It is often a forgotten fact that many graduate students at the University are also employees of the University. They are students, but yet they are also workers. As students, you may see us in the library or labs for long hours, reading, writing or otherwise just exhibiting outdated fashion sense and poor social skills. As workers, we grade papers, (and then we grade more papers, and then we grade a few more), teach approximately 27 percent of the credit hours on campus, hold office hours, answer e-mails, and sometimes mediate between students and faculty. As students, we have watched our tuition and fees increase and as workers we have watched our wages decline. Adjusted for inflation, graduate employees earn 12 percent less than we did in 1983. That percentage would likely be even higher had we not fought for what we still have. But now graduate employees, represented by the GTFF, are collectively bargaining to counter that steady decline.
I had all this in the back of my mind the other week as I sat eating my frozen rice and canned corn courtesy of the food bank that supplements my meager wages. I was glancing through The Register-Guard, looking diligently for the labor section, and came across the sports page. On the front was a breakdown of the salary for one of our most beloved local heroes. Now I know that the University’s commitment to education is best expressed by having our football coach make more money than any one else on this campus. So, I, of course, am just as delighted as the next person that his salary is expected to reach $1 million next year. But what I thought was really interesting was that coaches receive bonuses when their athletes graduate. It gave me a profound idea.
Since graduate employees and faculty actually teach the classes that these students take to graduate, then we should get a bonus as well for every student we graduate in our departments. Or if not that, I had another idea (after all, I am a union worker and so I know all about compromise and negotiating). Perhaps we could get a bonus for every game the Ducks win. It is us that gives students the deadline extensions, make-up exams and lecture notes that allow them to freely pursue their athletic endeavors.
What I’m after here is not lowering the salary of another worker, however much that worker seems to make. We all deserve the value of our labor. But the issue here is that graduate employees have been earning less overall in the past 20 years. We started with little and have less. For the past two years at least, we haven’t even kept up with the cost of living. Graduate employees are asking for what we need to effectively teach the quality classes that make the University attractive to students, faculty and corporate sponsors. I believe it is time that the University expand its commitment to education. Give graduate employees the kind of recognition that educators in the Athletic Department seem to enjoy.