Report Back: Alum Speaks at ASC Faculty Meeting March 27, 2008

Hey everyone! I went to the faculty meeting and after Dr. Guthrie gave his presentation I spoke for a few minutes and this is what I had written (I think I may have added a few things here and there):

I have been asked to speak about why as alumnae we have been involved in the Living Wage Campaign at Agnes Scott and frankly I have a hard time understanding why we would not. Really I have difficulty understanding how ANY member of the Agnes Scott Community can remain uninvolved. We alums are all busy with work and some with law school, med school, other graduate studies—-some have started families and have babies. Alums living all around the world are involved in this campaign.

I believe that it is the strong sense of HONOR and virtue instilled upon us as students that drives us in many things we do and caring about the community that helped support us during our time here remains part of that. We find it deplorable that your co-workers —-that is what they are, your co-workers—- must struggle to put food on their tables in spite of having worked and worked hard here at Agnes Scott for 10, 20 and even 40 years.

The school is growing—- with more students and buildings—- we find it unacceptable to know for example that one woman cleans the library, the first floors of Main and Rebekah as well as the Public Safety building, on days when her work buddy is out her work increases. Additionally the work she as a custodian does is classified as unskilled labor; while SHE strips the floors and maintains them MEN who do the walls are classified as skilled workers.

You can read more about this and other concerns of the SEXISM/ RACISM and severe CLASSISM experienced by your co-workers on our blog. Taking second and sometimes third jobs, relying on government programs is not what your co-workers should be forced to do to feed and house themselves and their families. To know that one woman has to rely on her lunch in Evans or at Mollies as her main meal so that she can feed her children a healthy dinner at night while she makes do by heating up pork rinds with ketchup or hot sauce for her dinner—- that’s not right and it violates the honor code to say the least.

In this political season we hear candidates talking about what they will do to help fight poverty in America. Well this is poverty here—- not just in GA and not just in Atlanta or Decatur but poverty at Agnes Scott—- poverty as the RESULT of low wages paid to those responsible for the beauty which makes this campus known. We as alums can no longer contribute to our alma mater in good faith knowing that our college—- a not for profit institution is in some ways no better than corporate monsters like Wal-Mart.

I asked for questions after speaking and informed everyone that the contact emails and blog site were on poster at a back table. I was asked no questions and Helen Cox who is a student offered some information and invited participation. President Kiss then came to the podium and said that Agnes Scott paid higher wages than most of the colleges in the area except Columbia Sem. and that ASC is on about the same level as they are and that ASC was not such a monster as Wal-Mart. She stated that the college had figures that vary slightly from what we have and that this will be a discussion we must continue.

So one thing I think might be interesting is figuring out how much employees of Wal-Mart make.

Also, this evening I got a call from a student asking for a donation to the school. She said that she had heard of the LWC and had friends involved so I encouraged her to get involved as well. I informed her that I could not give to ASC so long as the goals of the LWC continued to go unmet and that I planned to encourage all alumnae to abstain from giving. She said that she could understand but that the students were most important and could make benefit from the money. I asked her to please make a note of my concerns and of our Alumnae group working with students, faculty and staff.

I was polite mind you—- I know this girl is trying to make a little extra cash but I made my point, encouraged her to get involved and also asked about her classes etc. so maybe she’d be a little inclined to pass on the message and all. She said she would still go ahead and send me a package so that in case things changed I could give. Another prepaid envelope!

Leigh

Letter of Support (also attached for printing–click below) December 13, 2007

LWC Letter of Support

Letter of Support InformationASC

December 8, 2007

Dear President Kiss and Agnes Scott College Board of Trustees,

I am writing to let you know that I support a living wage at Agnes Scott College. I support and commend the Agnes Scott College Living Wage Campaign’s efforts to change economic insufficiencies and institutional injustice at Agnes Scott College.

Since 1994, the Agnes Scott College (ASC) Living Wage Campaign (LWC) has been pushing for just wages, a democratized workplace, and institutionalized respect. ASC has the financial ability to become a collegiate leader in economic justice, through fairly and justly compensating its staff; to truly live honorably as an institution, it must be willing to do so. The staff, students, faculty and alumnae involved in the LWC propose concrete solutions to eradicate current economic exploitation and injustice at ASC.

I stand in solidarity with the ASC LWC and support their complete list of requests made in a letter to the Board of Trustees (10/26/07). In particular, I support:

1. A just starting/base wage of $14.40, the current living wage for Decatur, GA as of fall 2007 (according to research done by the ASC LWC–this figure should be adjusted for cost of living every few years according to the economy), plus paid healthcare for all ASC staff and all contracted staff. This includes, but is not limited to, custodial, food services, clerical/faculty services, public safety, and the contracted ValleyCrest landscaping employees.
2. That ASC ensures that Aramark staff has the same pay and benefits as ASC staff.
3. Inclusion of all Staff in all historically student and faculty-centered traditions and events that are integral to ASC’s fundamental purpose and overall history, creating a democratic structure that honors the wisdom and experience of all its members.
   1. End the blatantly crude isolation and “invisibility” of the Staff: for example, not seating uniformed Staff in “designated areas” which creates a culture in which certain members of the community are treated as second class citizens.
   2. Encourage and create spaces for Staff involvement in family and student on-campus events, such as Orientation and Alumnae Weekend.
   3. Begin new traditions of a combined holiday party, where all employees of all pay-grades and rankings celebrate together with faculty and administrators.
4. The provision for all members of the ASC community to have opportunities for personal enrichment. (i.e. Opening up eligibility to take part in degree courses to all interested part-time and full-time employees; ensuring Staff members full notification of all campus events and educational/employment relevant concerns.)

The current “Resolution on Living Wage Policy” put forth by the Board of Trustees (10/26/07) is inadequate, insulting and NOT a living wage. The LWC demands respect for all people in the ASC community, the necessary redistribution of wealth and new priorities for the campus.

I ask you to join the LWC and support economic justice and equal rights for all members of the ASC community. Please institute a true living wage at ASC today!

Sincerely,

Letter of Support Information December 13, 2007

ASC LWC Letter of Support

*Agnes Scott College Living Wage Campaign*
 
Thank you for supporting the Agnes Scott College Living Wage Campaign!   We have the opportunity to make history at ASC–together we can secure a living wage on our campus.   We hope ASC will receive letters/emails from around the country, so tell your neighbors, family, and friends! Thank you in advance for your time. Please pass this letter on to anyone who supports a living wage!  
 
Please sign the attached Letter of Support and include your title, graduation year (for students and alumnae) and current geographical location underneath your name.  
 
You may send the letter directly to any/all of the included contacts via snail mail or email (or both!).  
Elizabeth Kiss, Office of the President, Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, GA  30030 -  president@agnesscott.edu
Harriet M King, Board of Trustees Chair, Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, GA  30030 - provhmk@emory.edu, Class of 1964
J. William Goodhew III, Board of Trustees Vice Chair, Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, GA  30030 
Lee Ann Grimes Hudson, Board of Trustees Secretary, Agnes Scott College, 141 E. College Ave., Decatur, GA   30030 - Class of 1976
 
 For Alumnae:   
 
Optional:  write at the top of letters:
“I will not give donations until the college institutes a living wage.
I support the Living Wage Campaign at Agnes Scott!”
 
*You may also put a copy of the Letter of Support in ASC donation request envelopes and mail it back to ASC free of charge!   The Living Wage Campaign will let us know when we can donate again.  Organize your class or contact us to help organize other alum.   Let’s use our power as alums to make a difference at our alma mater!   
 
 

For more information about the ASC Living Wage Campaign, please contact:
Helen Cox: hcox@agnesscott.edu,
Jillian Wells: jawells@agnesscott.edu,
ASC Alums: ascalumsforalivingwage@gmail.com .
 
The ASC LWC video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pctMvVHTNAo
Our MySpace page (be our friend!): http://www.myspace.com/ascalumsforalivingwage  
Join our general listserv for updates: ASCLivingWage-Announce@googlegroups.com

Blog About the ASC Living Wage Campaign! December 13, 2007

 Do you blog?  Consider blogging about the ASC living wage campain! 

If you do, send us your link and we will post it! 

thanks!

ascalumsforalivingwage@gmail.com

Why Do You Support a Living Wage at ASC? December 13, 2007

Send us why you support a living wage at ASC (as short or as long as you would like it to be) and we will post it on our blog and use it to recruit more folks to join the campaign.  We need people to understand why this issue is important, who’s supporting it, and why you feel passionate about it!  

Anyone can show their support for the LWC!

This will help us as we organize.  We can share these testimonials not only to help sway decision makers at ASC, but also to gain more community support for the campaign and help put more pressure on our alma mater to do the right thing.  It will also help to educate folks on the issue of economic justice and how it connects to other issues such as racial justice, women’s rights, etc… 

We will also post these testimonials, so check our blog!  Please add your name, location, ASC class year, and any other pertinent information you would like.  If you would like to remain annonymous, then please let us know.

Please send your “Why I Support a Living Wage at ASC” to ascalumsforalivingwage@gmail.com . 

PS:  help us get the word out by passing our blog along.

Agnes Scott College Workers Protest for Living Wages December 13, 2007

(APN) Agnes Scott College Workers Protest for Living Wages: http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0246.html

Agnes Scott College Workers Protest for Living Wages
By Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer, The Atlanta Progressive News (October 28, 2007)

(APN) DECATUR – About 50 students, faculty members, staff members of Agnes Scott College, and other concerned community activists gathered on campus Friday, October 26, 2007, to ask the Agnes Scott College Board of Trustees to institute living wages for all staff members.

The Agnes Scott Living Wage Campaign has been urging trustees for some time to provide a living wage of $14.40 per hour plus healthcare for all Agnes Scott staff and all contracted staff. Agnes Scott is private liberal arts college for women.

“We hope the Board of Trustees will hear us today and will understand that we are human beings like everybody else and we’re just asking for what we think is a decent living,” Della Spurley, an Agnes Scott staff member for 42 years, said. Spurley, one leading organizer of the campaign, has only recently started making $14.40 per hour but still has no healthcare. Spurley and other staffers, who have won incremental improvements, are still overworked and underpaid, she said.

Most Agnes Scott staff members are making a base pay of $11.44 per hour for 2007-2008, up from what they made in 2006-2007 but still well short of what the campaign considers a living wage.

The campaign met with trustees earlier this year and engaged in a role-playing game where trustees learned how a single staff member with two children had to get by on a monthly budget that exceeded monthly pay.

Helen Cox, a student organizer with the campaign, told Atlanta Progressive News some of the trustees were brought to tears at the reality many staffers face each month, such as what bills to pay that month and which to let go. The custodial staff is currently six members short and there is only one person to clean two entire buildings and one floor of another, activists said. One of the campaign demands calls for an appropriate workload for staff members.

“We are so understaffed here,” Jillian Wells, co-president of Witkaze, Agnes Scott’s black student alliance said. “[The staff] are basically doing the work of two people right now and are only getting the wages of one person.”
Then there is a group of staff members who receive even less than their coworkers.

Some staff members are contracted through a private company called Aramark–which provides cafeteria and other services on campuses across the country–to do work at Agnes Scott. But these staff members are not entitled to the same pay or benefits of staff employed directly by Agnes Scott.

The campaign seeks to remedy this situation by either offering the same pay and benefits to Aramark staff or have the Aramark staff become Agnes Scott staff members.

Kelly Grant, an Aramark contract staff member and a leading campaign organizer, said she would like to take some courses at the college and that her daughter is also having trouble getting into Agnes Scott. Grant said she does not understand why she and her daughter cannot receive the same benefits as her fellow Agnes Scott staff members.
The campaign is urging trustees to allow all staff members the chance to take degree courses as well as classes in English as a second language and computer literacy.

Members of the campaign also want children of Aramark staff to be eligible for Agnes Scott tuition and for it to be paid by the college. Children of Agnes Scott staff members currently enjoy this benefit.  Receiving eligibility to take courses at Agnes Scott is just one way staff members are seeking to be more included in everyday campus life.

The campaign would like to see the inclusion of members of all facilities, clerical, security, and food services staff into the Executive Board and the Board of Trustees, as well as the creation of a permanent, democratic, and empowered Staff Senate so that staff members have a say in their own lives.

The campaign feels staff members should also be included in traditional Agnes Scott events like orientation and alumnae weekend and have representation on planning committees.
“There’s a lot of division here on this campus that should not exist,” Wells said. “It’s really important that we the students and the staff take the initiative to break down these barriers that exist between us.”
While trustees have made promises this year to provide living wages and decision- making power for Agnes Scott workers, they have so far not delivered.

Activists decided to march across campus Friday and deliver the list of demands to the trustees while their meeting was in progress. While the trustees surprisingly allowed the crowd to enter the meeting room and even applauded after a few remarks, it is unclear if the trustees will act and how soon.
About the author:

Jonathan Springston is a Senior Staff Writer for The Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com