Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III has noted several reasons why Harvard has not been able to implement a living wage as quickly as students would like.

"The University does not keep information centrally about who is employed in what categories," Epps says. "Harvard also has 9,000 subcontractors on which we must collect information."

But after PSLM staged a rally on March 9 along with the Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) outside a meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 met with the group twice to discuss its demands.

Since then, Harvard has created a Faculty task force, chaired by Weather-head Professor of Business Administration D. Quinn Mills, to investigate the need for and cost of implementing a living wage at Harvard. A University of Wisconsin symposium on the issue may also help Harvard act.

Despite these advances, PSLM member Elizabeth C. Vladeck '99 says the University is simply dragging its feet on a move it should have made months ago.

"It was a huge symbolic move for them to create a committee...but negotiating in meetings is not our primary means for getting a living wage," Morgan adds. "We want to put enough public pressure on them so that they can no longer afford to maintain their position."

Morgan says he hopes that Harvard's desire to be a leader in the educational community will ultimately lead it to implement a living wage policy.

"Harvard would be the first private institution to implement a living wage; this will initiate a transformation of the private sphere," Morgan says. "Harvard wants to be viewed as a leader."

Keeping Up With the Competition

This would seem to be the case from Harvard's reaction to the Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) movement, a national initiative that PSLM signed on to early this year. The movement calls for the regulation of factories that manufacture Harvard apparel.

SAS leader Daniel M. Hennefeld '99 says Harvard's desire to be a leader has been one of the major causes of his movement's success this year.

By the time PSLM staged its March 9 rally, students at several other schools had already won concessions from their administrators through protests and sit-ins. Schools such as Georgetown, Wisconsin and Duke had said they would withdraw from the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) if it did not disclose factory locations by the end of the year.

"We emphasized that point; Harvard prides itself on being a leader," Hennefeld says. "Other schools were beating Harvard to the punch, so we expected movement pretty soon."

As PSLM and CASV members gathered around University Hall during the Faculty meeting, the University released a statement that it too would commit itself to "full disclosure" of factory locations.

Since then, SAS activists have been meeting regularly with University Attorney Allan A. Ryan and have scored several other victories, says Hennefeld--including a tentative commitment-in-principle to a living wage for sweatshop workers and a faculty and student advisorycommittee to be established this summer. However,in other areas of negotiation, SAS has beendisappointed by the University's response.

While Vladeck says she has been impressed bythe University's commitment to making changes insweatshop policy, she has been disappointed by thevalue it has placed on student input.