Written by: Sadie Latimer | News Editor
The Coalition of Graduate Employees — CGE — at Oregon State University went on strike Nov. 12, 2024. Their main goal was to negotiate with OSU to receive a 50% minimum salary increase and a change in contract cycles.
Graduate employees — specifically teaching assistants — conduct the majority of the coursework for the classes they work in. The CGE advocated for the graduate employees’ pay to match their workload.
A Community Letter of Support for CGE was written, urging OSU to come to an agreement with the CGE.
“We urge the university to ensure that all its employees can afford to live and contribute to the community in which they work,” the letter stated. “For Oregon State University to fulfill its mission to our community and state and to retain — and truly serve — its diverse student body, it must start compensating graduate employees fairly.”
The letter was signed by nine Oregon state representatives, three Oregon state senators and one Corvallis city counselor.
During another mediation, the CGE attempted to compromise with the university by advocating for a 30% increase in minimum wage salaries instead of 50%, however, OSU did not agree with their proposal.
“After a year of openly combative negotiations, OSU has made it abundantly clear that their priority is not the pursuit of knowledge, but rather the pursuit of money, even at the expense of their own dedicated, hard-working, and talented graduate employees,” the CGE wrote in a post on their Instagram — @cge6069.
Throughout the strike, the CGE has organized picket lines. Nov. 21, undergraduate students were invited to join the picket in solidarity with the strike. They dressed up in pink clothes and stood in front of the Kerr Administration building.
OSU’s football game Nov. 23 against Washington State University was disrupted by graduate employees. As football game-goers left the stadium, they saw a projection on a building that read “$17.9 million raided from the education fund for athletics.” This year, the athletics budget received an increase of $17.9 million, with that money taken from the education and research budget.
In an Instagram post about the game, the CGE wrote, “Our message is clear: tuition should fund education. OSU needs to reassess its priorities. This is not just about us. We want a better OSU for all.”
Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu
