Wesleyan tends to think of itself as a socially responsible university. Our website trumpets commitment to “making a positive difference”. We have a whole administrative division dedicated to ensuring that we have a positive impact on the community in which we’re located. Just last week, we all got an email from President Roth reminding us of Wesleyan’s plans to become an “Engaged University.” Well, we would like to ask what exactly social responsibility means? Does it mean being a decent employer?
Hopefully you read about the skyrocketing healthcare costs that the staff is facing in the coming year in last Friday’s Argus. The monthly premium for the family HMO package is $193.38 this year, but will rise to $501.60 in 2011. This cost is the same for all employees, regardless of the size of their salary. This development that has led employees to consider dropping out of the plan entirely in order to apply for Connecticut’s taxpayer-funded Husky Plan. We think that it is disgraceful that a wealthy, supposedly socially-conscious institution like Wesleyan is forcing clerical workers, who are absolutely essential to its functioning, to seek public assistance. We encourage you to read about the full human cost of the new healthcare plan in Ginny Harris’ wespeak, and we want to talk about what we want changed and what students, and any other concerned members of the campus community can do.
First, we want the administration to listen to concerns and suggestions from the staff. The administration is refusing to discuss any alterations to the self-insurance plan until the next round of contract negotiations with the clerical workers’ union. These negotiations will not occur until the summer, when there are few students around to stand in solidarity with the union. Meanwhile, employees must opt in to the healthcare plan by Nov. 24, which only gives us a week to act. A discussion is essential right now, before these budget-breaking changes go into effect.
Second, Wesleyan must institute a sliding-scale system for employee contributions to the health plan. As it stands, every employee, from the president, chaired professors, and the chief investment officer to entry-level custodial and clerical workers pay the same amount for insurance. This means that healthcare costs amount to 20 percent of the pretax yearly income of the lowest paid workers and less than three percent of the vice-president of finance’s income. Would we tolerate a tax system in which every citizen paid the same amount (not percentage of income, but amount) in payroll or income taxes, regardless of how much money they made? Then why tolerate this regressive system at Wesleyan? According to The Argus, many universities are adopting tiered insurance systems, in which costs rise faster for employees in higher income brackets. If Wesleyan wants to represent itself as a particularly responsible institution, it must take this step.
We want to be proud of our university and its actions. One of Wesleyan’s most important contributions to the Middletown community is as a source of decent, middle class jobs. We cannot allow this to change. The administration may not be particularly receptive to it employees, but as students, we can exert a great deal of leverage (remember, the customer is always right). We will be demonstrating in solidarity with workers at Usdan between noon and 2 p.m. on Wednesday. We ask you to join us and to help us make Wesleyan live up to its ideals.
Chalmers Hamill ’11, Veronika Vackova ’12, Ague Ortega ’13, Rob Wohl ’11, Abe Bobman ’11, Paul Blasenheim ’12, Rudisang Motshubi ’11, Teju Adisa-Farrar ’13, Jalen Alexander ’14, Michelle García Gutiérrez ’10, Naakai Addy ’12, Cheryl Walker ’12 Stephanie Huezo ’13, Alex Ketchum ’12, Malik Ben-Salahuddin ’13, Mallory Jean Cruz ’11, Hannah Overton ’11, Elizabeth Damaskos ’12, Nick Petrie ’12, Mica Taliaferro ’11, Zak Kirwood ’12, Han Hsien Liew ’12, Marina Reza ’13, Wei-Han Liang ’14, Emily Brown ’12, Yael Chanoff ’11, Cristine Khan ’13, Marjorie Dodson ’13, Melody Chang’12, Will Boyd ’11, Kevin Donohoe ’12, Carrie Schiff ’06, Rehan Mehta ’14, Abaye Steinmetz-Silber ’12, Fritzlaine Roche ’13, Lina Breslav ’13, Katherine Gilchrist ’13, Ismet Jooma ’14, Mike Rosen ’11, Kenny Feder ’12, Nora Hansel ’11, Leslie Wentworth ’12, Jeremy Keim-Shenk ’12, Jesse Ross-Silverman ’13, Jelisa Adair ’13, Julissa Peña ’12, James Gardner ’13, David Preddy ’13, Randy Linder ’13, Julia Black ’13, Priyanka Moondra ’13, Elaine Chan ’12, Amy Chandra ’11, Solomon Billinkoff ’14, Austen Fiora ’12, Melanie Hsu ’13, Hannah Cressy ’13, Yinka Taiwo-Peters ’12, Taylor Harbison ’13, Tyler Desjardins ’11, Delancey Smith ’11, Sydney Dittman ’11, Ariel Schwartz ’12, Gideon Too ’14, Fernando Morillo ’10, Laura Heath ’11, Alexandra Patrick ’13, Alex Pfeifer-Rosenblum ’10, Evan Okun ’13 Jared Gimbel ’11, Emily Gershen ’12, Emily Dowie ’13, Emily Caffery ’10, Lucas San Juan ’13, Michele Le ’11, Corey Guilmette ’13, Ceili Brennan ’13, Janine Wiley ’13, Lila Becker ’12, Zachary Burns ’14, Erin O’Donnell ’12, Walter L. Euyang ’12, Spencer Hattendorf ’12, David Barach ’12, Arnoldys Stengel ’11, Scott Zimmer ’14, Camara Awkward-Rich ’11, Meghan McGuire ’12, Luz Burgos ’09, Ruby Ross ’09, Christopher Martinson ’14, Olivia May ’14, Miranda Becker ’11, Eliana Theodorou ’12, Anna Katten ’11, Priscilla Bustamante ’10, Ross Petchler ’12, Bennett Kirschner ’13, Marsha J. ’11, Benjamin Hart ’11, Max Perel-Slater ’11, Ray Edwards (Grad Student), Aaron Greenberg ’11, Cory Meara-Bainbridge ’13, Isabelle Rode ’14, Manon Lefevre ’14, Donovan Arthen ’11, Kelsey Vela ’12, Olivia Alperstein ’14, Guangshuo Yang ’11, Jacob Eichengreen ’13, Joseph O’Donnell ’13, Kristina Chiappetta ’11, Aviva Markowitz ’12, Tia Clinton ’06, Alexandra San Roman ’11, Sarah Abbott ’10, Corinne Duffy ’11, June Broadley ’14, Julia Conrad ’14, Mickie Dame (CSS Administrative Ass’t), Bonnie Quach ’12, Ericka Sokolower-Shain ’12, Wendy Rayack (Faculty), Diego Glusberg ’11, Elizabeth Halprin ’14, Rhee-Soo Lee ’11, Syed Mohommad Kumail Akbar ’12, Eleanore Pankow ’12, Nora Christiani ’11, Amelia Tatarian ’13, Alexander Furnas ’11, Monica Vitti ’12, Robert Kipp ’12, Dan Levine ’11, Rachel Levenson ’12, Max Kaplan ’13, Andrea DePetris ’10, Drew Flanagan ’10, Leslie Pyne ’12, Gabriela De Golia ’13, Allegra Stout ’12, Kara Ingraham ’11, David Shor ’13, Hannah Bailenson ’13, Leah Lucas ’14, Jennifer Paykin ’12, Siyou Tan ’12, Nomi Teutsch ’11, Adam Bresgi ’14, Kapish Singla ’11, Charlotte Heyrman ’13, Eric Stephen ’13, Isaac Lichter Marck ’11, Kaya Ceci ’13, Lucas San Juan ’13, McLean Denny ’11, Julia Benedith ’14, Lief Friedrichs ’14, Sarah Schorr ’12, Chloe Bolton ’10, Sarah Marmon ’14, Lotus Thomas ’13, Melody Oliphant ’13, Haley Weaver ’14, Emily Hoffman ’10, Anike Arni ’13, Rachel Santiago ’12, Samantha Maldonado ’13, Alexia Nazarian ’13, Oliver James ’14, May Lee Watase ’13, Tamar Charles ’11, Jessica Best ’14, Katherine Kitfield Bascom ’10, EH Meyer ’10, Christopher Liong ’12, Catherine MacLean ’14, Henry Thornhill ’11, Demetria Spinrad ’11, Lydia Rex ’14, Heran Abate ’13, Cris Kontopidis ’10, Greta Hartenstein ’11, Anna Cash ’11, Jennifer Cheng ’11, Alexa Chiappetta ’13, Hannah Adams ’13, Laura Anderson ’11, Maggie Feldman-Piltch ’14, Janet Cushey ’13, Alexa David ’10, Margo Tercek ’13, Joshua Smith ’11, Danielle Martin ’14, Glamildi Rondon ’12, Harry Ezratty ’13, Erin Newport ’13, Joyce Wong ’12, Charlotte Christopher ’12, Margaret Cohen ’12, Elizabeth Waugh ’13, Yara Kass-Gergi ’12, Julia Marroquin-Ceron ’12, Sydney Hausman-Cohen ’13, Stephen Koch ’11, Wei-Han Liang ’14, Rachel Connor ’13, Reid Meador ’14, Jillian Moreno ’12, Jacob Blumenthal ’13, Jegadish Gunasagaran ’11, Elana Baurer ’09, Emmy Levitas ’11, Liza Goodstein ’13, Rachel Pincus ’13, Kelly Morgan ’11, Ben Block ’11, Arielle Knight ’11, Scott Elias ’14, Emily Iversen ’11, Alex Pogosky ’13, Katherine Boyce-Jacino ’10, Sally Lynn Edmonds ’11, Rosa Seidelman ’10, Dan Fischer ’12, Oscar Takabvirwa ’14, Steven Scarborough ’11, Kara Perez ’11, Sydney Lowe ’13, Yannick Bindert ’11, Jenny Ajl ’10, Dylan Wilde ’11, Anthony Hinds ’12, Christina Grillo ’13, Zain Alam ’13, Elizabeth Sallee ’13, S.B. McKenna ’10, Holly Wood ’08, Sara Rood-Ojalvo ’11, Grace Jones ’12, Katherine Shervais ’13, Samantha Hurley ’09, Oriana Ott ’14, Michael Lazar ’13, Polina Mamut ’13, Erik Holum ’10, Sandy Leung ’12, Nica Latto ’12, Dorisol Inoa ’13, Cordelia Hyland ’13, Yona Roberts Golding ’14, Lalita Kaewsawang ’11, Evelyn Israel ’10, Ariella Axelbank ’14, Xi Liu ’14, Jacqueline Soro ’14, Galimah Baysah ’13, Catherine Zhou ’13, Sara Thomas ’11, Lauren Seo ’14, Kevin Hayes ’11, Emily Rabkin ’08, Tianyu Xie ’14, Julia Baez ’14, Greg Shaheen ’13, Sophie Ackoff ’11, Samuel Kalish ’13, Hope Campbell Gustafson ’12, Michelle Katz ’09.
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