Jeff Stepp [“Make the orange cloth count,” April 20] suggests that instead of worrying about the SWA sit-in, students should provide “more worthwhile” support for campus workers by thanking, befriending and learning about the lives of the people whose daily work keeps the campus running.
I graduated from Washington University last year with a bachelor’s degree, and his words got me thinking about campus workers I met during my time as an undergrad and a few of the things I learned from them.
I learned about driving somebody home from campus because finding bus fare is a constant struggle and car ownership is out of the question.
I learned how two family members can live in a home furnished only with one table, one chair, one bed and a broken couch.
I learned about taking somebody shopping at a discount grocery store and being careful to buy that person food items with short cooking times in order to keep the gas bill low.
I learned how to beg classmates emptying their dorm rooms at the end of the year to give me discarded food, and to let me use leftover points from their meal plans to buy food for a food service worker to take home so the worker can still have enough money to keep the lights on and the rent paid. I learned about concealing these actions because if it became known that a student was using a meal plan for such a purpose, the worker would be fired.
I learned how somebody can work full-time from midnight to 8:30 a.m. cleaning buildings and also work several days a week for a cleaning service during daylight hours. I learned how despite their mother’s back-breaking work, that person’s children still are on Medicaid, which means the only pediatricians she can find for them treat both the children and their mother as if they are stupid and low-priority and do not need to be spoken to respectfully or diagnosed correctly.
I learned how a young person can begin working for the University’s custodial staff and receive exemplary reviews from supervisors, only to be terminated when the supervisors notice her father picking her up after work in a car with labor union bumper stickers on the back.
I learned how people can work for years operating food counters and cash registers with no job security, showing up to work each day in the knowledge that this could be the day they are informed by a supervisor that they should turn around and go home because they no longer have a job.
I learned how people can maintain exemplary work records while paying to pursue and earn degrees at other area universities (Washington University’s contracted service employees do not receive free tuition at Washington University for themselves or their children the way that all other University employees do) without receiving significant promotions, while vacant upper-level management positions are consistently filled by individuals of a different skin color who have not worked at the University for nearly as long.
Indeed, reflecting back, I see that Jeff Stepp is correct – Washington University students should make a greater effort to meet and learn from the underappreciated individuals who sweep, mow and feed the campus. In fact, SWA was founded by students who befriended workers, learned lessons like those I describe above, and aspired to change some of the realities they found.
I am now in medical school – still at Washington University – and I know I learned things from campus workers that will make me a far better, more compassionate physician. I do hope that more Washington University students (and administrators) start learning some of these same lessons about life below the poverty line. I just wish they needed to look elsewhere to do so, instead of finding the lessons so abundantly present in the lives of essential members of the campus community.