The University of Oregon rejected a petition on Sept. 17 by graduate employees in the Department of Computer Science and Information to raise their stipends for the 2021-22 academic year. The petition, which the GEs submitted on Sept. 13, cites below average pay and lack of a livable wage as motivations for the initiative.
The petition had 167 signatures and demanded higher stipends for all GE levels. The CIS GEs asked for a 17% increase for level one GEs, a 28% increase for level two GEs and 35% increase for level three GEs, according to Sam Schwartz, one of the CIS GEs behind the initiative.
Computer science teaching assistants working for a public university in a large city like Eugene make approximately $20,000 per year on average, according to a Computer Research Association study. A CIS GE at UO made an approximate median salary of $17,700 during the 2020-21 academic year, according to the initiative’s website.
CIS GEs also requested that the school does not cut the number of GEs to meet these salary increases. “We are already stretched too thin,” the petition said.
Bruce Blonigen, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke for CAS in an email and rejected the petition’s requests. He said CAS evaluates all programs annually to understand where they are relative to external comparators and adjust whenever CAS has available funds. However, he said CAS has had no additional funds in recent years.
Blonigen also said the primary method for GE stipend adjustments is through collective bargaining between the administration and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation.
“Considering a unique raise in stipends for one subset of graduate students outside of these processes is not something we will consider for a number of reasons, including equity issues with respect to other graduate students in the college and at the university,” Blonigen said.
An email from CIS GEs to those who signed the petition said they disagree with the university’s decision.
“The University of Oregon has decided to break the promise it made to graduate employees in CIS when they moved to Eugene and enrolled at UO: a promise to pay a competitive stipend, which, in the field of computing, is also a living wage,” the email said.
GEs are deciding to leave the university due to a lack of a living wage, and potential graduate students are deciding not to apply, the email said.
“Continuing to offer laughably low pay for highly skilled tech workers will not make this decision easier and has already begun to impact the quality of research and teaching in the CIS department,” the email said.
Joseph Goh, a recently graduated computer science major from UO, signed the petition. He said he is pursuing his PhD elsewhere. “The lack of a living stipend is the one and only factor that prevented me from applying to UO for graduate school,” he said.
Goh said he cannot in good faith recommend UO to his friends and students for graduate school because of this. “I do not want them to be struggling with basic needs such as housing in return for contributing so much to the department and UO as a whole,” he said. “I do not want their work to be undervalued even more so than it already is.”
The initiative’s website, which details seven reasons for the pay increase, said many of the CIS GEs cannot ethically recommend graduate study in UO’s CIS department. “There is real human suffering in our department because of the lack of living wages,” the website said. It also said some GEs are taking additional jobs as a result.
“We are not asking for a lot of money,” the website said. “And there is plenty of money in the budget to pay us more.” Although Blonigen said the CAS lacks additional funds, the CIS GEs estimate the payment increases will cost the university $253,000 — approximately 0.15% of the College of Arts and Sciences’ total expenditure budget of $164,075,161 for the 2021 fiscal year.
High housing prices in Eugene are also listed as a reason on the petition. An average one bedroom apartment set at fair market rent in Eugene is $917 per month, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In order to afford such an apartment, renters need to make at least $36,680 per year.
Other reasons listed on the initiative’s website include cuts to research project funding, an influx of money towards public universities from the state legislature and a shortage of qualified computing professionals in Oregon.
Tyler Ward, a CIS major at UO, said he signed the petition because “anyone [who] has to worry about their income and having to stress about making rent and being able to eat during any given month will never do their best work no matter what.” He said he would expect a significant improvement in his quality of learning if UO eventually raises the GEs’ stipends.
Although the CIS GEs’ contracts have already begun, the GEs said they will continue advocating for a stipend increase while continuing their work for the university and its students.
“We are so grateful for the many supporting signatures the petition received,” the CIS GEs’ email said. “We will not leave you behind, and we look forward to working alongside you in teaching and research as we forge ahead into this new academic year.”
