We commit to bring about sustainable change in the living wages of staff at the University of Texas. Our commitment involves a multi-step approach: a research phase, an awareness campaign, and the launch of a self-sustaining living wage organization.

Goals

As of 2002, there were over 850 full-time staff members at UT who were making less than the universal living wage standard of our community. Due to the complexity of the issue, our commitment involves a multi-step approach: First, we must start with detailed research, with the aid of LBJ faculty and staff that allows us to understand more fully the major actors involved (i.e. UT Human Resources department, the Staff Council, advocacy groups, etc.) and the main obstacles to raising staff wages. This research will culminate in a foundational economic paper along with a series of policy briefs. After this research, our project will move into its second stage: a campaign that involves students, faculty, and staff in order to raise awareness and participation. From our preliminary research, we will determine where we should focus our energy. Is this a problem that can be solved by tackling the bureaucratic infrastructure, is this merely a legal issue, or should the solution include a major fundraising project? It is at this stage that we will launch a campus-wide awareness campaign with informational flyers, departmental presentations, press releases and events for the Austin media market, and student lead discussions and meetings. Lastly, it is our ultimate goal to recruit students throughout campus, in all departments, and in doing so build a student coalition that places the living wage campaign at the forefront of campus awareness. We realize that, realistically, we cannot solve the living wage issue within a few months or a year; this is why our ultimate goal is to raise awareness within the 80,000 member community at UT and to start a student-led campus-wide organization so that this issue will not be pushed aside in the future.

Plan

Our first goal is to conduct extensive research to make our awareness campaign more concise and effective. As a result, we will produce a series of policy briefs and a substantive research document outlining the main issues, the historical background, major staff concerns, and the major obstacles to success in the past. By August 2008, we aim to formulate an economic argument supporting poverty alleviation through raising staff wages, to understand the national living wage campaign, and to lay out the bureaucratic obstacles to reform within the university system. Secondly, in the fall semester of 2008, we will begin to implement our recommendations for action. This stage of our initiative will include a robust campus-wide campaign to involve students, faculty, and staff. It is during this time that we will focus on building a self-sustaining, inter-departmental student organization dedicated to the living wage campaign at UT. Beginning in early December, we will accentuate our campaign with informational sessions in conjunction with “Orange Santa”, an initiative already in place that invites students to give Christmas gifts to UT low-income staff members. Our campaign will highlight the fact that, however noble, “Orange Santa” is a short-term rather than long-term solution. Our campaign will advocate on behalf of over 850 UT staff members who earn less than the living wage standard in Austin, Texas. By March of 2009, two months before our graduation, we will hand over this mission to the self-sustaining, campus-wide organization, which will be knowledgeable of the pertinent issues and will campaign for a universal living wage for UT staff on an ongoing basis.