The state’s Employment Relations Board is considering whether members of Oregon State University’s women’s basketball team are school employees with the power to unionize.
The board’s eventual decision — which could take months and is likely to be challenged — could have significant effects beyond Corvallis. It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing and complex debate, five years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed college athletes to receive compensation beyond scholarships.
During the first of two sets of hearings earlier this month in Corvallis, Oregon State players told an administrative law judge about the discrepancy in compensation for some college athletes. They described the demands of college athletic participation as the same as paid employment. In contrast, representatives for OSU administration asserted that the players are students who play basketball as part of their college experience, not for wages.
