On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the University of Oregon Student Workers Union organized a “study-in” from 3 to 5 p.m. inside Johnson Hall, the administrative building. The union workers demanded fair contract negotiations from UO administration amid ongoing bargaining and a strike authorization vote that begins on Monday.

A UOSW sign outside Johnson Hall listed the union’s demands, which included:

• “Meet with President Scholz, Provost Long or Senior Vice President Jamie Moffitt”

  

• “Have UO agree to our key articles:
  • Non-discrimination and anti-harassment
  • Grievance and arbitration
  • Health and safety
  • Accommodations”

Izzie Marshall, a bargaining team member for UOSW, said that these demands reflect the articles included in the ongoing contract negotiations.

“We need to get their attention to have a conversation with administration about the university’s bargaining team making movement in our contract negotiations,” Marshall said. “So the university is forcing student workers to choose between fair and timely pay or a safe and inclusive workplace when we deserve both.”

Victoria Robinson, a UOSW executive committee member, highlighted UOSW’s motivation behind the study-in.

“The university’s bargaining team thinks that student workers don’t care about these key issues, but we do; and we wanted to take a big action to show people that we do care,” Robinson said.

Robinson said that while some university officials had passed the protest, there was little direct engagement from top administrators.

“We’ve had some members of UO admin come in; I think someone from Student Life, but President Scholz walked through earlier today and kept his head down. We would love to talk to them if they would come talk to us,” Robinson said.

The “study-in” was a new form of organization for UOSW.

“We haven’t really done a longer action before,” Marshall said. “It’s week eight, and we wanted people to be able to sit and show the university that they care. This is a busy time during the term, so we wanted to make sure people could participate without it taking up their whole day.”

While UOSW did not have an official headcount, Marshall said it was “packed” and organizers were “very happy” with the turnout.

“Lots of people have been coming out, like, in it all day,” Marshall said.

After the official end time of 5 p.m., a group of UOSW members decided to remain inside the building until their demand to “meet with President Scholz, Provost Long or Senior Vice President Jamie Moffitt” was agreed to by the university. 

Around 7:30 p.m., approximately 10 union workers still remained inside Johnson Hall. Some union workers gathered outside singing labor songs, such as “Solidarity Forever” and chanting, “UO works because we do.”

After the duration of the study-in extended in hopes of securing a meeting, student worker Joseph Novak emphasized his frustration.

“I’m tired; I’m hungry, pissed off. It’s really annoying. You know, at this point we’re just asking for a simple meeting. You know, it’s not much. It’s really not that hard. And this is just the kind of stuff, as organizers on this campus, that we have been getting from UO for years,” Novak said.

According to Robinson, close to 9 p.m., an agreement was reached in which a meeting was scheduled between UOSW and Provost Chris Long on Thursday, Feb. 27.

UO Spokesperson Eric Howald provided a comment on behalf of the university:

“Last night a group of students refused to leave the building after hours. The Dean of Students spoke with them about their concerns, and they left peacefully,” Howald said. 

On Friday, Feb. 28, another mediated session between UO and UOSW is scheduled, and UOSW has announced via Instagram that they will be holding their strike authorization vote beginning Monday, March 3, to Friday, March 14.

“Our next step is holding a strike authorization vote, which we would need a majority of people to vote yes to sanction the strike,” Robinson said.

The post UOSW holds study-in to demand fair contract appeared first on Daily Emerald.

On Aug. 12, 2024, the University of Oregon initially proposed a restructure of the Resident Assistant role, splitting it into two positions: a “Community Builder” and “On-Call RA” role. 

Since then, UO put forth a bargaining proposal on Sept. 25, 2024, and a non-binding mediation proposal on Feb. 12, 2025. Current RAs have pushed back on this change, citing concerns for their financial and personal well-being. 

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Cuauh Samano-Chavez, a first-year RA, said on the sentiment of other student workers. 

The Community Builder roles would focus on resident engagement, event planning and fostering community. Fifty percent of their housing will be covered by the university, leaving them to cover the remaining portion. 

On-Call RAs would handle security, lockouts and conduct enforcement during nights, receiving 75% housing coverage.

This change is akin to “paying to work,” Ryan Campbell, third-year RA and UO Student Workers bargaining team member, said.

“Right now, RAs get a stipend every month, but it’s not enough to actually buy groceries or cover other expenses,” Campbell said. “If this change goes through, RAs would actually pay out of pocket for part of their housing instead of receiving a stipend. They would receive no additional monetary compensation.”

Taliah Johnson, a third-year RA, not only loves their job but said they are also motivated by the financial benefit.

“A lot of RAs do this job because we like it, but also because having free room and board and the meal plan is a big cost saver for us,” Johnson said. “Having that potentially be eliminated would be disastrous for RAs who need this job to be able to afford going to school.”

Johnson feels that this change will place financial pressure on RAs.

“This could lead to more RAs potentially taking up second jobs, which would be really detrimental in our ability to support our residents,” Johnson said.

According to all three RAs, the change would also assign RAs roommates. From Campbell’s three years of experience as an RA, he predicted that this would be a “major problem in their model.”

On the topic of the Community Builders position, Campbell raised concerns about confidentiality. 

“As a Community Builder, you’d have to kick your roommate out every time you had a confidential conversation with a resident or go somewhere else,” Campbell said. “If a resident knocks on your door in (a) crisis, you can’t just say, ‘Hold on, let me get my roommate to leave.’ That would hurt the role.”

According to Campbell, for On-Call RAs, the late-hour requirements of the job make cohabitation a challenge.

“If On-Call RAs had roommates, imagine getting woken up at 3 a.m. because your roommate is handling a lockout. That’s not sustainable,” Campbell said.

Proposed solutions by the university continue to raise concerns for Campbell.

“The university’s reasoning was that RAs with roommates could just schedule shifts together, but that’s even worse. You’d just be constantly waking each other up on those days,” Campbell said.

While RAs feel that the restructuring would hurt their jobs, Samano-Chavez has concerns for the residents, as well.

“It’s like a bad cop, good cop situation,” Samano-Chavez said. “People in the dorms are still going to be living with the On-Call RAs, and to know specifically which RA is the ‘On-Call’ one, they’re obviously going to treat that person differently.”

Samano-Chavez feels that the division of labor will lead to an unclear dynamic between residents and their RAs.

“If someone comes up to the Community Builder because they feel more comfortable with them and starts describing a timeline of a situation, the Community Builder might have to take a step back because that’s not their duty or role,” Samano-Chavez said. 

Johnson emphasized the various roles that RAs play and how they work together.

“One of the main things we do is support our residents, and we do that through a variety of ways,” Johnson said.

“My favorite part of this job (is) just checking in on residents and seeing how they’re doing and being able to support them,” Johnson said. “We also do community connections… where we host events that allow residents to bond with each other through a variety of means.”

However, safety is a main priority for Johnson.

“The biggest part of the job is on-call shifts, where we check to see if the building is secure and check to see if residents are safe and doing all right,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that dividing the two responsibilities would create “confusion” and could “cause problems.” 

Rather than splitting the role, many RAs argue that the university should focus on better mental health support, pay and working conditions.

“The university says the split is meant to reduce RA stress by separating responsibilities,” Campbell said. “But in reality, specialized RAs are not the answer. It’s the lack of mental health support and low pay that make the job difficult.”

To mitigate these challenges, Campbell has worked within the bargaining process to propose methods like counseling services that increase resources available to RAs.

“If there was (a professional) in the building to help RAs with stress and de-escalation techniques, it would make the job much more sustainable,” Campbell said.

RAs have also “pushed for fair contract negotiations,” but Campbell says the university has “refused to discuss RA pay as part of the broader student worker contract.” 

“They’ve proposed this separate RA article three times, and we’ve (UOSW) denied it three times because it fundamentally changes the role beyond just wages,” Campbell said.

UOSW has been a direct line of communication for student workers, according to Samano-Chavez, who feels as though he has not “been informed directly by the administration.”

“Most of the information I’ve gotten has been from union meetings or emails,” Samano-Chavez said. 

According to Eric Howald, assistant director of issues management, the university does not have a comment at this time. 

“The concerns you asked about are part of the active bargaining/mediation efforts and the university is not commenting on the matters outside of those efforts,” Howald said.

Campbell, a bargaining team member for UOSW, hopes to reach a middle ground with the university. 

“I don’t expect to get everything proposed, and I know they won’t get everything they want,” Campbell said.

The post ‘If It’s Not Broken, Don’t Fix It’: RAs push back against contract update appeared first on Daily Emerald.

For two hours every day from Monday to Friday, students rush by Graham. He sits on the ledge outside of Fenton Hall holding a rotating plethora of signs that warn that the “collapse of humanity is imminent.” While he whistles, Graham waits for one thing: conversation. 

“I am a life-long social outcast,” Graham said, matter-of-factly in a faintly English accent.

Graham grew up in England, but his career brought him to the United States more than a decade ago.

“I was a computer programmer and I worked for Kellogg (Brown & Root) –– not the cereal brand. They do heavy industrial work,” Graham said.

Now, his commute consists of an hour-long bus ride from his home outside of Cottage Grove.

“Cinderella had it very easy — she could call up a carriage whenever she pleases. I have to get out of here at 5 (p.m.) because that’s when the last bus is,” Graham said, with a smile.

While his background is in computer programming, Graham has broadened his perspective during his time at the University of Oregon.

“Actually, I am self-educated,” Graham said. “I have taken classes here. Biology, organic chemistry — that one I didn’t like so much. I found that I do not enjoy the style of learning. All they do is shovel the facts down your throat and then regurgitate it. But then you forget all of it.” 

His desire to “think about things over a longer period of time, more deeply,” is reflected in his nine-year-long commitment to postulating outside of Fenton. 

He admitted to feeling “bored” as he waited for people to approach him. However, he has an affinity for his spot on the ledge.

 “When the leaves are out above me, there is some shade, and I choose a spot near the activity. Anywhere along this street would work, but this spot is particularly nice,” Graham said.

This action-filled location on East 13th Avenue has made him a witness to major events on campus. He said that he has even noticed a shift in student behavior.

“When I was in my teens, college campuses were marriage factories. I don’t often see couples holding hands,” Graham said. “Something very profound is going on, a change. People didn’t hug. Now, I see people embrace more, it is normal.”

Graham noted his observations on how the institution itself evolved.

“Phil Knight has essentially taken over the campus and turned it into a sports and party school.”

While he observes campus life for two hours each day, many people don’t pay Graham a second glance. 

“People don’t often come up and talk to me,” Graham said.

However, those who do are often unwilling to engage with his “theories.” 

“The people who come up are usually very pleasant, but I do feel that they’re just interested in a conversation,” Graham said. “When I start talking about the situation and how you really should have started to do something to save yourself yesterday they tend to back away.” 

Graham said that he “is not looking for connection,” though he has some regular visitors.

“There is one girl who comes by every so often. We mostly talk about the weather,” Graham said.

Even those who do not stop when they pass by Graham might recognize him, never without his backpack and usually whistling a soft tune.

The post The man who sits on the Fenton Hall ledge: Graham appeared first on Daily Emerald.

In the fall of 2024, University of Oregon President John Karl Scholz announced the launch of a new strategic plan, Oregon Rising. Scholz and his team promised to achieve four goals over the next decade: enhance pathways to timely graduation, become a leader in career preparation, create a flourishing community and accelerate UO’s impact on the world.  

The development process began in 2023, consisting of multiple facilitated sessions and an online survey. By the end of the year, 1,200 faculty, staff, students, alumni and stakeholders contributed input. 

“There was a candor about wanting to know what people view as special here, what people view as worth investing further in, worth making a highlight,” Cy Abbott, Ph.D. student and member of the Board of Trustees, said about the process.

Peg Weiser, a philosophy professor with extensive experience observing strategic planning at multiple universities, highlighted the length and complexity of the process.

“It’s a very elaborate document, and there’s nothing really surprising in it, but it’s a way for President (Scholz) to learn from the university constituency,” Weiser said. “He has to listen for a year, gather all the info, have a team of people who write this up for him, finesse it and then come up with this document in the fall.”

In a UO Today interview with The Director of the Oregon Humanities Center Leah Middlebrook, Scholz explained the intention behind the first priority.

“Goal number one is to remove impediments to timely graduation. College is expensive, and we want students to graduate in the time frame they aim for,” Scholz said in the interview.

The plan outlines action items including establishing a policy team, addressing curriculum complexities and removing financial barriers. 

Furthering the student-centered approach, goal two emphasizes student preparation post-graduation. 

“Let’s be a leader in helping students transition from school to work or graduate school,” Scholz said in the interview. “A major is not a career — it’s acquiring a set of skills you’ll take with you for the rest of your life.” 

Oregon Rising frames a UO degree as a “launchpad” for students after graduation. Scholz hopes to “create value” through initiatives such as increased connections with UO alumni and the adoption of a campus-wide career platform.

“One of the great strengths of the University of Oregon is this amazing alumni network (that is) very successful, very talented and very passionate about the university,” Scholz said. “Through this career idea, we find opportunities for alumni to give back.” 

The third goal, creating a flourishing community, shifts the focus to a “philosophical” context, according to Weiser.

Scholz expressed enthusiasm for the concept, emphasizing its foundation in “continuous improvement.”

“I love the word ‘flourishing.’ How do we create a campus where people grow, change and feel a sense of community, wellness, resilience and purpose?” Scholz said in the interview. 

The fourth goal aims to accelerate UO’s global impact. Weiser acknowledged that this ambition might feel abstract to some.

“This (goal) is where most students don’t have a clue where this is going,” Weiser said. “(It means) we want to be a top-tier research institution. It has everything to do with faculty, how many students we graduate, how many PhDs we produce and how many research dollars we bring in.”

Oregon Rising includes accountability in its framework to ensure progress, according to Scholz.

The plan includes specific metrics to measure success, such as raising the four-year graduation rate from 61% to 70% and the six-year graduation rate from 73% to 85% by 2032. It also aims to double the university’s annual overall research expenditures by the same year.

However, some measures have yet to be determined. For example, goal three includes metrics like the “percent of flourishing students, both undergraduate and graduate,” and the “percent of flourishing employees.” A note in the plan indicates that baseline measures for these goals will be defined during the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

“(Accountability) is built into the language,” Weiser said. “Now, whether it actually happens, we will watch and see.”

The post Scholz launches new UO strategic plan appeared first on Daily Emerald.

The University of Oregon’s Korean minor has undergone several changes in the past five years, marked by high staff turnover and curriculum revisions. In the Fall of 2022, the professor listed to teach Korean 201 and 301 withdrew from the course, leading to the sudden hire of Changhoon Lee.

Students in Lee’s class later discovered he was not a licensed educator but rather the husband of Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture, Jina Kim, which was confirmed by University Spokesperson and Director of Issues Management Angela Seydel.

Emma Zallee, a fifth-year Korean minor, was informed about Lee and Kim’s relationship through a fellow classmate.

“A classmate of mine was regularly visiting Professor Kim at office hours to discuss issues with the 301 curriculum and Mr. Lee’s teaching style,” she said. “Professor Kim told them directly in those office hours meetings.”

Zallee recalled the confusion on the first day of class when students arrived expecting Professor Boyoung Kim and were met with Lee instead. 

“This man that nobody knew was standing at the front of the class,” Zallee said. “He explained that he had been hired two weeks before the term started and was just given all this curriculum that he’d never seen before.”

According to Eric Howald, UO spokesperson, in extenuating situations, the Office of the Provost may allow departments to hire instructors without master’s degrees.

“In accordance with this process, the university hired Mr. Lee to teach high-demand courses in Korean on a temporary basis,” Howald said.

According to Zallee, Lee lacked the basic UO resources for instructing the class and relied on Kim’s access. Within the 201 and 301 course syllabi, the information listed differs. In the 301 syllabus, Lee provided a Yahoo email address and the header featured the name “Keunyoung Lee” followed by the wrong year, 2021.

“He didn’t have a UO email, and he didn’t have access to the Canvas page, which was still listed under Jina Kim,” Zallee said.

Students enrolled in the class lacked any information and received no clarifying communication from Kim, according to Zallee. 

“Everyone was super confused,” Zallee said.

Criticism of the instructor’s teaching methods were echoed by numerous students, including Korean minor Sarah Bathke. They described grading policies as “arbitrary” and complained that homework was often not uploaded to Canvas. 

“We did a lot of really unstructured speaking practice, which was the first time we’d ever had that in the curriculum,” Zallee said. “It was nice but very unstructured. He was a little abrasive.”

A turning point came when students learned more about the instructor’s background. 

“A friend of mine talked to Jina (Kim) because they had other classes with her, and they found out this man is Jina’s husband,” Zallee said. “He (was) not a licensed professor, and at the time, he had limited, if any, teaching experience. He just happened to be a native speaker and Jina’s husband.”

Bathke described the “frustration” students felt that “nothing got done.”

“I know that other people went and raised concerns,” they said.

Traditional methods of voicing complaints, such as course surveys, were unsuccessful according to Zallee.

“The class survey at the end of the course was under Jina Kim’s name,” she said, “So everybody who did the course survey either looked like they were evaluating Jina or they had to write (Lee’s name) in the course survey.”

After the term ended, Zallee was “surprised” to encounter Lee in her Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) program. 

“After that term, he was a classmate of mine in my teaching courses,” she said. “I don’t actually know if he was a SLAT student or if he was a graduate student in Language Teaching Studies (LTS), the classes are the same and the professors are the same.”

Since then, Lee taught the 300-level Korean course sequence during the 2023-2024 academic year with access to both a canvas page and a UO email. However, neither Lee nor Kim are currently teaching in the Korean program.

Howald said that there was no conflict of interest.

“His spouse was not involved in the hiring process or decision,” Howald said.

Bathke described the experience as a “disaster” and felt it derailed their language proficiency.

“I should be much more proficient, (and) much more confident as a speaker,” Bathke said. “That class was the beginning of my second year, and my foundation was just ripped away. It completely messed up my trajectory of learning.”

Bathke said this structure affected their performance in the class.

“I remember we, like, did horribly on the midterm,” Bathke said.

Some students said they were forced to rely on each other as well as graduate employees. 

“The GEs were lifelines,” Bathke said. “Our GE basically retaught everything during discussion sections and answered all our questions because he (Lee) wasn’t capable of teaching.”

The Daily Emerald reached out to Changhoon Lee and Jina Kim but did not receive a response. The Korean Program refused to comment on the matter.

In an interview with the Daily Emerald, Kikachi “Kiki” Akpakwu, the Vice President of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, answered a series of questions, which all centered around her and ASUO’s plans for the remaining five months of the 2024-2025 academic year.  

ASUO is made up of over 25 elected students. “From helping set the Incidental-Fee, allocating funds for student groups, to providing resources for club leaders,” each elected member holds the responsibility “to support all UO students.” 

Working alongside Akpakwu is Mariam Hassan, the president of ASUO. They both serve on ASUO’s Executive Branch, which allows them to approve, oversee and work with over 200 student organizations across campus. 

Apakwu addressed a series of questions relating to her priorities for the term, challenges she anticipates and more.

What were your primary goals for this term and how are they going?

Akpakwu: [In] our administration this year, one of the primary goals that we’ve had is advocating for basic needs. So, I’m really glad and happy to say that a lot of the work that our cabinet has been doing has been lobbying to increase SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] eligibility. We’re actually going to be going to Washington, D.C., in March, and that’s one of the things that we’re lobbying for. And we’re lobbying for the Basic Needs and Workforce Stabilization Act in Salem.

We also are just trying to create … the SNAP map, so it’s a map of pretty much grocery stores within the Eugene area that accept SNAP. Hopefully, it will be a resource for students who have SNAP and want to know which grocery stores will be able to serve them.

When you’re lobbying on a federal level, it can sometimes take months, if not years, to kind of get the stuff that you want to the floor. That’s been something that we have been working on extensively over the course of this year, and it’s going at a great rate, and hopefully, we’ll find out by the end of the year where legislators are with our basic needs package.

What are your main priorities for the rest of the term?

Akpakwu: We have some things in store which I’m excited about. So for one, we’re going to be going up to Salem quite a bit to lobby for specific initiatives. We’re in our long session in just legislation right now, which means for a lot of the big new policies, initiatives, acts and reform packages that people want to introduce. This is the year when legislators will look over and decide if they’re going to go with it or not. So, we’re going to be doing a lot of that with higher education funding, especially, and basic needs. The basic needs package and the Clery Act are some of the things that come to mind.

What events should students be aware of?

Akpakwu: We are going to be having a lot of tabling events, we’re going to be doing a hot chocolate bar, [and] we’re going to be doing a healthy parties event and a DIY bouquet-making. The Winter Fest on March 8 is one of the bigger events that we’ll be hosting, so we have a lot of great events coming up. The Spring Street Faire is something that ASUO does every year, and potentially the Spring Festival, which is most likely going to happen in late May.

What challenges do you anticipate and how do you plan to address them?

Akpakwu: The biggest concern that comes to mind at the moment would definitely just be higher education funding on a federal level, and whether that’ll be cut or not. We’re kind of in a tedious place to see what we will have to do if higher education funding is cut.

If [legislators] don’t support the basic needs package, then things could get a bit more tedious in terms of ASUO having to try to find ways to fund basic needs, the food pantry, transportation and housing subsidies. It would become a little bit more complex to maneuver how we can spread the money that way if we don’t get it from the federal or state level. With that type of concern, the most we can do is hope for the best and potentially plan for the worst. That is something that we definitely have in our mindset.

What have you learned last [term] as ASUO Vice President that you will apply to the final months of your term?

Akpakwu: I think that this upcoming year, I have come to realize that the more people involved, the better in any situation, the more voices at the table and the more involvement from students who are non-ASUO members. I’m just going to really seek out input from a lot of different people [regarding] different policies that we enact and we try to do over the course of this year. I think just bettering representation and collaboration is something that I’m excited to emphasize in my work as vice president.

On Nov. 6, the Warsaw Sports Business Club made its second appearance at the annual Sports Marketing Association Conference in Saint Louis, Mo., where they took first place.

The team, comprised of Saachi Poddar, Archie Roden, Jack Button and Owen Huyler, beat 19 competitive teams from universities across the United States. 

After missing out on the finals the previous year, senior Saachi Poddar reflected on the team’s challenges.

“Last year was the first time we competed, and we were just trying to figure out how to navigate a case competition. This year, I knew we had to build a super strong team,” Poddar said.

This year, the competition centered around the pickle company, Sucker Punch Pickles, which tasked participants to expand the company into the college football and sports landscape. Preparation for the competition began five days before the event when the team received the case brief.

“Every morning we’d come in at 9 a.m. and work for five, six hours, doing all the due diligence,” Poddar said. “We knew the case in and out, and our preparation really came through when the judges started questioning us.”

The participating teams pitched their idea to a panel of professionals. Rodin recalled feeling “very nervous,” however, he “learned how to channel those nerves into poise and deliver a really good presentation at the end of it.”

Oregon’s competitors took a unique approach, using their extensive background knowledge and personal experience to effectively target 18 to 25-year-olds.

“Our concept leaned into how fun their product is. We even had a pickle mascot named ‘Big Deal,’ a pickle truck called ‘Bigger Deal,’ and a blimp called ‘Biggest Deal.’ It was the weirdest case ever but gave us room for an insane pitch.” Poddar said.

For Poddar, first place was also a personal win. 

“I made a deal with a guy from the pickle company that if we won, he’d give us custom boxing gloves they made as swag… at the awards, they said that we had won, and they gave us the gloves,” she said.

The team not only won first place but overcame the challenge of being perceived as outsiders. 

“We joked that we were the villains of this competition, coming from a bigger program,” Poddar said.

UO competitors took on this reputation, using it to inspire their stand-out performance.

“We kind of channeled that energy into that we deserve to be here, and it wasn’t like an imposter situation for us like we deserve to be here and we deserve to learn,” said Roden.

The University of Oregon received a warning letter from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries about the university’s state law violations of ORS 652.120 by delaying payments to employees beyond 35 days. The Daily Emerald was not granted access to the letter and relied on the accounts of participants in the negotiations.

In a meeting between UO and UO Student Workers on Nov. 14, representatives from UOSW presented the letter from BOLI.

This was the eleventh session in a series of negotiations between both parties regarding the issue of delayed paychecks. 

Izzie Marshall, a UOSW bargaining team member, said that “most student workers put this as their number one issue. That is a fact.”

In the first meeting on May 29, UOSW presented a proposal to change the payroll cycle to bi-monthly rather than the current 30-day schedule.

As a Resident Assistant and UOSW bargaining team member, Ryan Campbell said their group hopes are to address the “terrifying” financial insecurity student workers face due to the current system.  

“We’d actually be able to have stable financials and only have to plan for 14 days instead of 30,” Campbell said.

Marshall said they witnessed first-hand the challenges of a monthly pay cycle. 

“When you receive your paycheck, and the day after, you have to pay rent, internet and other bills, you’re left with nothing to budget for the rest of the month,” Marshall said.

Campbell said he feels “very disappointed with the lack of progress” in the last six months with bargaining between UOSW and UO.

“Out of almost 50 proposals and 50 articles we have proposed, we’ve only reached two tentative agreements with the university’s bargaining teams this whole time,” Campbell said.

Campbell said that UOSW and the UO administration currently hold different priorities.

“Economically, we are miles apart on everything,” Campbell said.

The university called for external mediation, which is set to occur in January, after the tenth negotiation session. This came as a “shock” to UOSW, according to Campbell.

Campbell said that the cost of the mediation process makes it a last resort for UOSW.

“Arbitration doesn’t just cost the university; it costs us too, and independent arbiters aren’t cheap. It’s not going to be something we use ‘willy-nilly’ for every single case… It’s going to be for very serious, high-profile cases,” Campbell said.

Campbell emphasized the “massive power imbalance” that makes the mediator, Phill Johnson, an important figure to UOSW in these negotiations.

“Chris [Meade, UO director of Employee and Labor Relations] essentially wants us to trust him and trust the university, which is a major issue,” Campbell said. “We don’t have any say in their jobs or their paychecks, but they get a say in our jobs and ours.”

Despite the slow-moving negotiation process, Marshall is optimistic.

“We are hoping the university works with us to make the bi-weekly pay cycle a reality for student workers,” Marshall said.

UO spokesperson Eric Howald addressed UOSW’s concerns regarding the issue of delayed paychecks.

“The university is focused on complying with ORS 652.120 and paying all employees within 35 days from either their first day worked or last regular pay day,” Howald said.

Howald said that concerns will be addressed through the implementation of new payroll systems.

“The university’s central payroll office will be better able to track when the 35-day window is closing, produce a report and automate notifications to the appropriate parties. We are also asking campus pay administrators to monitor the 35-day mark with new employees as we engage the new system,” Howald said.

According to Marshall, UOSW has a desire to see systemic change in the treatment payment process toward student workers. 

“The university needs to be held accountable … this [BOLI] letter is just one piece of the puzzle,” Marshall said.

The University of Oregon community watched the 2024 presidential results roll in with anticipation on Nov. 5. The race concluded with the re-election of former president Donald Trump, who led the Republican Party and won the race with 295 electoral college votes and 50.7% of the popular vote as of Nov. 8.

At a Nov. 7 Post-Election roundtable in the Ford Alumni Center, students, professors and some “election experts,” including former U.S. Representative for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District Peter DeFazio shared with the Daily Emerald their reactions and perspectives on the general election.

The roundtable was sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, and held a panel including DeFazio and UO professors Chandler James, Alison Gash, Regina Lawrence and Neil O’Brian. The roundtable was organized through a moderated question-and-answer session. 

Daniel Tichenor, the moderator of the event, kicked off the forum by stating that 90% of counties nationwide shifted their voting patterns to the ideological right compared to the 2020 general election. Tichenor did not specify where he got this fact, though the New York Times reported this same information. 

The attention then shifted to the panelists, who responded to questions about the election and its implications for college students and Americans.

James, an assistant professor of political science, criticized Trump’s campaign, calling it “racist” and “sexist.”

“Trump ran an unconventional campaign in that he was openly racist and sexist. What that said to me is that many of the norms that are constrained in a normal democracy are no longer relevant,” James said.

James also compared the educational background of voters. He said that college graduates have access to resources that make them more informed on government processes than the non-college-educated remainder of the population.

“College students are pretty sophisticated relative to the rest of the population,” James said. “So you know, people who are college graduates represent a minority, and so people [who] come here are relatively privileged and informed compared to the rest of the population.”

James also criticized the reliance on social media for information and advocated for academic and scholarly research instead.

“In my classes, I try to teach [students] these skills, teach them how to conduct research, teach them how to analyze data, analyze science, scientific research and whatnot. And then, you know, apply that to not only classwork, but also the rest of their lives,” James said.

During the election, some UO students utilized the critical thinking skills that James highlighted, including Beatrice Khan, a third-year Wayne Morris scholar majoring in history and English. 

“I tried to look at a broad variety of media reports and keep an open mind, looking at objective fact-based reporting from lots of media sources,” Khan said. 

Rose Bascom, a junior, criticized the role of influencers and inferred that social media dramatically impacted voter opinion. 

“I think that social media culture and the elevated platform of people like Andrew Tate and Charlie Kerr are now making it popular and cool to hate women.”

Tate and Kerr are both right-wing social media personalities.

One concern of James’ was the “misogyny in this election that can’t be dismissed.”

“Trump ran on being a man, and kind of made it seem unmanly to support Kamala. I also think it’s important to recognize that the Democratic Party has… not made it really compelling for young men. They haven’t been trying to go out and get this vote,” James said.

James said that there are steps and measures that could be taken to have the Democratic Party “a safe haven for guys.”

“I think that there is work that the Democratic Party can do to make the Democratic Party a safe haven for guys who play football, watch basketball, you know, drink beer, buy four wheels…,” James said.

DeFazio spoke to a different perspective on why the Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election, alluding to the shifting demographics within the party affecting this election and future ones.

“We [Democrats] are losing working-class people of every race and gender in the country,” DeFazio said. “The Democrats are the party of the working class. We cannot win elections on college-educated people and the elites.”

Gash, a professor of political science, commented on the voting patterns of Generation Z, who are “very much policy-focused and candidate-focused, and not partisan-focused.” 

“Twenty million voters stayed home, they didn’t feel relevant, they didn’t feel spoken to,” Gash said.

According to Gash, focusing on collective action can combat voter apathy.

“I think the way forward is to focus on your communities… it’s to engage in coalition building at the local level,” Gash said. “That has to be where the focus is, because that’s ultimately going to get our most vulnerable communities through the next four years, but it’s also going to have a payoff in terms of how the Democratic Party reorganizes and how progressives reorganize.”

Abdirahim Mahmoud is a senior political science major who was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but grew up in Tigard, Ore. He reflected on the post-election campus environment. 

“​I do feel like the next day on campus was kind of sad. It was just straight frustration,” Mahmoud said.

Khan also said she felt that election night had hit the entire city.  

“I was going to bed pretty late around midnight, and I heard two people just screaming out on campus. I think that pretty much sums up the energy on Wednesday. I didn’t see many people on campus. A lot of people were missing from class,” Khan said.

Bridget Reynolds, a freshman, revealed how individuals’ shocked reactions surrounding the results were echoed on various social media platforms.

“A lot of people I follow voted for Kamala, and they would post big, long paragraphs, a lot of them just completely cutting off any Trump supporter saying, unfollow me if you voted for him. I saw one person say, with the utmost disrespect, I don’t like you,” Reynolds said.

Bryce Mayer, a junior studying economics and accounting, said he grew up in a very right-leaning environment in Salt Lake City, Utah, and casted his absentee ballot for Trump.

“Coming here, I’ve been exposed to a lot more of the left ideals and more Democrat ideas. I think for me, personally, like my values really haven’t changed too much,” Mayer said.

Mayer said his beliefs are heavily influenced by outside sources such as social media.

“Social media is where I get the majority of my news, which is probably not a great thing, just because it is so easy to influence it,” Mayer said. “So I think it played a massive role in just my understanding of what both candidates were fighting for.”

Bryson Petterborg, president of UO College Democrats, spoke to the energy surrounding the election.

“I think there’s a lot of organizing energy as a result of the election not going the way that we wanted to, and a lot of that is driven by people being really scared about what’s to come, but there’s definitely a lot more energy around wanting to make things better right now,” Petterborg said.

According to Petterborg, a main concern of the UO College Democrats is reproductive rights and what actions the group can take to address their concern.

“When it comes to reproductive rights, we really want to support the Students for Choice campaign to get medicated abortion on campus. I think the [Young Democratic Socialists of America] socialist feminist committee is also doing stuff with that,” Petterborg said.

Petterborg added that there were many notions among voters, specifically Oregon voters, that voting “didn’t matter” or “wasn’t necessary” because of their location.

Petterborg referred to the proposed Oregon Ballot Measures. Ballot Measures 115 and 119 were both passed. Ballot Measures 116, 117 and 118 were not passed.

Ballot Measure 115 established an impeachment process for elected state officials and Ballot Measure 119 required cannabis businesses to have a “labor peace agreement” to receive or renew a new license.

“It’s really important for people to recognize that it’s not just the presidential election that you were voting in. We had a lot of really close races in the House [of Representatives] for our national elections. [Congresswoman] Val Hoyle was a close race, [Congresswoman] Andrea Salinas was [in] a really close race and then also the ballot measures,” Petterborg said.

The Daily Emerald reached out to the College Republicans at the University of Oregon for comment but did not receive a response.

The post Post-election, pre-Trump: UO community responds appeared first on Daily Emerald.