In his experience, he says, students are ambivalent about labor issues on campus, torn between general concern for workers and opposition to the PSLM living wage proposal.

"The reason I was elected was to have a more open-minded position, not a PSLM position," he says. "I've not been convinced $10.25 is the solution."

It's too early to know what the committee will decide, he says. But he says the final agreement will likely involve "a certain level of wages including benefits that the University sees as its minimum level." And he says he could support that kind of compromise.

Though his main supporters in SAC were conservatives, Milikowsky describes himself as a "staunch Democrat" and his ideology as a "free-market liberal"--both long-held convictions, he says.

That means he finds himself to the right of the Democratic Party on many issues, and generally trusts market economics, he says. But he adds that he favors interventions such as a national health care system and believes in the minimum wage.

Benjamin R. Sloop `01, one of his teammates on the heavyweight rowing team, is a conservative who says he often gets into lively political debates with Milikowsky.

Sloop says he opposes the living wage and was surprised that his teammate was also skeptical about the issue.

"I think he approaches the problem both from social justice and from economics," he says. "I think he believes both sides."