Growing Divide at UNH??

Growing Divide at UNH? A brief essay by Kate Hanson

As a long-time faculty member and community activist on campus, I am both impressed and dismayed by this year’s Dialogue on poverty and opportunity. The programs offered and the articles by our UNH colleagues are great--interesting and relevant--and I'm delighted to have these resources to share with my students. However, I think we're ignoring the issue here at home where, I believe, we are experiencing and condoning a growing divide among those of us who work here.
For examples:
A review of salaries at UNH as of December 2007 shows well over 200 administrators and faculty who make more than $100,000 a year in salary AND have access to extensive health and retirement benefits in addition. Almost all of these employees benefit from annual percentage increases--that both help them meet the cost of living and feed into this growing divide (4% of a $100,000 income results in a much greater raise in salary than 4% of a $30,000 salary and this accumulates year after year).
At the other end of the scale are dozens and dozens of "adjunct" faculty or part-time instructional staff who earn as little as $2600 a course in some colleges. These employees receive no regulated cost-of-living increases, no benefits and no job security. In fact, any of them can have a class cancelled the week it is to start.
Outsourcing of our housekeeping and other facilities-related services has saved money for UNH and made money for the providing businesses but it has not been equally beneficial for the workers. At one time, the people who cleaned and cared for our buildings received full UNH benefits. Now, many of them receive limited or no benefits at all.
A look at our current employment listings shows 42 openings, 8 of which are "temporary without benefits." Of these, most are positions in housekeeping, dining services and building services.
Some of the positions advertised pay as little as $8.50 an hour (without benefits) when a living wage in this area is often calculated to be over $15.00 an hour. *
Our parking permits cost $50 per academic year regardless of our incomes.
My students in the TSAS Community Leadership program have worked with Waysmeet, the Office of Community Service and Learning, the Housing Office and dozens of other offices/groups on campus to provide food baskets for those in economic need here at UNH. When we started doing this four years ago, my students organized 30 baskets. Last year, we provided over 125 baskets. While I am proud that we’re able to collaborate to meet this increasing need, I confess to VERY uncomfortable feelings about being part of a system that is structurally unfair and then offers supplemental food.
I often wonder how we reconcile these growing inequities with our often-stated commitment to justice, respect, and equality.
I am not suggesting that I have the answers to this "growing divide" and I know that there are many factors that influence poverty and opportunity here on campus. I would, however, like to see us at least openly acknowledge what's happening and create ways to publicly discuss our reactions to it. After all, this is our community and we do have some power to make decisions about who earns what here.
Kate Hanson, Associate Professor and Program Chairperson, TSAS Community Leadership Program, kate.hanson@unh.edu
*There are many organizations that focus on this issue of living wages. Here are a few:
http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/949; http://www.worldhungeryear.org/why_speaks/ws_load.asp?file=06&style=ws_table http://www.universallivingwage.org/fmrtables_2008/ME_FMR2008.htm