THE LIVING WAGE Campaign has commenced direct action. The 17 sit-in participants in Madison Hall cannot receive food from the outside. Finally, University students are taking action to correct social wrongs rather than obsessing over the latest brand of skinny jeans.
Before underscoring the only worthy argument -- the moral argument -- for the living wage, it is important to debunk the rhetoric of Econ 201 scholars. Adding a few dollars to the current poverty-level wage will not cause the University to fall into an economic collapse as the administration would have us believe. In fact, workers earning a living wage would probably no longer need to work a second or even third job, thus freeing up the job market for others who are unemployed.
Many students are swayed by financial fear tactics, worrying that they might have to dig into their own pockets to enact a living wage whether in the form of higher tuition rates or even more expensive housing. Abby Bellows, a leading organizer for the Living Wage Campaign, calls this argument "short-sighted at best and manipulative at worst." Of course donations to the non-academic budget for important projects like big-screen televisions in the John Paul Jones Arena cannot be reallocated to the operating budget that supports University staff. But just as the administration solicits donations from alumni for athletic projects, they can surely negotiate and encourage more donations for the living wage.
If the administration really believed in the moral obligation to provide a living wage to its employees, they would find a way to finance it. According to the Living Wage Campaign, full-time University workers earning a living wage would only amount to 0.2 percent of yearly expenditures. President John T. Casteen, III and the Board of Visitors willfully tie their own hands. It is indeed absurd to see an academic leader of our prestigious University smothering a campaign whose sole purpose is to uphold human rights.
But money is secondary to principle. In a perfect America, two parents with full-time jobs should be able to provide the basic necessities such as food, shelter and healthcare. If the administration refuses to work towards a living wage, they forfeit moral leadership.
The current Capital Campaign calls for raising $3 billion. This sounds like a worthy goal but one unlikely to be achieved. Apparently, President has no worries about financing this ambitious goal; this figure is in fact, according to him, "conservative." Thus, a living wage should not be outside the realm of possibility.
The Living Wage Campaign must succeed. University students and professors should refuse to walk down the extended South Lawn until they know the workers who build it are not underpaid. Students should not patronize the food stands at the John Paul Jones arena until they know the employees who prepare their food can also afford to feed their own children without sacrificing health care.
According to campaign members, administrators have stated that social justice is not one of the missions of the University. This callous remark should never come from the mouth of the leader of an academic institution. If the University allows classes to be taught about civil rights, he should applaud his students wanting to put their education into action.
Regardless of one's opinion about economic issues, we should all strive to help foster more social justice simply because human rights should never be pushed to the side, forgotten or relegated to a second class status.
The market wage as an economic philosophy works better than any other system in history, but it is not sacrosanct. It is not a ludicrous idea to think that anyone who works a full-time job should be able to support himself and his family. The Living Wage Campaign has formulated a way to strengthen the local economy by encouraging people to work hard with the "bonus" of being able to live a dignified life. Surely the "Market Wage Campaign" would agree with the living wage advocates that a comfortable wage is better than a government handout.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right." Regardless of potential economic struggles, which are in fact negligible, University students should fight for the living wage because moral responsibility demands it.
Marta Cook's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at mcook@cavalierdaily.com.
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