A relatively ugly, pale-green placard lies amid newspapers, bumper stickers and documents in the offices of Harvard's largest union, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW).

"One community of Harvard workers," the placard reads. But the rallying cry born from this year's campaign to make Harvard change its definition of "casual workers" is more than just a slogan.

For HUCTW officials and even members of Harvard's administration, it's a reminder of the unanswered question--does Harvard, being Harvard, have an extra responsibility to the "community" of workers it employs?

If one listens to the mantra of the student-driven Living Wage Campaign, Harvard is sitting on a piggy bank of wealth that its administrators don't want to share with its lowly paid workers.

For union officials, Harvard to them is not only professors and students, but secretaries and janitors and book-checkers. And they feel that the administration, in its attempt to weigh dollars and cents, misses the bigger moral picture.

But while Harvard's endowment is currently ballooning past $14 billion, University officials say their money is not some sort of catch-all slush fund. And, Harvard, quite apart from its educational mission, is a big business: It is the largest employer in Cambridge and the wealthiest university in the world.

Harvard, at least from Harvard's angle, should not be held to a higher standard for wages and employee treatment.

Who Belongs?