compensated for our time by money,” she said.

Others said they deserve to be compensated.

“We paid for living here,” said Ronen Chaffer “There should be some sort of compensation I think.”

Fellow student, Lindsay Simpson says if she had enrolled at another university, she wouldn’t have lost class time.

“We sat here doing nothing. We could have been working,” she said. “Students could have been at a different university continuing their education but we chose UNB.”

The student union is planning to submit their proposal for reimbursement next week.