CGE is continuing to advocate for DACA and immigration protections, access to health care for all, and gender neutral restrooms in bargaining! We got feedback from OSU on several of these proposals last week.

Article 12 Section 4: Enrollment Requirement – OSU does not want to change the enrollment requirement from 12 hours per term. The enrollment hours affect the amount of funding the school receives from the state. They indicated that all students should have access to blanket credit hours that can be used to fill this requirement without enrolling in 12 hours of classes, which also helps the school account for time faculty spend mentoring students.

Article 24: Non-Discrimination – OSU feels the DACA protections are a “permissive” bargaining issue (which means they are not required to bargain it) because it affects multiple groups on campus, not just graduate employees. They are also not interested in having separate language for one group vs another, although we are not sure why this would force them to have different policies for other groups.

Article 28: Insurance – OSU feels that the HIAC (Health Insurance Advisory Council) is the place for conversations about how the opt-out process for the graduate employee insurance is handled. They returned some amended language clarifying the requirements for coverage to allow someone to opt-out. They are also not interested in including the requirement that our insurance comply with WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) standards of care.

We had some testimony from a member about the importance of access to gender neutral restrooms. We expect a response (and possibly testimony) from OSU on this next bargaining session.

Article 11 (salary) language has gone out to the deans of programs that will be affected.

One thing OSU consistently comes back to is that there are issues that we do not need to bargain, because institutional values state that the school values them (eg, protections for DACA recipients, WPATH standards of care). If this is the case, we are unsure why there is such opposition to a legally binding commitment to those values.

Please join us for our next bargaining session on April 30 from 4pm-6pm in Westminster House!