A GTFF member delivers a speech on the front steps of McKenzie Hall. Members of Oregon’s Graduate Workers Union rallied with community members outside of McKenzie Hall ahead of their next bargaining session on June 2, 2023. (Molly McPherson/Emerald)
After the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation reached a new contract with the University of Oregon on Jan. 15, current and former GTFF presidents are now reflecting on what the impacts of the new contract mean for them, UO and other graduate students.
Leslie Selcer, current GTFF president, envisions the impact of this deal being felt past the financial aspect of this contract.
“For a lot of us, [the contract] makes it kind of possible to stay here and actually graduate,” Selcer said. “It’s also going to improve UO’s retention rates, and it’s likely going to improve their research output and the quality of teaching that happens here. Because GEs are gonna be able to focus on their jobs, their research and their teaching instead of having to work three other jobs just to make rent.”
Based on the GE minimum salary increases, graduate employees who work on a 0.49 full-time equivalency, or roughly 19.5 full-time hours per week, could see a significant pay raise during the first year alone. GEs in their first year of teaching as a GE received the largest raise of at least a double-digit percentage increase, peaking with a 31.81% raise for first-year, level one GEs.
“You can imagine for prospective students looking to come here, that is a really different financial situation in terms of your ability to come here and work and get a degree,” Selcersaid. “The amount that you are going to make over your career here is so much higher and that puts you so much closer to being able to achieve your graduate degree without going even further into student debt.”
It is unclear for Selcer as to where the money will be drawn from in order to fund the GEs. However, she and the GTFF found in their research that there has been consistent profit at UO based on many years of their public records.
“Based on all of the research that we did and all of the public-facing information that we had, this deal was something that was within UO’s budget,” Selcer said.
Former GTFF president Rajeev Ravisankar sees the new deal as something that will be beneficial for other departments at UO. This is because of the money the university can now offer when recruiting graduate students.
“They’re gonna be able to put a much higher figure that will be competitive with other comparator institutions for UO,” Ravisankar said. “I know that was something that even UO admin had to acknowledge, that they had fallen behind their comparator institutions.”
Ravisankar questioned where the university’s money comes from, as they pay large salaries to high level administrators and to the UO president while also spending on high-cost advancements to the university such as the $12 million scoreboard at Autzen Stadium.
In terms of where the money comes from to pay for the GEs’ new salaries, Ravisankar believes there are still some issues about how UO manages its finances knowing the history of certain spendings the school has as listed above. He also added the lack of transparency around UO’s finances is “especially problematic” for a public university.
“I think it’s without question UO has the money to pay its workers a living wage, whether it’s GEs, staff, faculty and now student workers who will be negotiating a contract,” Ravisankar said. “And it’s a question about priorities. Whether they prioritize paying a living wage, or whether they prioritize other projects driven by private interest.”
Above all, many GTFF members are proud of the work they’ve done and the accomplishments that they came away with in the aftermath of these negotiations. But for Selcer and the union, they will continue using their voice and making a difference at UO each day.
“We’re not gonna disappear just because we signed a contract,” Selcer said. “We’re still gonna be organizing here for change on the University of Oregon campus.”
Full details of the GTFF Tentative Agreement can be found here.
