PSLM Rates Top Presidential Contenders

Members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) have never hesitated to voice their opinion, and they have decided views about the search for the next president of Harvard.

Of the four top candidates--University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger, Harvard Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67, Princeton Professor Amy Gutmann '71 and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers--PSLM members say that Gutmann is most likely to be sympathetic to their cause.

They are hesitant about Bollinger--whose policies at University of Michigan seem to straddle both sides of the sweatshop debate--and say that Fineberg and Summers would do nothing more than maintain the status quo.

Sweating Over Bollinger

Bollinger has a long history dealing with labor issues as president of Michigan. He has had extensive interactions with the campus activist group, Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality (SOLE), a record that Harvard students say is decidely mixed.

PSLM members say Michigan is one step ahead of Harvard on sweatshop policy.

Under Bollinger's leadership, Michigan is now a member of two sweatshop monitoring groups, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), while Harvard is only a member of the FLA.

PSLM members criticize the FLA for being too beholden to corporate interests, and have long urged Harvard to join the WRC.

They say Michigan's policy indicates that Bollinger is willing to listen to student demands.

Bollinger agreed to join the WRC on a provisional basis in February 2000, after SOLE members seized the office of Michigan Dean Shirley Neuman.

In the wake of the sit-in, Michigan students applauded Bollinger for his willingness to listen to student demands.

PSLM member Amy C. Offner '01 says Bollinger's stance appears promising.

"It seems Bollinger has an understanding of the need to heed student's demands," Offner says. "He has experience in dealing with this and has been forced to do what's right."

PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02 says he hopes that Bollinger could also bring Harvard into the WRC.

"If Bollinger ended up here and we didn't end up in the WRC, I'd be pretty disappointed," he says.

But PSLM members say Bollinger's policies also provide a potential source of concern.

Just this past January, Michigan announced a seven-year deal with Nike--valued at between $25 and $28 million--for the right to license products bearing the Michigan logo.

PSLM members--many of whom spent Saturday protesting in front of Boston's Niketown--say the colossal collegiate apparel contract makes them wary.

"Bollinger's definitely someone I've got some real concerns about," says McKean, who is also a Crimson editor. "I can't really imagine that he'd be deeply sympathetic."

The Status Quo

But at least Bollinger would provide a potential for change, PSLM members say, while with Fineberg, they say they could hope for no more than the status quo--both on issues of living wage and their demand that the University join the WRC.

PSLM members say they are disheartened by past interactions with Fineberg.

Fineberg personally met with the group after a high-ranking committee of faculty members and administrators released a 100-page report last spring--after 13 months of research--recommending that the University enlarge the scope of worker benefits, including health insurance, education and access to campus facilities, but not raise wages.

The report came as a direct response to two years of PSLM agitation for a living wage of at least $10.25 per hour for all Harvard employees, but PSLM members did not endorse the recommendations--and vowed to continue to fight.

"Fineberg was somewhat helpful in getting the report published," says PSLM member Aaron D. Bartley, a second-year law student. "But ever since, there has just been a total lack of movement."

Fineberg says he wholeheartedly supports the committee's recommendations.

"While there are some who did not accept the conclusions of the ad hoc

committee--particularly those who remain single-minded about a living

wage--I believe that most objective readers of the committee's excellent

report agreed that they did thorough and thoughtful analysis, and came up

with practical, effective recommendations," Fineberg writes in an e-mail.

And Fineberg would not have the strength nor the desire to change the University's current policy, McKean says.

"He's ostensibly liberal, but he isn't really pushing for anything to change," McKean says. "I really don't think this is the sort of person who could stand up to [the Harvard Corporation]."

PSLM member Madeleine S. Elfenbein '04 says that with Fineberg at the University's helm, she would be uneasy about the future of the living wage campaign.

"Fineberg is one of my greatest fears. He'd just be more of the same," Elfenbein says.

She says one of the most exciting aspects is the idea of bringing someone in from outside the University who might be willing to change the "impenetrable levels of bureaucracy."

"I really want the potential to start over, to create a new relationship that feels less like stonewalling and more like productive conversation," Elfenbein says.

The Great Unknown

While Gutmann and Summers have less of a history of dealing with campus labor issues, PSLM members say they think Gutmann would be the most sympthetic to their cause.

They praise Gutmann for her interest in social justice.

She is the founding director of Princeton's University Center for Human Values--debating issues of democracy, education, ethics and the value of human life.

While Gutmann has had no direct contact with Princeton's version of PSLM--Students for Progressive Education and Action--PSLM members say her interests seem to mesh with their own.

"She sounds like a marvelous academic," Elfenbein says. "We really need someone who can combine principled academics with principled actions."

McKean says he agrees.

"Gutmann has the most possibility," he says. "From a perspective of who would be most open to our ideas, it would seem like she would be the most likely candidate."

But even a history of interest in social justice will not necessarily translate into action, McKean says.

"People change in positions of power," he says. "It's hard to act on ideals."

While PSLM members are unsure about Summers's views on sweatshops and living wage, they are not hopeful.

They point to the Clinton administration's record on trade and labor issues as an indication of Summer's possible stance on issues like sweatshop policy.

"Summers?" McKean asks. "I mean, come on. The policies of the treasury department in the past couple years haven't been terribly worker-friendly."