GTFF, The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, gathered today in formal funeral attire to “eulogize” UO’s public promise to fair wages and treatment of graduate employees. (Lulu Devoulin/ Emerald)

Update as of Dec. 1, 2:51 a.m.:

The previous version of this article stated that students may receive a missing grade (x), they may in fact receive a temporary grade not a missing grade.

The new version of this article more accurately notes when an Academic Community Team was in place.

A previous link led to a 2014 memorandum from the Office of Affairs, which is now the Office of the Provost. The link is no longer in the article.

Negations between GTFF and UO will continue tomorrow, Nov. 30, according to UO spokesperson Angela Seydel.

A previous version of this article noted a “scheduled strike” to have been for Nov. 27. However, there is no schedule for a GTFF strike, but rather a legally required 10-day notice for one to begin.

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As the University of Oregon and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation entered its last day of planned contract bargaining on Nov. 20, little progress has been made, making the possibility of a graduate teachers strike imminent in the coming weeks.
The impending strike was thought to take place during weeks nine and 10 of the fall term, in addition to finals week. However, during the Nov. 20 meeting, GTFF did not provide a legally required 10-day notice of strike to UO, meaning that the earliest a strike can occur would be sometime in early December.
With over 97% of GTFF’s 1,019 members pledging to strike, UO administrators and many professors are scrambling for ideas on how to manage the massive workload left by striking GE’s in the closing weeks of the term if a deal is not met.
An internal memorandum from UO’s Office of the Provost sent to all deans and directors at the university said the main objective of UOAA was “to ensure minimal disruption to classes and other services for our students,” further saying, “We [UOAA] are prepared to continue normal operations for the duration of the strike.”
The memo detailed how the university would respond in the case of a GTFF strike detailing rules and regulations regarding the strike as well as expectations on how professors should adapt their classes if a strike were to happen.
The memo reiterated that Graduate Employees are still students, reminding faculty that they are expected to engage with all GTFF members as students, and emphasized that there would be zero tolerance for retaliation in any form against striking GE’s.
The memo also reminded staff that Oregon state law prohibits public employees from honoring the picket lines of a bargaining unit other than their own, meaning that UO faculty, Officers of Administration and other classified staff members can’t join the GTFF picket line and are expected to work regularly scheduled hours throughout the duration of a GTFF strike.
The University’s “One Cross Policy” states that if a GE chooses to cross the picket line and return to work during a strike, then subsequently decides to strike again, the GE will be prohibited from returning to work for the duration of the strike.
Prior GTFF’s unionization the UO formed the Academic Community Team to “identify needs during periods of interruption and formulate coping strategies to ensure continued delivery of classes and other services to students.”
The ACT team helped to create guidelines for professors who may be forced to adapt their classes due to events such as during the strike. Those guidelines provide different alternative teaching strategies for professors, including:

• Assigning alternate assignments.

• Using adjunct professors.

• Hiring qualified employees to assist.

• Hiring non-GTFF affiliated graduate students.

• Hiring recently retired professors.

• Assigning work to OAs who have volunteered to assist.

• Hiring Lane County Community College instructors.

• Using qualified existing faculty members.

The ACT’s guidelines for reformatting final exams included several options. One option asked professors to consider reformatting final exams to multiple choice exams that could be efficiently graded using Scantrons. Another option offered professors the ability to administer the final exam as planned, students would then receive a temporary grade for the final until the professor could grade all exams.
However, many professors within the SOJC and beyond have already resorted to option three by modifying final projects and exams, with some canceling them altogether in light of the impending strike.
According to one professor who prefers to remain anonymous, they were told by the administration to “be prepared and make it work.”
The names of faculty members who spoke with the Daily Emerald are held anonymous to protect faculty members from university repercussions. In faculty contracts, the University of Oregon has banned professors and faculty from speaking regarding the impending strike.
In a Nov. 14 email to SOJC graduate students, Deb Morrison, the associate dean for undergraduate affairs at UO’s School of Journalism and Communication, requested that non-GTFF affiliated SOJC graduate students help to fill the gap of GTFF members. Morrison offered grad students a “competitive hourly wage” for grading writing assignments, completing lab section coverage among other tasks.
“The University of Oregon and the GTFF are negotiating in good faith and hoping for resolution,” Morrison said in the email. “At the same time, we must prepare in case of a GTTF/GE strike. We depend upon and respect our GE community [but] we must also support our undergraduates and their coursework,” Morrison continued.
Cara Iwanaga, a senior at UO, said that one of her classes will not be having a full final exam due to the professor being unable to do all of the grading alone. Iwanaga studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest academic department at the university and in turn, the department with the most GE’s.
“I think that it’s frustrating as a student that we pay so much money to learn and professors cannot successfully support us,” Iwanaga said. “GE’s are crucial because they have additional office hours that give us one-on-one attention we may need for harder topics.”
Ella Cooper, another senior at UO, was relieved to receive a notification from her professor telling students that a large part of their final project would become optional.
“I’m not very educated on the topic of the strike,“ Cooper said, “but I think as students, having some classes and assignments off toward the end of the term can help us excel in our other classes and take some of the stress off.”
A student from the same Communication Law class as Cooper, junior Bella Goodwin, said “I feel that the school has failed to provide us with any information, making it difficult for students to understand why there is a strike.”
According to GTFF, as of Oct. 9, Graduate Employees have been demanding a 21% minimum wage increase during the first year of the three-year contract being sought, with a combined 20% increase over years two and three.
With the University of Oregon’s counteroffer of a combined 15% wage increase over all three years of a new contract, negotiations between the two parties are far apart, meaning there is no telling how long a possible GTFF strike could last or the impacts it could have on students and professors during winter term and beyond. Negotiations are scheduled to continue Nov. 30.
In an email statement regarding the strike, UO communications spokesperson Angela Seydel said, “We share concern about how a potential strike by members of the GTFF could impact students and classes. The University of Oregon greatly values graduate employees and the critical work they do supporting academics and research.” Seydel went on to say,  “We will continue to bargain in good faith to reach a resolution that meets the needs of our entire community and fulfills our responsibility as a public institution.”