**Update on the Washington University Protest & Hunger Strike**
One kid eats Apple*** Others are tired*** Students won’t be expelled (but don’t expect to sign up for our fall classes!)*** Lethal Combination: No Food AND lots of Folk Music*** Janitors may get a raise, and, they may also lose their job
Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton, Executive Vice Chancellor John Klein and Dean James McLeod met with the students, who are on a hunger strike, at the university’s admissions office this afternoon. The administration agreed the university would join the Workers Rights Consortium, but the chancellor put no additional money on the table for wages, the students said. The university has offered to put $500,000 into the contract workers’ salaries starting July 1.
The students have said it would take $2.4 million to pay the workers a living wage.
“We made it clear in the meeting we are willing to negotiate,” Thomas said.
Wrighton made no new threats of suspension or expulsion, the students reported. But the school has suspended the striking students’ ability to register for fall classes or to obtain official transcripts.
One hunger striker has an apple:
One hunger-striker began eating Thursday, leaving 12 students in that protest. Casey LaVela, 18, of Chatham, N.J., had just eaten an apple and had some water on Thursday afternoon.
A Wash U cook sounds off:
Thirteen WU student protesters stopped eating Monday, a week after they began a sit-in at the Brookings Hall admissions office. The protesters in the office are joined by others sleeping in tents on the lawn outside, where students have held rallies twice a day since the protest began April 4.
Antoine Walker, 46, of University City, makes $10.61 an hour as a cook. He said the administration’s latest offer to add $500,000 to the payroll isn’t good enough. “That’s pennies,” Walker said.
Is “Hunger Strike 101” a new college course?
Last month, more than 20 students from Georgetown University in Washington staged a hunger strike that put two students in the hospital. The strike ended after nine days when the university succumbed and raised wages to $13 from $11.33 an hour by July.
Hows this for a belly ache… no food AND folk music?
Musician Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, also gave his support Wednesday, appearing on campus and singing.
Some of the employees may lose their jobs because of the protest, but what the hay?!!
Thomas and other students voiced their concerns over workers’ rights to school administrators at a student government meeting Wednesday night. John Klein, WU executive vice chancellor for administration, said higher wages for contract employees could cost some of those workers their jobs.
Pictures of the protest here and of the beautiful city campus here.
Update: (10:00 PM) The Great One, Instapundit, has linked to this update of the campus hunger strike. Give that child an apple, quick!
