UNIVERSITY President John T. Casteen, III is upset about the Living Wage Campaign, and thinks he can lie his way out of the issue.
That conduct isn't relevant to the Campaign except inasmuch as it has to do with securing the future of the University and its most neglected members, as numerous economic studies have shown a "living wage" would (theoretical economic objections notwithstanding). But a university president undermines his own position as an educator when his example teaches that deception and slander are okay as long as they serve your self-interest.
That is the lesson of his recent open letter in the Alumni Association's University of Virginia Magazine, where he makes so many untrue claims that there's simply not space to fully go into them here. A fuller response from the Living Wage Campaign is available at www.uvalivingwage.net.
He starts off by saying that the LWC is a front for national labor unions and "professional activists." The basis for this comment is apparently the fact that the LWC has been endorsed by the Virginia AFL-CIO, but an endorsement is not the same as being made someone else's front line. The Living Wage Campaign is accountable only to the University community -- all of it, including employees. Casteen himself suggested that we meet with experts at the University and elsewhere, and now rejects their advice.
The oft-repeated claim that the University's lowest hiring rate is $9.37 is untrue. There are many part-time workers and temp workers who make less than that, according to the University's own data. This figure also doesn't include contracted workers, who usually make much less for comparable work.
Casteen also misrepresents the "living wage" methodology, saying that it is based on a family of four with one wage earner. It actually has two wage-earners. In any case, we've always been willing to re-examine the methodology with experts jointly chosen by the LWC and the University administration, despite the letter's claims that we've been unwilling to talk with them. We're willing to talk, but talking is not the same thing as communicating, and we insist that the conversation be substantive and productive.
Finally, Casteen says that "some students think that vandalism and resisting arrest are forms of peaceful protest." In a place this big, some probably do, but in the context, when "living wage" protesters had been charged with but exonerated of those very charges (the vandalism charge after it became clear that a police officer was responsible for the damage in question), this statement clearly is meant to implicate them. While it may or may not be technically libelous, it is certainly dishonest. For the record, the 17 students protesting conducted themselves in a respectful and dignified manner at all times, even according to the testimony of University officials.
These are not mistakes. Casteen knows that these things are not true, and has been repeatedly told so by members of the Living Wage Campaign and others. The only possible explanation is that he thinks this will help him make the movement for a "living wage" simply go away.
All of us ought to be accountable to the same high standard of honor -- especially leaders invested with a certain amount of implicit trust. Whatever your position on the living wage, John Casteen has utterly failed to meet that standard.
The Living Wage Campaign welcomes honest discourse, first because it's right and second because we believe that we will win a full, fair and honest debate. Whether you support a living wage or not, please encourage Casteen to be honest in the discussion as we redouble our own efforts to do so.We hope that you, too, will engage sincerely with the issue, without ideological preconceptions and beholden only to the strictures of the facts and to the dictates of conscience. That much we all owe to each other, and to the University of Virginia.
Benjamin Van Dyne is a fourth-year in the College and an organizer with the Living Wage Campaign. He can be reached at bv3e@virginia.edu.
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