Katie Jo LaRiviere arrived on campus on Dec. 2 in the midst of the morning fog. She arrived at her office ready to work on her final essays for her graduate classes, but today wasn’t her typical Tuesday afternoon. Rather than teaching courses and leading discussions, she put on her coat, tied a pink scarf around her neck and pulled a knit hat over her head, in a rush to join her colleagues in front of Friendly Hall.
LaRiviere is a PhD. student in the English department. She spends her weekdays teaching writing classes and helping students. As of Tuesday, when the GTFF began striking after several mediation sessions with the University of Oregon administration failed, she joined the GTFF picket line.
“I’d rather be teaching!” Says one side of the sign.
“I love my students. Fair contract now!” Reads the other.
The GTFF has minimized their demands by meeting a decision with administration regarding salary, but struggle to find middle ground regarding paid medical and parental leave.
In the administration’s most recent offer, they agreed to occur a $150,000 emergency fund that would be administered through the graduate school. In times of medical or parental emergency, GTFs would be able to request a $1,000 fund to cover medical costs, but administration refused to outline the fund in the GTFF contract.
LaRiviere has been an employee, student, teacher and recent mother of two, working without paid leave.
“My oldest daughter was born over Thanksgiving break. I had four days including the weekend to recover from childbirth, to figure out a feeding schedule, bonding, no sleep,” LaRiviere said. “Then I came back to school, wrote two 20 page seminar papers in a week, finished grading all of my students’ work, and finally considered Christmas break to be my maternity leave.”
LaRiviere went through a similar experience with the birth of her second daughter. The birth was days before the mandatory GTF training for 2013. LaRiviere only had days left with her newborn before returning to work, and had to hire a nanny to babysit. Her and her husband didn’t have any close family or friends near Eugene.
A year later, with a one year old and a four year old, the burden is hardly lessened. But, LaRiviere said, she never expected having a family while in graduate school to be easy.
“I know that’s a challenging thing and I’m not asking for the University to pay for my childcare,” she said. “I think it’s disingenuous to say that graduate students should never be able to have children while they’re in school, that just ignores that some people have personal values that uphold family and make family a priority, even while they’re working for an academic degree.”
LaRiviere also said that leaving her students for the picket line was not an easy thing to do.
“I want them to succeed. I want to grade their papers because I know them, I know they’re amazing people. I do care about them. And in the long run, it’s for them, even if right now it doesn’t feel like it’s productive to their education.”
For four hours in 30-degree weather, LaRiviere marched on campus with her fellow GTFs on the first day of the strike, and will continue to do so as long as it continues.
“Any time that I’m not using to write or do my student work, I’ll be on the picket line, because if I’m not allowed to teach under a fair contract then I have to let my voice be heard.”
Follow Kaylee Tornay on Twitter @ka_tornay