We, the undersigned undergraduate students and workers, write to express our support for all the graduate teaching and research assistants at Oregon State University.

Graduate employees are critical to the experience of all undergraduate students at OSU. They are our teaching assistants, lab instructors, recitation instructors, studio leads, graders, mentors, collaborators, and the sole instructors for many required core courses.

Without graduate employees, our learning is largely limited to large lecture sections, which is not enough for many students. The support provided by graduate employees enhances learning and fosters a collaborative environment, essential for mastering the complex concepts, skills, and ideas necessary for a modern, well-rounded education.

Should the university administration fail to reach an agreement with the Coalition of Graduate Employees (CGE) before a strike occurs, we recognize that forcing graduate employees to strike will disrupt our education for a time. However, graduate employees’ working conditions are our learning conditions. And graduate employees cannot work under the contract that OSU has proposed.

We implore the university to come to an agreement that can actually meet the needs of graduate employees, to share prosperity widely, so they can continue to guide us in our own educational journeys.