After an hour and a half of debate at its representative body meeting, Student Council yesterday evening withdrew proposed legislation which would have endorsed the Living Wage Campaign.
Third-year College Rep. Salma Nabi advocated tabling the legislation because she said Council should present the general consensus of the student body to University administrators, but the student body is divided about the merits of the campaign, she said.
"There's no middle ground," Nabi said. "Even if we were to pass [the legislation] or if we weren't to pass it, what we present to the Board of Visitors is supposed to be a united front."
Second-year Darden student Zubin Mehta supported the creation of an ad hoc committee comprised of living wage supporters, opponents and neutral parties to study the issue and offer impartial recommendations.
He said, however, the committee's success would require a complete knowledge of the situation, particularly of the University's relations with its contracted employees, which the president's office has not disclosed.
"With Teresa Sullivan being the manager of a large institution, we can understand why she is not willing to disclose all this information [about contracted workers]," Mehta said. "If they don't share the information then a committee is not going to go anywhere."
Council President Dan Morrison said releasing contract data "would put any firm subcontracted by the University at a competitive disadvantage."
The debate included appeals from both proponents and opponents of the campaign.
Second-year College student Alex Wallace said the University cannot raise wages without removing funding from other areas, which could potentially hurt its retention of top faculty members.
"What [the Living Wage campaign has] been proposing is that we raid the endowment or stop paying our high-level faculty [and] drive them away to other universities," Wallace said. "A better way to help the working poor is through volunteering your money and time."
Fourth-year College student Molly Tansey said the campaign does not advocate withdrawing money from the endowment, but instead said the campaign referred to the endowment to show the University's financial stability. Tansey also said the University could meet the campaign's demands by reprioritizing certain funds.
"If you look around at this institution, we're immensely wealthy," Tansey said.
Council will continue discussing the possible creation of an ad hoc committee at its March 13 representative body meeting.
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