For 13 months, the University did nothing--or at least it appeared that way.

Members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) held a series of public rallies to agitate for a living wage, with speeches by Cambridge mayors Francis H. Duehay '55 and Anthony D. Galluccio, Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West '74, actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Class of 1992, and a host of other city, campus and labor leaders.

Students camped out in front of the Science Center, evaded police to stage teach-ins in Mass. Hall and Holyoke Center and occupied the admissions office at Byerly Hall at the height of pre-frosh weekend.

The University's only response was to point to an Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies, convened in April 1999, and refuse to comment further.

To members of PSLM, who launched a campaign almost 18 months ago to agitate for a living wage of at least $10.25 per hour--originally $10-- for all Harvard employees, the University's failure to act or even negotiate came as a slap in the face.

"It was frustrating that the administration could respond to anything by saying, 'We have a committee, we're looking into it, you have to wait,'" says Amy C. Offner '01, a member of PSLM. "They were just using this procedural device to stall and avoid the question. That was the purpose of the committee."

But last month, the ad hoc committee finally released its report--a 100-page document with 16 appendices--the culmination of 13 months devoted to data gathering, statistical analysis, policy debates and lengthy meetings.

"The feeling was that students didn't realize how much we had to learn," says committee member Sally H. Zeckhauser, vice president for administration. "It seemed like we weren't doing anything but in reality we were gathering and collecting data. It took a long time."