ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Ph.D. students at the University of Rochester say the school is trying to pick and choose who can become members of their union. They held a rally on campus Friday to talk about it.

The dispute seems to come down to just who might be able to be in the proposed union and who would be excluded — and why.

There are 1,200 graduate Ph.D. students at UR, and there’s an effort underway to unionize all of them.

“Many students were of underrepresented background, have to take more loans, have to take additional jobs and everything that they have to do to supplement their income — this is on top of having a workload, teaching assistance requirements, academic requirements they have to fulfill, and personally in my department they have people there that left because all these were very, very challenging and there’s a lack of support,” said Azmeer Sharipol, graduate student in biomedical engineering.

The university has been meeting with this group for about six months to determine whether a vote to unionize is what the majority of graduate students want.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for UR says, “The university remains committed to reaching an agreement on the private election process and creating an environment where the opinions, voices and ideas of all Ph.D. students are given consideration on this important matter.”

But the organizing committee said at a meeting this week that the school said it would exclude Ph.D. students who are studying for their doctoral of musical arts, those who are funded by external grants, and those funded by training grants.

“Some of the students who are in these situations, some of them would be in the same laboratory environment, so we’re a little bit confused, Sharipol said.

And vowing to stick together — saying it’s their teaching and research that helps to make the University of Rochester a prestigious institution.

The two sides are expected to be back at the table soon.