The Associated Students of Oregon State University Senate announced their solidarity with the university’s striking graduate students on Tuesday. This endorsement arrives in the midst of growing tensions over what many students describe as unlivable wages for those at the very heart of campus teaching and research.

In resolution 84.06, titled: “Support for Workers’ Organizing Rights and Living Wages,” the student senate pledged their support for the strike organized by the Coalition of Graduate Employees, the union which represents working graduate students at OSU.

The group has been calling on the university for significant wage increases to address the rising cost of living and housing in Corvallis, which they argue has left many graduate students in a struggle to make ends meet.

The resolution, which now awaits ASOSU President Audrey Schlotter’s signature, states, “The ASOSU continues to support a living wage for all employees and workers at Oregon State University. Further, the ASOSU supports improvements and wages and working conditions for graduate assistants beyond those currently provided by the university.”

The resolution goes on to acknowledge that “a lack of improvement in these conditions risks impeding the university’s own education and research,” and thus undermines the quality and credibility of OSU as a university and research institution.

This comes as a departure from the policies of the former administration, when in December of last year, the ASOSU Senate struck down a resolution to improve the wages of students struggling with inflation.

Graduate students at OSU have been negotiating and bargaining with university administrators for over a year, but say that proposed raises fall short of what is needed. For more info about bargaining see our latest article.

For now, the CGE has vowed to continue the strike until their demands are met, their next mediation session is set for Thursday.