ASC Living Wage Campaign Strategic Plan

The below document was submitted to the Strategic Planning Committee back in November by the Living Wage Campaign.

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Agnes Scott College asks of its students "a commitment to an appreciation of diverse cultures" and to "a community that values justice, courage, and integrity" (website statement of Values). It asks its students to become responsible citizens who appreciate the local as well as the global implications of community membership. A healthy community is necessary for committed and engaged individuals to flourish.
The foundation for these values, and the laboratory for their development, is the college's campus in Decatur, Georgia. This community belongs to, and exists for the benefit of, all its members: students, faculty, officers, salaried and hourly staff. The custodian who cleans the dormitory or the office building is as valuable a member of the college community as the student and the professor who live and work there. The values of the college can be realized only if we understand this principle and are willing to confront its implications, “to engage the intellectual and social issues of our times.”

The most basic issue is economic. In recent years (2003) the college has made an effort to improve the financial condition of its hourly staff by raising the base pay, first to $10 per hour and now to $10.50 per hour. This rate is still below the mayor's living wage figure for the city of Atlanta and below the national target figure for Atlanta. There are full-time employees of the college who cannot make ends meet without taking second jobs. There are full-time employees with thirty years or more of experience at the college who make only $3.00 per hour above the minimum.

This economic issue is also an issue of social justice and human respect. The people who clean the buildings and serve the food too easily become invisible or indistinguishable to the more privileged members of the community. They are identifiably working class in an environment that pictures itself as middle class; they tend to be Black, along with Latino/a and a diversity of international staff in the midst of an enterprise that still largely sees itself as white. As long as they do their jobs as workers, they can be ignored as human beings. This attitude has consequences for the human treatment of hourly staff by others; it also has consequences for the overall health of a community that values diversity and that has made remarkable strides in recent years to increase the diversity of its student population. A community that values racial, ethnic, cultural, and national diversity cannot succeed if it only selectively values these things. We must think more deeply to form a comprehensive community.

The times are changing again. Part of the national sustainable campus agenda includes social and economic justice components. Within the next ten years, a liberal arts college somewhere in this country will distinguish itself nationally and internationally by committing itself to the creation of a just community. This effort will include curricular programs in social justice and human rights, an emphasis on experiential and service learning, and an interest in the relationship of the academy to the world around it; but at its core will be the effort to realize such a community on its own campus. Agnes Scott is in an excellent position to seize this initiative; we already have the right values. We seek to live honorably. It will take "justice, courage, and integrity" to put into practice our values and beliefs.

Living Wage Goals for the Strategic Plan:

o A just wage of $13.92 plus health insurance for all ASC employees, including hourly and salaried staff, and contracted employees.

o Respect at the institutional and interpersonal levels; includes the valuing of institutional knowledge; adequate staff numbers and appropriate workloads; greater opportunity for upward mobility.

o The creation of a democratic workplace through:
• Advisory committees in every department
• Staff senate governed by staff

The College’s Commitment to Community statement calls on us “to commit to cultivating and enhancing a positive campus climate through respectful engagement with the diverse cultures, ideas, and perspectives embodied by all members of the Agnes Scott College community.” Real respect requires a just, inclusive, democratic society.

Respectfully submitted,
The Living Wage Campaign at Agnes Scott College