Contract Enforcement

Currently, our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the UO requires that all departments create criteria by which all applications will be judged. Applicants are supposed to be ranked according to these criteria and GTF positions awarded to the applicants that best match the criteria. Only after the GTFs are awarded are departments supposed to try to match successful applicants with the actual class/job they are best suited for.

We at the GTFF strongly believe that this process is honored more in the breach than in the practice. Almost every department has a different way of applying their criteria and many ignore them altogether. We don't need to tell you that not all GTF positions are handed out according to a neutral set of criteria. You know how your department works. Some professors have more influence, some sub-disciplines get more funding than others, some grads don't get positions because they are unpopular/disruptive/(dare we say it?)women/minorities/any other extraneous excuse departments come up with.

We strongly believe that we must work to end these practices and get departments to adhere to contract language that already exists.

In the beginning we ask for two things, that graduate students who apply for positions in a department, but fail to get them, be allowed to know their rank in the applicant pool and get a written statement as to why they were unsuccessful in obtaining an appointment.

Our goal was twofold. If a department knew that applicants could ask for their rank and a statement, they would be forced to actually do the ranking instead of handing out GTF jobs to the favored few. Moreover, graduate students could know if they stood any chance of getting a job in the coming term (if one GTF leaves or declines an appointment, then the job should go to the next person on the list. Assignments (actual classes) can be juggled for best fit, but the GTF award itself should go to the next ranked applicant) and could plan accordingly. The requirement that the department give them a written statement would put departments on record as to their reasons for their ranking and could be evidence should a grievance arise.

The UO rejected our initial proposals. They argued that to tell applicants their rank would be a violation of FERPA, as knowing your rank could lead you to guess other people's rank. They rejected the idea that applicants could get a written statement as unnecessary, given that graduate students could simply ask their professors why they did not get a GTF position and then could have a good talk about ways to be a better graduate student.

Unfortunately, this incident did more to expose that the GTFF and the UO have fundamentally different understanding of how graduate school and GTF positions at the UO work than anything else.

Over time, we have shaved the proposals down to giving failed applicants the right to talk with the department head about their application and the GTFF's right to request the rankings list of a department, should a grievance about the hiring procedure in a department come up. Because we make it a policy not to file extraneous grievances (and have a good history to back that up), we believe that this request is reasonable. Plus, it will still help us accomplish our goal of making departments actually do the rankings and have a list on file should it become an issue.

Oddly enough (or not, if you follow bargaining closely), the UO argues that our proposal is unnecessary because departments are already required by Oregon law to make and keep these very types of lists. Why the UO cannot accept our language just to make us happy remains a mystery.

(We recognize that this explanation of why the UO won't accept our language is unsatisfactory. You don't have to tell us, but this is the best they can offer. We have proposed language that says "Each department and employing unit will keep a copy of the applicant rankings on file. In the event of a grievance related to hiring procedures, this document will be made available to the Union and the University." The University has proposed, "Each department and hiring unit must maintain GTF search records in accordance with Oregon Administrative Rules governing personnel files for student employees."

Now, they tell us there language is just as good as our language and the OARs totally require them to maintain the rankings lists and that they will have no problem sharing it with us, respecting the FERPA law. We, however, believe that our much more direct and specific language is better.

If this seems like an issue that has a reasonable solution just sitting there, well, then, we can't really disagree, but sometimes these things are harder than they look.)