The University of Oregon Graduate School is holding town halls this Thursday and Friday, with input from the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, the union representing over 1,400 graduate employees on campus. The town halls are geared toward addressing questions and concerns of Black, Indigenous and People of Color and international graduate students have accumulated over the years. These concerns intensified with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, exposing the additional vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in the U.S. The brutal killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor by the police and white supremacists amplified the struggles and risks of Black lives in the U.S. While the national Black Lives Matter protest movement gained remarkable momentum in their fight for justice, police brutality continued at these protests, making Black communities even more distraught and exposed to further violence. 
Black students at UO have repeatedly reported the university’s lack of empathy for their material and emotional wellbeing at this time of national outcry for justice. The federal government also took advantage of the difficult circumstances of international students during the pandemic to propose and enforce hateful Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies against immigration laws and international student visas. They have also paused processing new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals applications, threatening these young individuals’ rights to remain in the country they grew up in and pushing them toward the uncertainty of deportation and separation from their families. 
The GTFF wants these town halls to serve as a catalyst for direct inquiry and action regarding the university administration’s treatment of graduate students, particularly Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and international graduate students and employees. Up until now, communication from the UO administration has been characterized by empty promises with no concrete actions that materially improve the lives of students and graduate employees from these vulnerable communities.
UO has just begun to come to terms with its long history of Indigenous expropriation and exclusion of BIPOC students. Located on the stolen land of the Kalapuya people ─ in a state whose founding constitution barred Black people from residency ─ the campus itself is a monument to White supremacy. Within the campus, several relics of this racist history have recently been removed: from the tearing down of statues lauding European settlers by local activists, to the covering up of racist murals in the Knight Library by the administration following community protest, to the long-awaited renaming of the infamous Deady Hall. 
On the other hand, more structural and quotidian forms of racism, settler-colonialism and xenophobia still permeate the university. Much of the administration ─ both at the university level and at the department level ─ lacks training, resources and incentives to treat BIPOC and international students equitably and respectfully. Much of the faculty and staff in the leadership of individual departments do not know how to incorporate anti-racist pedagogy in their curricula and therefore require extensive training. There is a need for a clear plan from the university administration to put into practice its stated goals of equity and inclusion and to roll out a bold antiracist shift in university policy and climate. 
Black students have continually highlighted ways UO perpetuates anti-Blackness and White supremacy. In a list of demands released in June of 2020, the Black Student Collective at UO specified the need for increased scholarships and funds specifically geared towards Black students, hiring and retention of Black-identifying faculty and staff across all departments, the expansion of the Black Studies program, the restructuring of the board of trustees to be more accountable and equitable and the disarming and defunding of the University of Oregon Police Department. In these town halls, the administration must address what they will do to ensure Black student and professor success and retention. Why were there no immediate statements from the university condemning the police and extending support to the Black Lives Matter movement when George Floyd’s murder was all over social media? How will UO reverse its anti-Black climate and acknowledge the inherent White supremacy of its foundation and operations? What will UO do to make the campus and the town a safe space for its Black members to succeed and survive structurally, materially, intellectually and emotionally?
The multiethnic Native American student bodies consist of American Indians, Alaskan Natives and Indigenous peoples. Although the Native American Student Union is one of the oldest groups on campus, it is also one of the smallest communities. Both the recruitment and retention rates of American Indian, Alaskan Native and Indigenous students are very low. The campus has mostly proven hostile to these students, leading them to struggle in maintaining their cultural values in the pursuit of education via this institution. These town halls might be a space to ask the university what outreach programs they have to recruit and retain more American Indian, Alaskan Native and Indigenous students. What resources do they have to support the cultural integrities of these students while they are enrolled in this university? What measures have they taken to make the campus safe and secure for these students? What steps have administrators taken to ensure the education of its students, staff and faculty on the history and challenges of the Indigenous peoples of this land?
International GEs at UO face challenges unknown to many in the campus community. They pay more in taxes and for benefits like health coverage or auto insurance in comparison to their domestic GE colleagues. Expenses of recurrent international trips for visa renewal and visa fees are coupled with their ineligibility to work off campus, resulting in material and structural disparities between domestic and international GEs. Despite the knowledge of these significant constraints, UO administration has failed time and again to prioritize international GEs. During GTFF’s bargaining cycle with the university administration in 2019, UO’s bargaining team leveraged international GEs’ visa fees against the union’s right to negotiate for a fair contract, effectively using the precarious position of our international colleagues as a bargaining chip. In addition, the UO bargaining team refused to guarantee summer employment or any form of financial support to international GEs. Most GEs are on nine-month contracts with no guaranteed employment or funding for the summer. This results in more hardship for international students, as they have restrictions on seeking off-campus employment.During these summer months, they are not paid by the university, but are required to remain enrolled for at least nine credits, pay summer fees and spend their own savings if they need to travel to their home countries. If they need to renew their visas, they have to bear the costs, along with traveling to cities or countries with consulates for their respective countries of citizenship.
While the disparities between international and domestic GEs are omnipresent, they have become especially heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic and since the federal government’s targeted assaults on international GEs’ immigration and visa statuses. A month ago, the federal government reversed an ICE policy change that threatened to expel from the country any international students who would not be enrolling in in-person classes in the fall. While this policy has been revoked for continuing students, incoming international students still cannot obtain a visa if the schools they are admitted in operate entirely remotely in the fall. A few weeks prior to this, the Trump administration blocked many Chinese students and scholars in STEM from obtaining visas in unfounded, xenophobic claims about their potential organizational affiliations in China. Undocumented students are also facing increased state violence, as evidenced by the pausing of the DACA program in late July. We need the university to be clear and precise about how it will materially support international students and GEs. How will the administration ensure that international GEs have their visa status protected if classes end up going fully remote during fall term? Will the university extend funding to international GEs affected by the pandemic? How will the university support students and GEs who lost their employment due to the pandemic, given that those students are ineligible for support through the CARES act? Given the current hiring freeze, layoffs and pay cuts at the university, how will the administration support international GEs who do not have access to off-campus employment? 
In view of the history of inaction from the university administration, many students and GEs are concerned that the town halls, which have already been postponed twice throughout the summer, will result in little action. The university has repeatedly let down international and BIPOC students and GEs by paying lip-service to equity and inclusion, but falls short on tangible improvements to conditions of international and BIPOC students and workers and the campus climate. 
On the other hand, some are hopeful that these town halls will result in real, substantive conversations toward change. The Graduate School has now committed to being of service to its diverse members and they have to do so by amplifying the grad student and employee voices of BIPOC. The school should also demonstrate its commitment to its international students and GEs. It is incumbent on both the grad school and the panelists from different units of administration to take what they hear from graduate students and employees during these town halls and subsequently work with BIPOC and international stakeholders. The university must respond to graduate student questions precisely and candidly. The town halls should result in specific, actionable and enforceable policies that address the interrelated concerns regarding lived experiences, material conditions and campus climate.