[519] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: Protesting Fun?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ezra Rosen)
Thu May 3 18:38:47 2001
Message-Id: <200105032236.SAA04154@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 18:36:35 -0400
To: Andrew M Starr <drew@MIT.EDU>
From: Ezra Rosen <erosen@MIT.EDU>
Cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200105032138.RAA11991@all-night-tool.mit.edu>
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In response to Andrew Starr:
The members of PSLM currently involved in the sit-in don't want to be there.
This was a last resort taken after 2 years of fruitless negotiations with the
Harvard administration. After these two years, PSLM agreed that Harvard
University was somewhat ignoring the PSLM members, and Neil Rudenstine
declared
the matter "closed". The protest is a necessary form of resistance is all
else
fails, as Dean Harry Lewis's now ironic comments evince, given in an e-mail
three days before the sit-in: "I don't anticipate any change [in the way the
University deals with PSLM], unless there is some important way PSLM deals
with
the University."
That said, much of the Harvard community endorsed the living wage before the
protests began, and based on that poll, fewer do now. I guess Harvard
students
don't enjoy yelling and screaming as much as we do here. THe students inside
would probably fit in well at an Athena cluster though: they haven't showered
in 15 days. Fortunately for PSLM, the only person who's opinion matters is
Neil Rudenstine's. Before the sit-in, he was opposed to a living wage despite
numerous acts of "positive change", whatever that means. Maybe the "negative"
impact of the sit-in and the bad publicity it has garnered for the University
will change his mind.
As for the "rich kids"sit-in, Harvard will not need to increase their tuition
to implement this living wage of 10.25/hr to their workers. The kids sitting
in a rich probably because most of Harvard's student body is rich. Here are
some numbers for some non-believers:
Harvard University is the richest university in the world
Harvard University Endowment: $19.2 billion
Harvard University Budget: $1.9 billion (fiscal year 2000)
Harvard University Operating Surplus: $120 milliion, of which $51 million were
unrestricted funds (fiscal year 2000)
"The largest operating surplus in [Harvard's] history" according to VP for
Finance Elizabeth Huidekoper and Treasurer/Corporation Member D. Ronald
Daniel
Endowment money distributed for operations increased from 1999-2000 more than
29%, from $430 million to $556 million
Gifts for current use increased 22%, to over $144 million
Total University Income up 14% = 1/4 billion, for a total of $2.023 billion
Amount a $6 per hour worker will earn working 35 hours a week, every week, for
a full year: $10,920
Poverty level for a single parent and one child: $11,021
More on poverty levels
Number of Harvard employees (not including subcontracted workers) who make
under $10 per hour: 1,008
Amount to increase workers wages to 10.25 /hr.............
~10 million,
approximately 0.5% of their budget.
In case you're interested about MIT custodians, they are paid a minimum of
$14.15/hr.
Finally, drawing a parallel between the students sitting in to Gandhi and MLK
is analagous comparing my analytic skills to those of Norbert Weiner and
Richard Feynman. After all, we're both MIT affiliates, so why not compare
us?
It's probably not fair to make a comparison like that.
Just my two cents,
Ezra
