After two years of demonstrations targeting the deans and vice presidents of Mass. Hall and University Hall, students campaigning for a living wage have moved their protests to the stately and well-guarded Loeb House, home of the Harvard Corporation, the University's top governing body.
Over the past eight weeks, students have held two rallies on the manicured lawn of Loeb House and have even driven to New York to target Corporation members in their homes and offices.
Members of the Progressive Student Movement Labor Movement (PSLM) say they hope that focusing on the Corporation will force the administration to implement a living wage of at least $10.25 per hour for all Harvard employees. And by loudly calling attention to the existence of the Corporation, they say they hope to galvanize students to change the inner workings of the University.
This is a move that hasn't been seen on campus for at least a decade, says former Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III. Students targeted the University's highest decision-making body in the anti-Vietnam campaign of 1969, and again in an extended campaign against investment in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.
But it's not clear that PSLM's current strategy will have any real effect on winning a living wage.
In response to students' agitation, a high-ranking committee of faculty members and administrators released a 100-page report last spring-after 13 months of research-recommending that the University enlarge the scope of worker benefits, including health insurance, education and access to campus facilities. University President Neil L. Rudenstine approved the recommendations, many of which have already taken effect.
Fulfilling these recommendations will most likely be the extent of the University's response, says Harvard's Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Paul S. Grogan, regardless of the number of student actions aimed at Corporation members.
"This simply won't be an effective tactic in causing the University to reopen a question it has already engaged in very comprehensively and very seriously," Grogan says.
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