2008 Woodie Awards
Students for Staff should rethink approach, proposals
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: OpEd Page
Perhaps recently you have seen signs around campus that speak of a living wage? If not let me assure you-they do exist. What is a living wage? If you are wondering like I was, let me educate you. A group of students on campus have taken it upon themselves to raise wages for employees in housing and dining-more specifically, those employees who are either raising a family by themselves or those who cannot make it by on the hourly wage of $9 per hour they currently receive. A worthy cause to be sure. As a student worker for dining services, I myself work alongside these underappreciated people everyday, and I certainly feel for them in their time of need.
My problem lies with the students who are campaigning for this pay increase. Now begins an anecdote: the scene, the Shriver Center Haines Food Court. The time was approximately 2:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. As I was enjoying a bit of food and conversation with some friends, a person with placards comes into the area. This is a normal occurrence, and so I think nothing of it. Unbeknownst to me, this person is actually handing out fliers to individual people. When this person arrived at our table, she prompted us to come out and support the rally that was to take place.
At this point, a friend of mine who is nothing but incorrigible, asked a few questions about what the cause is, who it affects and how the program is going to be funded. All simple enough questions, I thought, but apparently I was quite wrong. After the first two questions were answered, we were left with the final query of funding. The answer we got was quite shocking-there was no plan! Sure the person managed to stammer out something about fundraisers, but what is there to do? When prompted for examples of such large-scale fundraisers no reply could be found, and that is why I have a problem with this movement.
No foresight was put into their actions, no planning except for designing the font and colors to be used on the fliers and posters. Who need specifics when there are posters to be designed? This is a high-class university comprised of more than 100 different types of majors-including about 12 options in business, finance and/or economics-and they are telling me that they could not even come up with a miniscule financial plan? I understand it's enticing to get behind good causes like these, and there is typically a lot of energy moving around because of a chance to make a difference-I get that. What I can't and will not understand is that these people somehow on their way to college forgot the elementary principle of the five Ps. Let me list them out for those who don't remember from, let's say … third grade onward: prior-planning-prevents-poor-performance.
My problem lies with the students who are campaigning for this pay increase. Now begins an anecdote: the scene, the Shriver Center Haines Food Court. The time was approximately 2:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. As I was enjoying a bit of food and conversation with some friends, a person with placards comes into the area. This is a normal occurrence, and so I think nothing of it. Unbeknownst to me, this person is actually handing out fliers to individual people. When this person arrived at our table, she prompted us to come out and support the rally that was to take place.
At this point, a friend of mine who is nothing but incorrigible, asked a few questions about what the cause is, who it affects and how the program is going to be funded. All simple enough questions, I thought, but apparently I was quite wrong. After the first two questions were answered, we were left with the final query of funding. The answer we got was quite shocking-there was no plan! Sure the person managed to stammer out something about fundraisers, but what is there to do? When prompted for examples of such large-scale fundraisers no reply could be found, and that is why I have a problem with this movement.
No foresight was put into their actions, no planning except for designing the font and colors to be used on the fliers and posters. Who need specifics when there are posters to be designed? This is a high-class university comprised of more than 100 different types of majors-including about 12 options in business, finance and/or economics-and they are telling me that they could not even come up with a miniscule financial plan? I understand it's enticing to get behind good causes like these, and there is typically a lot of energy moving around because of a chance to make a difference-I get that. What I can't and will not understand is that these people somehow on their way to college forgot the elementary principle of the five Ps. Let me list them out for those who don't remember from, let's say … third grade onward: prior-planning-prevents-poor-performance.
Be the first to comment on this story