Last spring semester, controversy broke out on campus when the Senate of the Hopkins Student Government Association (SGA) killed a finance bill that would have funded the Women’s Dignity Drive, which raised funds and collected feminine hygiene products for homeless shelters. Detractors of the bill argued that it did not directly benefit the student body and that the bill did not serve the SGA’s only constituents, the students. Unfortunately, this opinion remains popular on campus and highlights the myopic, privileged view students have of their position on campus.
Last week, The News-letter’s editorial said that “the Baltimore community is not his [a candidate’s] constituency — the student body is” and made no mention of how issues and policies would affect Baltimore residents and workers other than to denounce the idea that the SGA’s effect on residents and workers should be a priority. Though I respect the Editorial Board, I am extremely disappointed in this view, and I think it unfortunately represents an entitled attitude that is present on our campus. Some of the SGA candidates’ platforms advocated for making buildings stay open later and expanded dining hours and options, yet the campaigns that made these proposals did not even acknowledge the campus workers that would have to stay later to make these proposals work (an acknowledgement is all I am looking for and shouldn’t be too much to ask). Similarly, during the debate and meet and greet, no mention was made of how partying affects Charles Village residents who have complained of noise in the past. I like to go out on the weekends and spill sticky magical neon-colored drinks on my feet and dance in sweaty, crowded basements too, but we should be sure we remember to be good neighbors on those Friday and Saturday nights when the stresses of the week melt away.
The issues concerning the greater Baltimore community connects directly to workers’ issues on campus, especially since the vast majority of workers are Baltimore residents. Johns Hopkins Hospital pays its workers shamefully low minimum-wages that require some workers to go on food stamps, a situation that two years ago led to a strike of hospital maintenance and service workers. Hopkins is one of both Baltimore’s and Maryland’s biggest employers and is a world leader in health care and research — except when it comes to how it treats its workers. The United Healthcare Workers East Union found that “Hopkins pays up to $10 an hour less for some positions compared to its national peers.”
We students do not have the moral option of staying neutral on Baltimore and worker issues, as we are complicit in how Hopkins treats workers and Baltimore residents. Each one of us necessitates the hire of a custodial, food, security and maintenance worker, and therefore we have a moral responsibility to remember the people who clean up the vomit-filled bathrooms on a Saturday, mop up the mysterious urinating bandit of the elevators, greet us with a “good morning” and a smile, make sure we aren’t overcharged at Char Mar, throw on some extra strawberries on our crepe and in general make our campus a livable place. How many of us have parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, aunts, uncles or cousins who are custodial or food workers and have had their voice silenced — and do we really want to silently accept unfair situations on our own campus?
The lack of desire to include the greater Baltimore community in the student decision-making process reflects a racial divide and the bubble of privilege we white students live in, especially when the majority of custodial, food, and security staff on campus are black. Carlene Partow, the president of Hopkins Feminists, noted in a JHU Politik article last year that main SGA supporters of the Dignity Drive bill were the black senators and president (Janice Bonsu). The Black Student Union was a co-sponsor of the Dignity Drive and was involved in the Baltimore riots. I ask the people who say the SGA should only concentrate on student issues why they think the Hopkins black community has been more involved in city issues than their white peers. Similarly, if students want to be involved in Baltimore issues, shouldn’t our student representative body reflect that desire?
As students we have more power than the average Baltimore resident to petition Hopkins to change their harmful policies of gentrification, even though at times it may feel like we don’t have a loud voice. President Ronald J. Daniels and the board are more likely to listen to the students paying the school thousands of dollars a year than poor Baltimore residents, so it is our responsibility to advocate for and raise the voices of those residents, some of whom work on our campus. I know that the SGA’s power is limited and the administration is powerful and does not want to come off naïve about the SGA’s influence. Yet SGA is uniquely situated to have the administration listen to them, and just bringing up worker and Baltimore issues would be an improvement over the status quo.
Regarding detractors who say that the SGA doesn’t have the time, responsibility or resources to concentrate on non-student issues, I urge them to look at the work students are doing at our peer institutions. At American University, the Residence Hall Association created a committee on worker’s issues, and the American University SGA passed “A Resolution to Declare Support of the Employees of American University” which resolved that “the Undergraduate Senate pledge to ensure that American University, and all corporations that it contracts with, treat all employees who work at this university with dignity and respect,” an important symbolic bill that sets an important precedent for their SGA’s relationship with workers.
Listening to workers and Baltimore residents is a great first step. The SGA has already done a successful event that highlighted workers: the Thirty Minutes of Thanks in January after the blizzard. During this event, custodial worker Monaul Campbell said, “we couldn’t believe it because we never were recognized before,” a quote which both shames the fact that students previously never recognized the workers but also shows the importance of events like the Thirty Minutes of Thanks. We have shown the capacity to care about issues outside of ourselves and to take action. Let’s make sure that we use that capacity and don’t forget our position both on campus and in Baltimore.
Emeline Armitage is a sophomore International Studies major from Cleveland.
