Although fall term is still weeks away, dozens of graduate employees at the University of Oregon are concerned about unsafe working conditions on campus because of the risk of being exposed to COVID-19, said Courtney Tabor, the graduate employee union’s vice president for grievances.

Over the last six weeks, Tabor’s email has seen a “steady stream” of reports of unsafe working conditions on campus — often anonymously through department stewards, she said. Some GEs have noticed a lack of compliance with social distancing and mask-wearing requirements.

“Being on campus more generally,” Hannah Wellman, an anthropology GE and Ph.D. candidate, said, “I still see lots of people not wearing their masks entering buildings or when they’re close to people outside and that makes me anxious.”

Wellman feels fortunate that she is mostly isolated while working in her lab, where she analyzes archaeological animal remains, she said, but she knows of other GEs in situations where they don’t feel safe.

Many of those seen on campus without proper facial coverings have been contracted laborers, Tabor said. 

UO directed its contracted workers to follow all federal, state and local requirements on social distancing and facial coverings, UO spokesperson Saul Hubbard said.

Hubbard said the university does not directly communicate with contractors’ employees, but it recognizes there have been instances where individual workers have not worn facial coverings. In response, UO sent a reminder to contractors that the policy isn’t optional and needs to be enforced, he said.

GTFF is currently in conversations with the university about its degree of control over contracted laborers, Tabor said.

Diana Christie is a Ph.D. candidate and a GE in UO’s anthropology department. Since the beginning of August, she has been working limited hours once a week in Pacific Hall, where she performs genomic laboratory work. Christie will continue researching for her dissertation more often through fall term.

Christie will also be teaching an in-person anthropology lab during the fall. She expects to lead one-hour lab sections four times per week — each with 20 students. Christie has felt mostly safe on campus or in her lab, but is concerned about the fall.

“I feel strongly that being on campus during the upcoming fall term and especially teaching in-person classes is a huge health and safety risk,” Christie said. “As evidenced by the recent outbreaks at other higher education institutions that have elected for some in-person classes, universities are an incredibly risky environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Christie’s classroom does not yet have a plexiglass barrier. Because the floors were marked for social distancing and she has heard the university is done with retrofitting around campus, she doesn’t expect to get one. Instead, her department has agreed to provide her with a face shield and lab coat.

Though UO gave faculty and GEs the option to opt out of in-person teaching in the fall, the system was very complicated, she said.

In the spring, the university gave GEs the option to opt out via a survey, Christie said, but didn’t provide assurances that GEs wouldn’t be retaliated against based on their choices.

The initial survey asked respondents to provide a reason they were considered high-risk or didn’t want to teach in person, Kate Shields, GTFF Covid Response Committee co-chair, said. Christie said many GEs chose not to respond because the survey said these answers might be disclosed with other personnel on a need-to-know basis.

In a second survey over the summer, UO asked instructors to update their choice. The university then assured respondents they wouldn’t be retaliated against, and the survey did not ask for any health information or reasoning. 

Christie’s department figured out a system for its GEs to address most of her concerns, she said, but ultimately, she didn’t opt out.

“I am young and healthy and live alone,” Christie said, “so it felt a little like my moral responsibility to save the remote teaching slots for my peers that really needed them for the health and safety of themselves and their families.”

Given the recent outbreaks at other U.S. universities, Christie didn’t expect UO to hold any in-person classes.

“I am angry and a little in disbelief that I am teaching in person in the fall,” Christie said. “I definitely do not want to be teaching in person, and I don’t want anyone else to be teaching in person.”

The initial survey sent to instructors ended up creating an enormous sense of guilt, Shields said, for those who weren’t high-risk but still didn’t want to teach in person.

“We felt that we had to leave the fewer remote teaching opportunities available for GEs who really needed them, and therefore we ourselves couldn’t be safe,” Shields said. “We didn’t deserve to be safe because of other people who needed it more.”

Shields appreciated the sense of compassion among GEs who felt the same way, but she believes low-risk GEs deserve safe working conditions, too.

Since July 27, UO has been in Stage 1A of its approach for restarting research. Initially, Phase 0 — initiated March 23 — only allowed in-person activities like maintaining lab safety, care for living organisms and COVID-19-related research. 

Each new phase built upon those rules, gradually allowing more limited research activities and facility use following specific cleaning and distancing guidance.

Kris Wright, a doctoral student in UO’s journalism school, has been going to Allen Hall in search of a quiet place to write for her dissertation since July. Wright is glad she has access to campus facilities and said, due to her specific situation, she feels safe on campus because it’s been so empty.

UO’s graduate school has implemented temporary policy changes during the pandemic. One of the changes provides two options for students whose graduation timelines have been delayed: degree requirement deadline extension opportunities or the possibility of waiving final term registration.

Wright expected to finish her dissertation and graduate this summer, but COVID-19-related household responsibilities held her back. She petitioned to waive her registration for fall term to allow time to work on her dissertation before graduation. This allowed Wright to stay as a student without having to take credits she didn’t need.

This was great news for Wright and others in her situation, but not all GEs feel UO is meeting their academic needs.

In the spring, 406 graduate students and 46 others signed an open letter to university administration asking for UO to extend its guaranteed one-year tenure extension policy to graduate students. 

UO has not implemented a guaranteed extension for graduate students, Shields said.

The university administration said universal extensions will not happen, but “particularly egregious” scenarios may grant special exceptions, according to GTFF’s coronavirus webpage. The administration ultimately said extending funding is the graduate school’s responsibility and not a bargaining issue, according to the webpage.

“It is clear that we will not secure extended funding for GEs by appealing to the good will of the Admin,” the site stated.

GTFF and the university signed a letter of agreement on April 16 modifying several aspects of the union’s collective bargaining agreement in response to COVID-19. Under occupational health and safety, the letter of agreement modified the collective bargaining agreement to designate spaces in which people cannot maintain social distancing guidelines as unsafe.

GTFF also filed a Step 3 Grievance on Aug. 20 in response to the unsafe working conditions GEs experienced during the summer. GTFF’s formal investigation began July 29, when the issue was brought up to Tabor, she said. The grievance asks the university for several measures to ensure safety on campus, according to GTFF’s news webpage.

Tabor is concerned about the university’s boundaries when it comes to safe working conditions.

GEs — including those living or researching abroad — might be working for the university but may not be on campus or “in University-owned or controlled facilities,” as defined in the collective bargaining agreement. 

The university administration has a lot of different answers for what counts as university reach, Tabor said, in reference to the difference of campus boundaries versus the reach of the University of Oregon Police Department. 

“If you’re doing things for the university,” Tabor said, “the university should be protecting you.”