Editorial
Letter to the Editor: Open Questions: The Silence over Labor at Hamilton College
By Nigel Westmaas, Associate Professor of Africana Studies
March 31, 2016
Tags letter to the editor
Dear Editor,
There is a palpable, hushed feature to the daily academic buzz on College Hill Road. As far back as I can recall, very little has been publicly discussed or done about College employees who toil daily for us on campus. There are town hall meetings about important issues like Diversity, alcohol abuse, Title IX requirements and so on, but I don’t believe I have ever heard about a town hall meeting called to discuss the work situations of those who assist us on a daily basis.
In my own experience with life on the Hill, many of us faculty stay within our lane, worrying about issues like travel reimbursements, classroom chalk and technology, library book deliveries, photocopying, organizing tedious meetings, our campus mail and other relatively trite areas of campus life.
So, where is our concern for the people who make the campus alive before and after we wake up? For workers who clean our offices, trim the lawns, plough the snow, make our buildings work and feed us? What is the state of employees’ health insurance? Relationships with bosses in senior administration and academic staff and faculty chairs? Are there glaring imbalances in salaries and promotions? How are those centrally involved in assisting departmental offices, namely Academic Office Assistants (AOAs), doing in general across the campus and how do they manage with some faculty prone to prima donna expectations? I understand that a section of the staff on campus are unionized, but what about other employees?
What about the hard-working citizens and immigrants who serve us, students and faculty, in the Diner, Commons and KJ? What about the workers in uniform at Campus Safety? Is their job satisfaction high? How are all these working class employees and their families faring behind their exterior smiles and efforts to placate and spruce up the campus environment every single day and night? How do they feed their children and their families? When faculty and students go on break, what happens to the part-time employees whose lives are connected to the activity on campus? Are there effective arenas of redress for the vulnerable?
It is paradoxical that we teach courses on the economy, social, political, cultural and other worldly subjects, but do little to connect the content of theoretical or economic discussion in those disciplines to the people immediately and generally supporting our intellectual work and teaching through their own hard work.
Out of empathy and consideration should we not be asking more open questions of the President, Deans, Human Resources and general administration about the state of workers at Hamilton?
Doubtless some employees are happy with the employment environment on the Hill. Others would not dare rock the figurative boat. Still others are extremely fearful (and from my experience, there is a general unease from staff in publicly discussing employment situations) about speaking openly about labor issues. But this should not deter us faculty and students from asking questions, extending empathy and providing concrete and active support when necessary.
We need transformative solidarity that extends to the pockets and conditions of the working staff and employees who assist us on a daily basis.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Westmaas
Associate Professor of Africana Studies