FILE - Lillis Hall on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Ore., on Dec. 1, 2019. Graduate student workers say low pay limits the diversity of the university's programs and competitiveness of its research.
Kaylee Domzalski / OPB
Graduate student workers say low pay is making University of Oregon research less competitive and its programs less diverse.
The warning comes as the campus prepares for a potential grad workers strike.
Leslie Selcer, president of the graduate student union, told UO’s Board of Trustees Tuesday that the university is losing talent to institutions offering pay that matches their city’s cost of living. She pointed to a letter of support for the union signed by nearly 200 faculty raising concerns about recruiting and retaining qualified research staff.
“Of course your graduate students are dropping out; we can’t afford to graduate from the University of Oregon,” she said.
She said Eugene’s rising housing and food costs have been especially hard on marginalized students who don’t have generational wealth to fall back on.
Board of Trustees Chair Steve Holwerda told students this issue is important to the university.
“Everybody is going to be working hard, including [graduate students], to come up with something that is fair and equitable,” he said.
Pay continues to be a sticking point in negotiations. Details of the most recent bargaining numbers are available on both the university’s and union’s websites.
If negotiations break down, union members have met the requirements to issue a 10-day strike notice.