Nine CGE members joined Rob Wagner, AFT-OR’s Director of Legislative Affairs, and three members of UO’s GTFF to testify today to the Oregon House Committee on Education in support of HB 2508, which would waive student fees for all graduate employees in the Oregon University System. The testimony was a great success and drew concern over the burden of student fees from nearly the entire committee.
CGE members spoke of the impact of fees on graduate employees at OSU and related a number of compelling personal stories about fees. By the end of the hearing, the committee unanimously recognized that student fees are a big problem for grad employees in Oregon and seemed ready to begin working to find a solution to this problem. In that, CGE’s goals for this hearing were achieved, and the way was paved for CGE to continue working with the state legislature to eliminate fees for grad employees in Oregon.
For those who are interested, audio for the hearing is available here.
Many thanks and congratulations to all of the CGE members who attended and testified at the hearing today. Your participation helped CGE take one step more towards ending the burden of student fees for grad employees at OSU.
Way to go CGE — and many thanks to all of you who testified and attended! I couldn’t go but really appreciate your efforts on the behalf of all grads. It’s great to have our concerns heard by people with the power to actually change things at the state level.