An hour into their meeting on Jan. 27, members of the University of Oregon Student Worker Union voted to proceed with a strike authorization vote if mediation with UO administration’s bargaining team remains unresolved. 

According to UOSW Bargaining Member Izzie Marshall, the support for the authorization vote was “overwhelming.” 

“There were hundreds of student workers who showed up to this meeting to show that we demand a fair contract (and) that we need to escalate and take more direct action to make sure that we are getting that fair contract,” Marshall said.

UOSW has been bargaining for its first contract since May 2024.

A few of UOSW’s sticking points that remain on the bargaining table include pay period, wages and harassment and discrimination policies. 

According to Marshall, the meeting displayed members’ readiness for a vote to go on strike and served as a platform to discuss strike logistics.

“We talked about… what a strike could look like. Most student workers have never been in a union before because we’re college students, so there are just a lot of (questions) about what a picket line (would) look like (and) what are the activities we could do… We had an open public forum at one point in the meeting,” Marshall said.

UOSW Member Amaya Carricaburu said she attended the meeting to grasp an understanding of what a potential strike might look like. 

“I was just curious about what the strike would entail as a Resident Assistant… like the way we’re paid and all that,” Carricaburu said. 

UOSW Member Robin Bailey said he attended to show “solidarity.” 

“Only together can we (UOSW) decide what to do about (unresolved bargaining). We can’t do collective action without the collective,” Bailey said. “We can’t say that we’re the wall-to-wall undergraduate student workers union if we don’t have the student workers here.” 

According to Marshall, the timeline for a potential strike is “truly up in the air.”

In accordance with Oregon state labor laws, unions must go through at least 15 days of mediation before choosing to authorize a vote to strike, and only one day of mediation has happened so far. 

The next mediation session is scheduled for week six of winter term, but the exact date has not been set yet. 

The post UOSW passes vote to proceed with strike authorization appeared first on Daily Emerald.

The redesign of the Straub Hall Green, an irrigation project led by University of Oregon Campus Planning and Facilities Management, has prompted a landscaping overhaul.

Since November 2024, the project has focused on adding native plants more appropriate for the climate of the Pacific Northwest. 

According to Dan Roll, a grounds maintenance worker, at first CPFM workers were focused solely on updating the “rusted out and broken” irrigation system of the Plaza, but UO ultimately determined that an entire design overhaul was more appropriate. 

“The irrigation project started, then it became (a question of if) we’re (CPFM) going to be doing that much work,” Kevin Farthing, director of exterior and custodial services, said.

According to Arborist Becket DeChant, six magnolia trees and three dogwood trees will be added to the plaza to replace invasive holly trees, which he hopes will add a colorful touch to campus. 

“The magnolias would color first. The dogwoods later, so it gives us a succession of color throughout (spring),” DeChant said.

Another aspect of the redesign includes replacing grass with native plants and “Ecomix,” a ground cover with flowers and clover that helps keep nitrogen in the soil. 

Changing up the ground cover reduces maintenance and reliance on synthetic fertilizers that can pollute water and soil. 

“We (the UO) have plenty of lawn on campus, and sometimes it’s nice to shrink the lawn because it’s so labor intensive and water intensive,” Roll said. “So… we take (some of the grass) out and then we try to put in nicer things to look at — more color and more native plants,” Roll said. 

The redesign is expected to be completed by the spring term.

On Jan. 18, the University of Oregon Holden Center for Leadership and Community Engagement continued its tradition of hosting a “Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service” to “cultivate a spirit of engagement and service on campus and in the community” ahead of MLK Day. 

MLK was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement. His contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and communities across the United States are now honored on the third Monday of every January, which the Holden Center aims to uphold with its MLK Day of Service.  

The Holden Center has three “Days of Service” programs every academic year, one for each term. The winter term “Day of Service” is dedicated to MLK.

The Holden Center partnered with the following four Lane County organizations for a day full of service projects: Crafting Change, Food for Lane County Youth Farm, Olive Plaza and United Way of Lane County. 

Zoë Holguin, UO student and program assistant for Days of Service, said the Holden Center partnered with these organizations because it strives to eliminate poverty. 

“(The Holden Center’s) theme with this is following Dr. King’s values of fighting against the three evils of racism, poverty and militarism and we wanted to focus more on poverty alleviations with these partners because homelessness is a big issue here in Eugene and all these different organizations are striving to eliminate poverty,” Holguin said.

Volunteers who participated in the projects got involved by sewing menstrual kits, sifting soil, helping senior citizens and organizing a book drive. 

Rae Orsolino, a UO student and volunteer at the Youth Farm, said that small steps to community betterment can have an important role in addressing large-scale issues. 

“(MLK) said the main enemy is racism, poverty and war, and in a way Food for Lane County is tackling that poverty issue and I think it’s a great way of continuing his legacy in small ways, (because) whatever counts,” Orsolino said.

UO student LaMar Davis said they helped out to continue the “tradition” of honoring MLK.

“I chose to volunteer because my family always celebrated MLK and we always volunteer … it’s usually a tradition so I just want to continue that,” Davis said.

According to Melissa Yamamoto, director of the Holden Center, volunteering is an important part of getting to know the community, especially for newer students who recently moved to the area. 

“I feel good when I’ve been able to help somebody else and so I think (that volunteering) contributes to our students’ wellness and their sense of feeling connected to both the UO community as well as the local community,” Yamamoto said.

During the fall term, University of Oregon hosted 825 international students from 93 countries, according to UO’s website. These students could be especially impacted by the incoming Trump administration and proposals in Project 2025, leading to some feeling “concerned” and searching for campus resources. 

In a Dec. 8 interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” incoming President-elect Donald Trump implied he plans on deporting all immigrants who are in the United States illegally, prioritizing those with any criminal histories. Though not officially endorsed by Trump, Project 2025, a Republican blueprint reimagining the government’s responsibilities, backs up this message and spells out the logistics. 

Though it is unknown what will come to fruition, some international students say they are concerned.

“What worries me sometimes is knowing how people will treat me knowing where I’m from because I’m from Mexico and everyone knows Trump hates Mexicans … so if I tell them where I’m from people might be more biased especially now that he’s president,” senior Ana Gastelu said.

Project 2025 calls on the Department of State to “eliminate or significantly reduce the number of visas issued to foreign students” and “limit the classes of aliens eligible for work authorization.” 

As a senior, Gastelu said she is looking for a job, but being born in Mexico has complicated the process. She recognized that UO does provide career workshops, but said she wanted the university to tailor support to foreign-born students.

“Give us the tools to find jobs [and] host more workshops about that because I know [UO] do[es] host stuff on how to get a job, but they’re not exactly what international students need,” Gastelu said.

Gastelu said she didn’t care much about continuing to live in the United States when she started college, but now that she is in her last year of school, she wants her U.S. education to pay off.

“It feels like I have done all this work for possibly nothing and that’s honestly nerve-racking,” Gastelu said. 

Kristin Yarris, an associate professor of global studies and  a leader in the UO Dreamers Working Group, said that as a professor, she is also “hearing from students who are concerned [about what the Trump administration will mean for them].” 

Dreamer status is an umbrella term that refers to those brought into the United States illegally as children. The UO Dreamers Working Group assists all students who are undocumented and DACA recipients from mixed-status families. It also assists with students who went to high school in Oregon regardless of their immigration status.

Out of 5,600 staff and faculty members at UO the Dreamers group has trained 640 as Dreamer Allies, according to Justine Carpenter, assistant dean of students and a leader of the Dreamers group. These allies help students find community and navigate resources like work permits and financial aid, which are regulated differently depending on immigration status. 

“We want to support students’ well-being and remove barriers for students and help them meet their academic goals,” Carpenter said. “One of the things that’s important when students come in is that they often want to find a sense of community.” 

The group is run through the university, and Yarris hopes that UO will continue to support international students as a new administration comes into office. 

“In this moment in 2024 we face a regime … that will attack DEI. What will UO do to protect international students who face particular threats?” Yarris said. 

She voiced support for public forums and connections to community organizations that will help students with DACA renewal and other legal services.

“We can’t control everything UO… but we can make our whole selves available to our students who will be the most impacted,” Yarris said. 

According to a statement from UO spokesperson Eric Howald, UO plans on “holding a public forum in late January on immigration issues for international students and other concerned members of [the] community.”

Professor Joel Sati, a DACA recipient himself, teaches immigration law at UO’s Knight Law Center. He predicts the DACA program will end and be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

“I don’t think DACA is long for this world. I hope I’m wrong, but it just doesn’t look like that,” Sati said. “Especially with this push toward mass deportations, I think that [rescinding DACA] is going to be the kind of thing [the Trump administration] will push to do by any means necessary.”

Sati also discussed new everyday challenges that could impact international students. For example, if students were unable to receive a social security number, they could not legally hold a driver’s license.

Driving without a license could result in arrest and a subsequent deportation would be more likely if Project 2025’s guidelines for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to “stop ignoring” smaller local crimes is followed.

Sati stressed the importance of financial assistance for international students and proposed UO provide an undocumented student center to “educate students on [their] options.”

While UO does not have a dedicated center for undocumented students, it does have an International Student and Scholar Services program that helps students navigate immigration and studying in the U.S. 

According to Howald, the “university office is strongly committed to providing ongoing support for all [of UO’s] international students, from visa issuance before arrival, to graduation and through all the moments in between in their journey at UO.”

As winter term begins, both UO Student Workers and United Academics are headed to state mediation and eyeing potential strike options. 

During fall term sessions, the university and union bargaining teams found it challenging to agree on salaries that satisfied UO faculty. Disagreements over free speech and grievance articles, a focal point of UOSW rallies, also remain unresolved. 

University of Oregon’s local Service Employees International Union 503 and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation supported UOSW and UA through tense negotiations and vow to continue their efforts into the winter term. 

UA negotiators are striving to reach a contract that provides 8.5% pay raises for all faculty during 2025. At the final open bargaining session on Dec. 5, 2024, UO proposed a 4% raise for 2025 instead of their initial 3% offer, but UA did not accept this deal.

“We knew for months that [a] 4% [raise] for 2025 was going to be on the table … that is not sufficient for our members … It looks like a raise on paper but it is asking us to swallow a pay cut because of inflation,” Keaton Miller, associate economics professor and UA treasurer, said. 

Across the board, faculty who did not receive merit raises saw their salary fall about 5% behind inflation during the timeframe of the previous contract from 2022 to 2024, when faculty compensation is compared to the most current Consumer Price Index. 

For tenured professors and those on a career and tenure track, that pay gap was partly or fully closed if their work met certain standards after review processes. 

At the last bargaining session, faculty members were seen flapping paper red cards and making bird noises as signs of disagreement toward the university’s wage proposal because ground rules prohibit the audience from speaking during negotiations.

The university offered UA higher merit-based raises in addition to the 4% across the board raises, but UA refused the package. 

Chris Meade, UO director of employee and labor relations, argued across the board raises are not the only way for faculty to gain adequate compensation.

“The combination of annual increases and review-related increases presents multiple opportunities for increases in pay over the term of the contract for tenure-related and career faculty members,” Meade said in a letter to the UO community after the last bargaining session. 

State funding to UO is also a factor for how raises are proposed. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s proposed budget for 2025 to 2027 gives an approximately $4.39 billion boost to higher education in the state, but college and university leaders say it’s not good enough. 

UOSW negotiator Izzie Marshall said there has been increased membership since UOSW bargaining began in February 2024, as more student workers choose to have a say over their wages. 

“Before the union, the university had complete control over how we were paid [and] what we were paid. [UO] could take students’ input at their own discretion, but what bargaining provides is the chance to negotiate directly with our employer, the university, to come to a fair deal and that is really empowering,” Marshall said.

Miller concurred, pointing to highly attended rallies and meetings.

“People understand this is a more important moment than there has been for a while and people are showing up,” Miller said. UA has not gone to mediation since the formation of the union in 2012.

While pay increases are important to UOSW, another priority is a free speech and protest article.

“So many student workers had free speech in the top three [ranked priorities]. It is clearly in the front of student workers’ minds and there is a lot more action about protest that has been met with more harsher responses for the university,” Marshall said. 

This debate over free speech comes amid concern over campus surveillance measures, which some union leaders described as “extraordinary” in a recent letter delivered to President Scholz. 

According to the media advisory sent before the letter delivery and Oct. 3 rally, these measures included “the University’s requests that students report their instructors’ political course content and targeting peaceful student protests using video recordings from the Board of Trustees public meetings.”

“Having free speech enshrined in our contract makes sure it is something we can rely on if anything happens with the university or more broadly,” Marshall said. 

UOSW’s proposed free speech and protest article requests that the university not use law enforcement unless there is a “clear and present threat of danger and with advanced notice to all parties involved.” 

UOSW also wants a ban on tear gas, rubber bullets, and blunt force in all situations. The university responded with its own article, stating that it understands UOSW’s request as a permissive, rather than a mandatory, bargaining subject.

UOSW also hopes to see changes made to the handling of grievances and pay period as they head into mediation, but the university understands these items to fall under the more lenient permissive bargaining category as well.  

The result of bargaining and mediation remains up in the air. 

“We are fighting to make the changes that will change not just our lives as student workers but also all the student workers to come — years from now,” Marshall said.

Given the possibility of strikes if mediation does not resolve conflicts, unions across campus are preparing to show up for each other.

“We stand in solidarity with our fellow unions on campus and we will take their lead,” Chris Chase, SEIU outreach coordinator and UO data assistant, said. “We are obligated to show that solidarity.”

UO has decided that across-the-board raises for faculty is not the smartest way to divide the pie. According to Meade, the university is already in a “challenging fiscal citation,” lacking the money it needs to fund education and general expenses this year and over the next five years. 

That said, many campus workers continue to feel discouraged and strive for higher wages.

“We are human beings; we are not just line items on a spreadsheet … people have dedicated their lives to this work,” Miller said.

UO did not respond to several requests for comment sent throughout December 2024 and January 2025.

The Emerald Media Group won several awards at the November 2024 Associated Collegiate Press Awards conference in New Orleans, La.

College publications from across the country compete for ACP recognitions at their annual awards ceremonies, and the Emerald tallied up four individual awards and three publication awards. 

This past year, the Emerald has done deep dive coverage on topics ranging from Espresso Roma’s health violations to Title IX lawsuits against UO. 

“Doing good journalism and reflecting your community — informing, entertaining and helping your audience — is the important stuff [and] it’s rewarding to see the Emerald named alongside some of the best college media news organizations,” EMG Publisher Eric Henry said. 

Editor-in-Chief Tristin Hoffman led the way, earning fourth place for Reporter of the Year out of entries from four-year colleges across the nation.

“[Winning this award] was crazy, I never would have imagined to be nominated for that category… it showcased if you really love something you’ll get out what you put into it,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the awards reinforced how “impactful” good reporting can be.

One reporter who dove deep to make an impact was Emily Rogers from Ethos Magazine.

Rogers won an Ernie Pyle Human Interest Profile Honorable Mention for A Commitment to the Struggle. Her article takes a deep look at the life of a Muslim-American federal judge in Eugene who dedicated his life’s work towards improving gender representation in courtrooms, representing “everyday people” and encouraging Muslim-American law students.

Daily Emerald photographer Jonathan Suni won an Honorable Mention for his shots of the Prefontaine Classic and Diamond League last September.

Suni has been working for the Emerald for over two years and mainly photographs sports.

After waiting “hours,” Suni was able to capture a trophy’s sunlit glow radiating off the face of a long jumper, and a high jumper floating in mid-air. 

“I feel like what separates photojournalists from normal photographers is [photojournalists] try to capture moments and emotions more than anything,” Suni said. “I think I’ve learned to be present while taking shots and trying to paint a picture and tell a story.”

Javay Frye-Nekrasova, Editor-in-Chief of Green Eugene magazine, won a Best in Show Honorable Mention award for the magazine’s October 2024 issue. 

The issue discussed serious topics like the downsides of marijuana legalization while including evergreen stories like IKEA-style instructions on how to make a pumpkin bong.

“I want it to be things that push people to think more critically about cannabis and about the community. I want to create something that when you pick it up it might provoke greater thought but it will also be fun!” Frye-Nekrasova said.

The October issue was filled with art stretching across the page and filling up every inch of blank space. Frye-Nekrasova said how she felt the artistic integration worked to draw readers in. 

“Art just changed the overall experience of reading Green Eugene because there was so much talent and detail put into [the issue] by the illustrators and designers. [The] art integrated [the content] so much so it’s not just like the surface level of ‘oh yeah, weed!’ but all the ways that weed shows up [in our lives],” Frye-Nekrasova said.

The judges admired the Emerald’s use of new mediums to spread information effectively. 

The social media team also won an Honorable Mention for informing the community of University of Oregon’s pro-Palestinian encampments through live coverage. 

“Social media is the through line between the whole publication. It’s the most accessible part of our reporting [and] to be given this award solidified the importance of live reporting on social media,” Hoffman said.

Daily Emerald’s newspaper and website also won ninth place for Best in Show. 

The Emerald is an independently-run publication, and Henry said he feels that the people at the Emerald are inspired by their love for journalism itself. 

“It makes me really happy to see all their hard work recognized. No one is doing this for great big paychecks; they’re just working hard because they are passionate,” Henry said.

At noon, members of the United Academics of the University of Oregon rallied at the Erb Memorial Union Amphitheater to voice their support for a new contract with UO administration before their last bargaining session.

Approximately 100 members of UA and other campus unions, including Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and UO Student Workers Union, were in attendance.   

Leslie Selcer, a member of UA and previous president of GTFF said adding “across-the-board” wages to the new contract would help faculty meet the cost of living, while the merit raises UO has proposed “pit [faculty] against each other.”

“They are trying to get us to chase extremely limited merit raises rather than giving a fair cost of living raise for everyone and we are not going to fall for it,” Selcer said.

UO’s website counters the need for general raises and points out the benefits of a merit pay system. 

“[The] combination of annual increases and review-related increases presents multiple opportunities for increases in pay over the term of the contract for tenure-related and career faculty members,” the website said.

Edward Davis, chair of organizing membership and associate professor of geological sciences, addressed the crowd. 

“I don’t understand why we have to have these sessions where we don’t get respect for the work we do,” Davis said. “Why do we have to show up over and over again only to have administrators tell us that we are not the ones that are making the university work when we know that that is what we are doing?” 

Ashton Pressman, a member of UOSW, said that the university is “scared” that UO unions are working together. 

“They [UO administration] are scared we will stand together,” Pressman said. “We will not accept subpar conditions for anyone on campus. Your [campus unions’] fight is our fight and we are never going to let UO forget that.”

Jacob Schmitt, member of GTFF, said he attended to “show solidarity [and] to return the favor,” referencing diverse union support at other union rallies this academic year. 

Today’s rally comes two weeks after the last UA rally on the steps of Johnson Hall.

Davis said the rallies were scheduled so close to each other to “put an exclamation point” on the end of UA’s bargaining sessions with UO. 

“We [UA] want to make clear that we have the faculty’s united interests here for the last of our open sessions,” Edward said.

UA Secretary Chris Sinclair said the rally was a preface to a “potential strike.”

“Since it is the last bargaining session… we thought now is a good time to demonstrate that we have the power to strike if necessary,” Sinclair said. 

The rally concluded at the 12:30 p.m. bargaining session where UO proposed a 4% across-the-board raise for 2025, instead of the previously proposed 3%.

“We are putting a number on the table [4%] that…we believe this addresses to some degree the inflation,” Chris Meade, UO director of Employee & Labor Relations, said.

“It is always good to see movement,” UA Treasurer Keaton Miller said, but ultimately, UA was not satisfied with the proposals on the table.

“Yeah we agree with you that [UO doesn’t] get enough money from the state as we think we should… we agree with you there but that isn’t the whole story of the university’s budget,” Miller said.

The bargaining session ended and UO’s website declares that “the university intends to request mediation through the state’s Employment Relations Board.”

After inflation has rocked the economy for several years, United Academics is fighting for higher across-the-board wages in its new labor contract. 

UA, a labor union made up of faculty members, has been bargaining for a new contract with the University of Oregon since February, and while it has come to agreements on many articles, salary is a highly contested issue on the table. 

While the rate of inflation has slowed in the past two years, faculty remain “at a breaking point,” due to the increased cost of living in Eugene, according to UA Treasurer and Associate Economics Professor Keaton Miller. 

Miller said that he thinks the proposed labor contract is “behind the times” in an increasingly expensive Eugene housing market.

“If you are trying to buy your first home and start a family it [current salaries] means you can’t afford a down payment and have to eat into [your] savings,” Miller said.

According to UO’s bargaining updates, the university believes their faculty compensation adequately accounts for the cost of living because the cost of living in Eugene is about 5% lower than the average cost of living among Association of American Universities schools. 

AAU is an association of 71 schools considered to be “America’s leading research universities.”

Kathryn Mills, associate professor of psychology at UO and executive vice president of UA, said she still thinks more focus should be put towards addressing the cost of living expenses. 

Mills said she believes that UO administration’s current offers don’t adequately address the cost of living.

“I’m really concerned if we don’t secure the things that we are proposing it’s going to be hard for folks who want to stay because they really won’t be able to be a whole person here,” Mills said.

Miller said that he feels faculty at the bargaining table haven’t always been heard by the administration. 

He described fellow professors as feeling “very hurt” and “taken advantage of” by UO. Miller did acknowledge the need to give the university some grace, though.

“Money is tight, it’s not like President Scholz can print money for us. There is always a lot of competition for those resources,” Miller said.

On its website, UO said that one of the main reasons it has not agreed to larger raises is because of how much money the university is paid by the state to begin with. 

“[UO] receive[s] millions of dollars less in revenue annually than the AAU average,” and this is compensated by students’ tuition. UO said it “risk[s] pricing [itself] out of this highly competitive market if [it] increase[s] tuition incautiously.”

UO Communications Director Eric Howald also said in a statement to the Daily Emerald that UO wants “responsible financial stewardship [to] guide [its] negotiations during this bargaining cycle. Leadership must ensure that they are managing the institution’s long-term financial sustainability.”

UO’s website states the university would like to base raises almost entirely on merit, but UA’s Sept. 26 newsletter discusses focusing on increasing baseline pay before considering merit benefits. 

“Merit pay is most appropriate once you have taken care of that cost of living, [if you haven’t done that] you are saying, ‘you just need to suck it up and deal with these high prices,’” Miller said.

Mills agrees — from her point of view, basing raises on merit “tugs at a sense of fairness for all,” and leads to faculty leaving if they don’t fit specific roles.

Currently, UO is proposing a 3% raise across the board for 2025, and no across-the-board raises in 2026 and 2027. According to their Sept. 26 newsletter, UA wants to focus on across-the-board raises of 3.4 to 8.5% for all three years of the contract. 

Howald told the Daily Emerald that “the University of Oregon administration is fully committed to reaching an agreement with United Academics that positions UO faculty and the university for long-term success.”

UA is promoting community and union sign-on letters on its Instagram account, urging “community support” to agree upon a contract “quickly and equitably.” The union sign-on letter has over 691 signatures and the community letter has more than 444 as of Nov. 4.

According to Miller, UA may consider mediation if the two groups remain at a standstill by December.

“We have fallen behind our peers at other state institutions and we have fallen behind the cost of living here in Eugene. We are worse off than we were just a few years ago,” Miller said.

University of Oregon’s University Health Services is offering relaxing spaces and activities on Tuesday and Wednesday to combat the stress that students may feel with Election Day.

Duck Nest, a zone for students to unwind on campus, is in the Erb Memorial Union room 041 and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Monday through Thursday, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday.

The Duck Nest has been around since 2016, according to Angela Long, director for health initiatives at UHS. UHS regularly sponsors events to support students with physical, mental and sexual well-being.

On Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a new pop-up Duck Nest will be located on the second floor of UHS 248, as well. 

“I think it’s really tumultuous and I think every single person I’ve talked to has been concerned about the election,” freshman Leon Reynolds said.

In both locations, coloring, aromatherapy and tea will be available, according to UHS. The EMU Duck Nest will also host a “no-media zone” on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for students to turn away from social media and online distractions.

“We’re bombarded by everything coming in all different directions…so the idea would be to just come to a quiet place and disconnect,” Long said. 

Students and staff will also be able to pet therapy dogs, goats and the infamous duck named Quacktavious on the EMU Green. The dogs will be there from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Quacktavious from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, and the goats from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

Several studies given by UHS have shown that therapy animals statistically reduce anxiety, and UHS is following the numbers.

“It is a data-driven activity that helps students through stressful situations,” Long said. 

For students looking for stress management tips, an anxiety skill lab drop-in workshop will be happening in UHS from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., and UO’s regular drop-in counseling, Let’s Talk, will be available around campus, as well.

Some students said they may tell a friend about the resources UHS is offering, but they mostly wanted to take their minds off Election Day by going out with friends. 

Freshman Lindsey Nash thinks the election is about more than which candidate is voted into office. 

“[I am] very stressed, extremely stressed. From the past election I think all the emotions have heightened and what happened on Jan. 6 that brought into perspective how extreme both sides can be,” Nash said. 

While still paying attention to the election, Reynolds emphasized the need to keep the chaos in the background.

“I think it’s important to focus on other stuff. I already sent in my ballot, so that’s all I can do,” Reynolds said.

UHS is providing stress-management resources to support students during election week and in the long run. 

“We specifically created these options during Election Day to support our students in ways they may not know about. More students may be seeking these types of support [this] week, but what we hope is that all students become aware [of these resources],” Long said. 

More information about UHS’s election week program, events and counseling services can be found on UO’s website and the Duck Nest Instagram.

For roughly five months, University of Oregon’s Student Workers Union has been bargaining with UO in an attempt to win a labor contract. Now, 67 open proposals remain on the table and only one tentative agreement has been reached in approximately five months.

According to lead UOSW negotiators, such as Ashton Pressman, the student workers feel that UO is not taking claims of discrimination seriously and is not listening to students and their needs.

One of UOSW’s major disagreements with the university concerns harassment and discrimination. According to Pressman, dozens of student workers testified at the last few sessions about discrimination in the workplace. 

UOSW released an anti-harassment and discrimination proposal in a Sept. 9 bargaining session. 

The university countered this proposal with their own, saying discrimination isn’t a relevant topic for bargaining sessions. 

According to Pressman, who is a Global Scholars Hall dining hall worker, he was told he was “divorced from reality” by Title IX coordinator Nicole Commissiong after discussing his experience with gender-based workplace discrimination. 

The Emerald reached out to Commissiong for comment, but did not receive a response.

Then, according to Pressman, the administration told UOSW they wished they didn’t have an anti-discrimination article in the other campus union contracts. 

According to UO spokesperson Eric Howald, the conversation discussing gender-based workplace discrimination between Pressman and Commissiong was interpreted differently by Commissiong.

“Information was shared about the option to report to the federal Office of Civil Rights. Students said that that office didn’t take complaints about race discrimination and other concerns seriously. At that point, Nicole said that [saying that the federal Office of Civil Rights doesn’t take race discrimination and other concerns seriously] is ‘divorced from the reality of how the federal government had been handling complaints over the past year,’” Howald said in an email to the Emerald.

Mae Bracelin, a Global Scholars dining hall worker, described the meetings with the administration as strained and disrespectful.

“The university is out of touch with its workforce’s needs, they are so far away from their workforce that even when our co-workers go to them and say, ‘These are the problems and these are the solutions we need to enact,’ they can’t see it as a problem because they are so high up in their ivory towers,” Bracelin said. “If it wasn’t an issue then we wouldn’t be here,” Bracelin said.

One proposal UO brought to the table would split the Resident Assistant roles into two positions and subsequently lower their pay. Ryan Campbell, a bargaining member and RA at Yasui Hall, stressed the importance of keeping the current RA position.

“For a lot of people, this job is the reason they can come to this school. Having that $1,500 off, having meals and a place to live, all that stuff is really important,” Campbell said.

Campbell, Bracelin and Pressman expressed their concerns that UO is focused solely on profit.

“At the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Are you coming to the table wanting a better university or a better profit margin?’” Bracelin and Pressman said.

Campbell said UOSW and UO have been working together more during the past few meetings compared to the spring, but the union still feels “disrespected” by the university.

Bracelin said that the current rate of negotiations is unreasonable and could lead to state mediation, which would force employers and employees to form a contract through fair bargaining. 

According to Bracelin, striking is also on the table, but Bracelin said it is a last-resort option.

“We don’t necessarily want to strike, we want them to respect us, we want to get a contract, but if they aren’t going to treat us as adults and like colleagues, we will have to hostage our labor force to win that contract,” Bracelin said.

UO has declined to comment to the Daily Emerald about the active bargaining sessions.

Editor’s note: Information was added above based on an email from UO spokesperson Eric Howald about the Sept. 9 bargaining session and the exchange between Pressman and Commissiong.