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BY REUBEN HEYMAN-KANTOR

In print | Published December 2, 2004

After years of planning, research and debate, the Board of Managers will vote on President Al Bloom’s proposal on the implementation of a living wage this weekend. The discussion and vote will take place as part of the board’s quarterly meeting this Friday and Saturday. Athletics, Career Services and the Capital Campaign will also be discussed at the meeting.

If adopted, the proposal would create a minimum wage of $10.38 an hour and increase healthcare benefits to the spouse or partner of Swarthmore employees, essentially bringing minimum hourly wages up to $11.26, Vice President Maurice Eldridge ‘61 said. The new package would also cover health insurance for the children of employees who make less than $14 per hour under the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a program designed to cover the children of low-income earners who do not qualify for Medicaid.

“I think because the process has been so extended and thorough and there has been such an attempt to sample opinions and get some sense of a consensus on campus, I think the board will respect that,” Eldridge said. “I don’t want to make any predictions, but I think the president would not take something forward that he didn’t think could pass, so I hope this is what the outcome will be.”

Students and faculty have campaigned on campus for the wage increase since 2000. In May of 2002, Bloom created the Ad Hoc Committee on the Living Wage to determine what a living wage would include. The committee also worked with the administration to determine what would be financially feasible for the college. The current proposal is the result of the committee’s work.

“I think that clearly this has been an issue pushed by students and faculty primarily, and in bringing us to this point their role has been critical,” Dean Bob Gross ‘62 said. "The answers aren’t as obvious as some people would make it out to be. I think Al [Bloom] has done a terrific job in negotiating us to a solution that seems to be acceptable to most of the constituents," Gross said.

“The financial officers of the college have put enormous energy into running different economic models, trying to find the approach that best meets the needs of the affected staff members, while still preserving the financial integrity of the college and taking into account its many — often conflicting — financial needs and obligations,” Chair of the Board’s Working Group on the Living Wage Elizabeth Scheuer ’75 said in an e-mail. “Decent, smart, caring people can disagree on this, for reasons based on either philosophy or fiscal conservatism; but everyone who has been involved in this issue has the best interests of the entire college community at heart.”

While the Swarthmore Living Wage and Democracy Campaign is supporting Bloom’s proposal, the organization does not believe that the current proposal will fully meet the needs of the college’s lowest paid workers.

“I think it’s a really important step towards something that is in a meaningful sense a living wage. I think it’s a victory for the whole college, but it’s certainly less than what the ad hoc committee came up with when they were determining what a living wage would be,” campaign member Julia Smith ’06 said. “I think the most glaring shortcoming of the proposal is the wage. We would have really liked to see $11.26, instead of $10.38. I think that would have brought more people closer to meeting their basic needs.”

While the current proposal would effectively bring the wages of full time staff up to $11.26, part-time workers do not receive these benefits, Smith said.

The campaign is planning a rally in Kohlberg courtyard Saturday afternoon to “celebrate this victory without losing sight of the work left to be done,” according to the group’s Web site.

Scheuer commended the group for their hard work. “I think the students should be extremely proud of their role in this: raising the issue, doing lots of legwork to provide extensive, useful information, and mobilizing people to really examine the ramifications involved. Without student activism and leadership, the college might have been slower to move forward on this,” she said.

On Saturday the board will also vote on managers for the new year. The board will select at least four new members, and perhaps as many as eight or nine, Eldridge said. “The nominating committee has not finished its consideration of the candidate, so it would be premature to disclose names,” Chair of the Board of Managers Barbara Mather ’65 said in an e-mail. “[The nominating committee] will have until Friday to finish its work, and then the names will go the board on Saturday. The list contains some excellent candidates,” she said.

On Friday, the Student Affairs Committee and Academic Affairs Committee will meet jointly to hear a report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Athletics. “[The report is] an update of where we are in the [efforts] of strengthening the intercollegiate athletic program, post- decisions made about athletics in 2000,” Eldridge said.

“We plan to introduce our new assistant athletic director, Chrystin Chambers,” Athletic Director Adam Hertz said. “We’ve invited a couple of our newer coaches to introduce them to the board and point them out as where we consider the future of the athletic program at Swarthmore to be.”

“We will also summarize the fall season and go over the annual assessment that the physical education committee is charged with writing each year,” he added.

The open discussion section of Friday’s meeting will revolve around a report on the Career Services department. “Our presentation will review the mission of Career Services as well as current initiatives and directions for the future,” Director of Career Services Nancy Burkett said in an e-mail.

The Board will also discuss the Capital Campaign, a fundraising drive begun in 1999 to raise $230 million by Dec. 2006. Since September, the college has received two $2 million pledges, bringing the fund to just under $169 million. “There is progress, but there remains the unrelenting, how shall I put it, expenditure of energy to keep pushing ahead,” Eldridge said. The campaign is making good progress, according to Mather.

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