On Friday I went to the capitol building in Salem to testify in favour of house bill 2508 for the abolition of fees for graduate students with a tuition waiver. I went along with other members of the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) the union for the grads on OSU's campus, and the GTFF which is the equivalent at the University of Oregon. The GTFF and CGE are part of the larger union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
the proposed HB 2508 would stop the universities in Oregon from charging fees on top of tuition to graduate students when we have funding which provides a tuition waiver. The current situation sees 17% of my net pay go back to the university each year, last year this amounted to $2840.
Here is a photo of members of CGE and the GTFF in front of the capitol after testifying for over an hour to a concerned committee.
It was a great experience and it seemed that they committee really took on board our message although in these economic times of severe budget cuts it seems unlikely that any dramatic changes will occur in the near future but hopefully this will begin to open up conversations about how we can improve the situation for graduate students in Oregon.
The CGE has also posted remarks about Friday's trip on their
blog and you can download an audio recording of the proceedings from Friday's hearing
here. The hearing for HB 2508 begins 16min 29sec into the recording and I testify at 38min 15sec and it closes at 1hr 36min 26sec after 12 testimonies in favour of the bill and 1 agains the bill (someone sent to represent the university).
This photo shows a Rhododendron inoculated with Phytophthora syringae as part of my field experiment. You can see how the infection has spread aerially by rain splash to near by leaves and has dripped down on to the two leaves below the inoculated leaf.
It was a great experience and it seemed that they committee really took on board our message although in these economic times of severe budget cuts it seems unlikely that any dramatic changes will occur in the near future but hopefully this will begin to open up conversations about how we can improve the situation for graduate students in Oregon.
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