Getting our priorities straight
If I have one regret that pains me in regards to my time at JCU, it’s that I could never achieve justice for the folks I cared deeply about.
Although I want to write about American politics for the rest of my life, I thought I would take one of my final official opportunities as your Editor-in-Chief to talk about the underlying politics that exist at our University. In this instance, the politics of who gets access to resources and who doesn’t.
Seeing as my days on this campus are dwindling, I have been looking back upon my four years of involvement at John Carroll University.
During my freshman and sophomore year, I was part of the JCU Workers’ Rights Committee, which advocated for our University to pay our full-time cleaning staff a living wage.
Our decision to create this organization didn’t arise overnight. We were lucky enough to work with some of the labor unions associated with GSA, the contractor that our University uses for the cleaning staff, and found that many of folks working for our university had a difficult time making ends meet with what they were paid. As students, this seemed contrary to what the Jesuit mission teaches us, so we started organizing. We even went so far as to fly to Georgetown University to meet with law professors in order to learn how to best advocate for our cause, and presented at a the Ignatian Family Teach-in, a Jesuit social justice conference in D.C., about our goals.
It would have cost the University approximately $5,000 more per year to pay full-time cleaning staff a living wage, an amount, which is in the scheme of collegiate spending, is very small. After each meeting with JCU financial representatives, we were told time and time again that there was too many grey areas in the budget to make a decision. This was a line that I believed at the time.
But as I get older, and wiser, I can see quite a few areas that can be improved to do the right and frankly, “Jesuit” thing. Because of the lack of enthusiasm and support on the part of the University, the Workers’ Rights Committee disintegrated, and a movement that I cared passionately about seemed to die as well. If I have one regret that pains me in regards to my time at JCU, it’s that I could never achieve justice for the folks I cared deeply about.
This regret stung even more when on Tuesday afternoon, a member of Student Union slipped their “Proposed Operating Budget,” into the slot of our door, which covers the expenses of the JCU Student Union for the spring semester of 2017.
Yearly, Student Union gets roughly $48,000 allocated to their funding. For this semester, the Student Union has a budget of $34,663.36. The first age old concern that I have, and may have had, is the executive payroll of the senators, a debate that can potentially be had a latter date. Each semester, the executive board members are paid $500 and the President $1,000.
It doesn’t end there. This semester, $2,600 will be spent on “membership compensation,” which includes paying for name badges, business cards, composite head shots for senators, and subsidizing apparel for the senate and executive board. Additionally, $3,100 was spent of the Student Union inauguration, $2,500 will be used on giveaways and promotions, $2,300 on office renovations and $2,038 on “discretionary funds.”
I have to wonder why we choose to fund some things in such enormity and stall efforts that would help out the folks who keep our buildings clean and professors who strengthen our minds. It hurts me to know that doing the right thing could have been accomplished by cutting a dessert reception or two.
I hope that someday, I can look back at my alma mater with pride and know that they decided to fight alongside our efforts to uphold the Jesuit mission, not against it. When, exactly, are we going to decide to stand with what is just? I’ll be patiently waiting.
