Wash U Students Sit In for Living Wage

As the weather turns warmer, most college students eagerly run outside to study on well-groomed lawns. But 14 students at Washington University in St. Louis have locked themselves indoors in the name of those who maintain their beautiful grounds.

Today marks the fifth day of a sit-in at Washington University held by Student Worker Alliance (SWA), a labor rights group, in protest of the low wages paid to the university’s workers. Student protestors have occupied Brookings Hall since Monday—the college admissions office—and they have pledged not to leave until the University creates a living wage program.

The SWA campaign for a living wage began in November 2003, when University Chancellor Mark Wrighton rejected the recommendations of a self-appointed task force to raise employees’ wages.

Protestors said they hope to attract attention from prospective students visiting Washington University this week.

According to senior Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, one of the protestors, SWA believes the University will succumb to the pressure of negative press and potentially deferred recruits, and that administrators will be forced to effect change.

Living wage, the premise that a full-time worker should be able to afford housing and basic needs, is defined for the city of St. Louis as $9.79 an hour with full benefits. According to the protestors, groundskeepers and maintenance workers are currently paid about $8 per hour.

The 14 students have been inside the admissions building since the beginning of the week. Huet-Vaughn, set to graduate this May, said he has sacrificed classes as he takes a stand for workers.

“People have due rights to have this minimum existence, and the University—with the financial strength that it

has, and considerable wealth of donors, with students from well-off families—has the means to do this,” Huet-Vaughn said.

Reprieve may not be given to the protestors and those supporting their cause for at least a few more days. Administrators will meet this coming Monday to review SWA’s proposal and make a formal statement.

According to Washington University’s official press release to the media, “a collegial, informative meeting” was held yesterday between members of SWA and the administrators to discuss their concerns. Delays in discussion had occurred this week, administrators said, because they had not yet thoroughly read the “Code of Conduct” delivered to them by SWA last Friday.

The students are fortified for a long stay, as supporters bring them “too much food,” said Huet-Vaughn.

Student-based living wage campaigns are by no means new to American higher education.

A living wage was set in place at Harvard in the spring of 2001, following a sit-in held by the Progressive Student Labor Movement that culminated in the storming of Mass. Hall.

More recently, the cause for a living wage was taken up at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where a nine-day long hunger strike succeeded last month in convincing the University to implement a living wage program for its workers.

—Staff writer Kristina M. Moore can be reached at moore2@fas.harvard.edu.