Wagers Say “Do The Right Thing” to President Sullivan at Conference on Ethics
Happy Birthday, TJ!
It’s Founder’s Day.
The University is celebrating Thomas Jefferson’s birthday with many events including a conference entitled “Telling the Truth and Doing the Right Thing: Accountability, Guilt, and Forgiveness in the Ethical University.” When I first saw the invite I chuckled a little — Can the University seriously call the corporate operation it runs, ethical? Can they actually pretend that without a living wage this institution is doing the right thing?
Apparently they can. President Sullivan is the first speaker.
And so this Founder’s Day we ask, “What Would TJ Do?” I’m afraid the answer is not so pretty —Jefferson owned slaves. He owned the laborers who built this University and they were not compensated. It’s hard to see a slave owner as an impeccable standard for ethics.
I think it best to consider Jefferson’s hopes for U.Va.: “This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
I think we’re on our own with this one. Luckily we have reasoned and followed truth to a living wage, the results of which are detailed in our research document, “Keeping Our Promises.” We cannot tolerate the error the University makes by keeping its wages low and its contractor wages even lower. It will be a great day when we can say that we have come full circle on employment practices at this fine University; from paying workers nothing to paying an ethical wage, a living wage.
We will be at the conference picketing to ask President Sullivan to do the right thing as she argues for in her own research. You remember her book, The Social Organization of Work, where she says on page 63: “Being paid a living wage for one’s work is a necessary condition for self-actualization.” In her heart of hearts I believe she wants to do the right thing. We will be there in Jeffersonian fashion to hold her accountable until she does.
written by Wager Seth Kaye
Press Release: April 13 – Do The Right Thing at Conference on Ethics (PDF)
Are you a UVA student/employee? Why or why not?
What is the standard for determining a “living wage?” You must remember, no one is forced to work at, or attend classes at, the University of Virginia. However, taxpayers are forced to support it.
What would have happened to Jefferson’s slaves had he released them upon taking possession, if that is the right term, of them? Would they have had a better life or greater opportunity? I think not, regardless of the immorality of slavery. They would most likely have been captured and sold again. Perhaps spme would have chosen to remain with Jefferson, knowing that life would be better for them as slaves, than as fugitives.
You say a “living wage” is etical. Ethical to whom? how is this to be determined? Whose values do you base this on? Your Professor of Women’s Studies, and other professors, who support your “movement?” Here’s an idea. All of the rich professors who know so much, and all of the rich students whose empty heads are being filled not with Jefferson’s ideas of liberty, but Marx’s ideas of communism and class warfare, should establish a foundation. Any “worker” employed at UVA, and making less than $13 an hour without benefits, can apply for a “living wage supplement” to make up the difference.
Or they can quit and go work somewhere else if UVA sucks so much.
Hey Mr. Moderator, are you awake? Where are my comments fom yesterday? Oopsie! My mistake. I thought for a moment there you would publish comments which articulate a view opposite to yours!