Delaying the Decision

It has been 260 days since members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) ended their occupation of Mass. Hall. It has been 207 days since University President Lawrence H. Summers took office. It has been 35 days since the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies (HCECP) released its findings and recommendations to the public.

Over this time, Summers has had ample opportunity to consider the evidence before him, to evaluate the recommendations of workers, students, faculty and administrators and to develop his own views about a living wage. Now that the public comment period on the HCECP’s recommendations is over, it is time for Summers to announce his decision on Harvard’s wage structure.

We were disappointed by the president’s recent statement that a response to the HCECP report may take weeks. We recognize that this is not a decision that should be made lightly. Yet an indefinite delay is extremely disheartening for the campus community. This issue has been simmering for far too long, and a resolution is needed.

In a little over a week’s time, a new semester will begin. The return of undergraduates to campus and the start of Summers’ second semester as president will afford an an excellent opportunity for Summers to announce his decision. At the very least, instead of keeping the campus in suspense, Summers should set a final date by which he intends to make his views known.

If he waits any longer, Summers will display a fatal misunderstanding of the issue before him. The crux of the issue has always been that Harvard’s workers should not be consigned to live in poverty. Every day that Harvard’s lowest-paid workers wait on Summers is another day they work without a living wage. Summers owes it to them at least to announce his decision in a timely fashion, regardless of the conclusion he has reached.

We hope that the president endorses the HCECPs recommendation of an immediate wage increase, as well as a parity wage for outsourced workers. In addition, we urge him to institute an annually adjusted wage floor for all of Harvard’s workers. Such an policy would fulfill Summers’ professed commitment to “improving the economic circumstances of the lowest wage service workers on this campus.”

Harvard’s workers have waited a long time for a living wage. There is no reason to make them wait longer. Whatever decision Summers makes, that decision must come soon.