In a response to the report, PSLM members urged Summers to implement and to go beyond the recommendations.

They plan to schedule a public forum to answer questions about the report and explain the continuing need for a living wage.

“The recommendations are a breakthrough for the University and

should be immediately implemented. But they are only a short term fix

and not enough,” said PSLM member Roona Ray ’02. “Based on the damning data, a thoughtful, long term solution would be an annually adjusted living

wage.”

Making History

The committee, whose broad representation includes faculty, union members and students, was formed as a compromise to end PSLM’s Mass. Hall sit-in last spring.

The committee was charged by former University President Neil L. Rudenstine to research labor issues—including a living wage, worker benefits and outsourcing—and advise Summers on a set of recommendations by Dec. 19.

With 19 members including 10 faculty members, three unionized employees, two administrators and four students, the breadth of the committee’s membership alone makes it unique.

The committee chaired by Katz is not the first University committee to examine wages in response to PSLM’s activism. After 13 months of research, the Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies released a report in May 2000.

Led by Weatherhead Professor of Business Administration D. Quinn Mills and made up of faculty and administrators, the committee refused to address the question of pay hikes, instead suggesting increased health benefits and worker training in place of a wage floor such as the one proposed by PSLM.

PSLM repeatedly termed the Mills report inadequate for workers’ needs, and accused the Harvard administration of dragging its feet in making benefits accessible to workers.

Last spring’s sit-in came in response to what PSLM called the unresponsiveness of the Harvard administration. After the three-week-long occupation ended, PSLM members said they had high hopes for the new committee structure put in place and claimed victory for the issue.