Gusmorino’s tone is one of productivity, efficiency, and consideration. That’s the nice-guy approach to getting things done.

“You might have to be careful and thoughtful , but there is a way to make everyone happy.”

Ben McKean `02

When Benjamin L. McKean left Mass Hall after the 21-day PSLM Living Wage Sit In, he didn’t even have time to shower--he went straight to the induction dinner for Phi Beta Kappa, wearing the “ratty-ass t-shirt [he] had been wearing for three weeks.”

Despite the honor of being named to Phi Beta Kappa, McKean had a more important victory on his mind this May. After two and a half years of vigorous protests, McKean and his fellow PSLMers attempted a form of protest unseen at Harvard since the ‘60s--they overtook Mass Hall and refused to leave until the administration granted them the concessions they felt essential, a minimum wage of $10.25 for all Harvard workers.

“The conditions for Harvard’s lowest-paid workers are completely unfair,” McKean says. “I saw this as a way I could make a difference where the difference really needed to be made.”

McKean says it is odd to single out any particular person for accomplishments with the PSLM--it was a team effort, he says.

But McKean has consistently been only of the most outspoken and influential members of the PSLM.

He was recently chosen by the Undergraduate Council to serve on the Katz Committee, the group set up by Harvard administration to look into the conditions of low-paid workers at Harvard.

McKean says it was his knowledge on the issue and his experience with the workers that won him the vote of the Undergraduate Council, and enabled him to maintain his involvement with Harvard’s progression toward the living wage.

“The true victory will be won if a living wage is part of the recommendation of the committee,” says McKean.

Nevertheless, McKean says he was thrilled that Harvard is releasing new information.

As he repeats this, McKean mutters to himself, “Man, I can’t believe this was all this year.”