Salaries, Parking Issues Dominate Discussion With WM Leaders

By Amber Lester Wednesday, September 22, 2010

William and Mary President Taylor Reveley hosted a discussion with college community Tuesday.

At that discussion, an audience of students, faculty and staff packed an auditorium in the Sadler Center, worried about jobs cuts and rising tuition costs. Reveley and Wolf decided to host another discussion this year, but minus the stress of impending cuts, the audience was considerably smaller.

The conversation was held in a question-and-answer format, with the two college leaders fielding queries from the audience. The one-hour conversation was dominated by concerns about the salaries of the college’s housekeeping staff, suggestions for parking solutions and pleas for the college to add “gender identity and expression” to its nondiscrimination policy.

On Tuesday, posters were hung throughout the Sadler Center with “Living Wages Now!” printed in large, black letters. Several students behind the effort came to the conversation ready to confront the leaders about the wages for housekeeping staff, whom they claimed were not being paid living wages and were being overworked due to the vacancy of several positions.

One student said she has made friendships with several housekeeping staff members, one of whom says she has worked for the college for 20 years and makes $10.60 an hour. She added that she had heard from the Human Resources department that the college has seven housekeeping vacancies, which she said affected the entire campus. “Why do you refuse to fill these positions?” she asked.

Reveley responded that it would be wonderful if the college could pay its lowest earners more money, but said he hears every day from campus employees who feel they aren’t paid enough. He said the wages for housekeeping staff are competitive with the wages for similar work in the community and across the state, and said the student was simply wrong about the vacancies. The college is actively trying to fill those positions, he said.

He added that everyone in the college will receive a 3 percent bonus in November and that it is the college’s “fervent hope” it can give employees raises sometime in the near future. “There are all sorts of needs at William and Mary not being met financially,” he said. “We are putting resources where we think they should go. Not everyone will agree on the distribution — they never do.”

Another student suggested he donate part of his own $332,100 salary to the housekeepers’ wages. Reveley responded that his salary is small compared to other Virginia college presidents (both the presidents of the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech have salaries over $700,000). Wolf admonished the student for not checking her facts, telling her Reveley has declined pay increases twice. He added that Reveley has fought to avoid layoffs or furloughs at the college.

Another student complained that parking is impossible to find, mentioning that resident parking spots are often filled by employees or visitors during football weekends. Wolf said that over the past two days, faculty and staff have complained that students park in their spots. Realistically, Reveley said, the college has neither the money nor the land to build another garage. The best anyone can hope for, the two men said, was that people follow the rules, acknowledging that the demand has outpaced the supply.

Theresa Johansson, assistant director for study abroad at the college, said she applauded the students’ courage to speak up for the housekeeping staff, but suggested everyone step back and consider how they can remedy the problems they see.

“I can’t give people more money and I can’t create more parking spots, but I can think about what I can do,” she said. “I’ve seen the state of the bathrooms and the rooms in the dormitories…you must alleviate the amount of work for the housekeeping staff. Do you need a car at the college? How does that jive with our sustainability efforts? I suggest you think, ‘Am I doing everything I can do?’”

Two students also asked Reveley and Wolf whether the college had abandoned last year’s motions toward adding “gender identity and expression” to its nondiscrimination policy. One of them was senior Jessee Vasold, who made history last year to become the college’s first transgender Homecoming Queen. “There is no policy protecting me as a transgender student,” Vasold said. “It is a big issue, even if it’s not a big issue in the press.”

The Faculty Assembly asked the college to add “gender identity and expression” to its nondiscrimination policy last year and shortly after, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent a letter to the state’s higher education institutions informing them they lacked legislative authority to prohibit discrimination against gay people. While Reveley responded that the college doesn’t discriminate at all, the phrase has not yet been added to the college’s non-discrimination policy.

Reveley said Tuesday that the process to add “gender identity and expression” to the policy is ongoing, but would not estimate a date when it would be completed. “We haven’t forgotten,” he said.