Students engage with Associate Dean of Students
It seems like our study-in is already making administrators nervous, and only after two hours! The Vice-President for Campus Life, Kim Goff-Crews and the Chief Financial Officer of the University, Nim Chinniah, have requested a meeting to address our concerns. In fact, about half an hour ago, Kim Goff-Crews took the time out of her busy schedule to personally extend this invitation.
Frankly, we’re tired of endless meetings that never go anywhere. So we’ve decided to reject their proposition, and here is our official response:
Dear Kim Goff-Crews and Nim Chinniah:
We wish to inform you of our reasoning behind rejecting the proposed meeting with Kim Goff-Crews and Nim Chinniah:
Throughout this quarter we have voiced our concerns through rallying, handing–in of petitions, call–ins and letter delivery. Through these actions, we have demonstrated that we have an explicit mandate from the University community to guarantee that the wages, benefits, and collective bargaining rights of Residence Hall housekeepers be maintained throughout any outsourcing process. We have gained the professed support of more than 600 students, 90 faculty members, ten student organizations, and 23 members of Student Government.
Representatives from the Worker-Student Coalition and SOUL have met repeatedly with administrators, and our demands have consistently been rejected, in spite of this mandate.
We have articulated our position and you have articulated yours. We are no longer interested in hearing the justification for denying basic protections to university employees.
Therefore, let it be clear that further meetings would not be conducive to any progressive understanding and reconciliation. We refuse to let our voices be muffled by bureaucracy, empty words, and distressing circuitous logic.
We now wait for the public release of a written statement committing to fulfilling our demands, listed here once again, for good measure:
Contractually require that the subcontractor chosen for housekeeping services:
- retain current employees
- maintain current wages and benefits, and
- continue to recognize the collective bargaining agreement that these employees have with Teamsters Local 743.
The group of students currently sitting in President Zimmer’s office will not be leaving until we receive this written statement.
On behalf of the Worker-Student Coalition,
Ksenia Konkina
Lexie Grove
Larissa Pittenger
Vitas Zukowski
Pat Donnelly
Lynda Lopez
Tecla Walter
Peter Berkowitz
Jonathan Rodrigues
Lizbeth Cordova
Brita Hofwolt
Yadav Gowda
Paul Kim
Olivia Woollam
Kelvin Ho
Andrew Burchill
Peter Fugiel
Alba Tomasula y Garcia
