CSB/SJU should answer understaffing with a pay raise

Since the pandemic, unemployment rates have been skyrocketing around the country and the world. With the help of extra unemployment and stimulus checks, food service and other low-wage workers could nearly make the same wages they would’ve made working full-time.

This phenomenon hasn’t just affected off-campus workers. It has also affected on-campus student workers. Dining centers, bus security, teaching assistants and custodial staff are all understaffed. Sexton, the Reef, Gorecki and McGlynn’s have been so affected by understaffing that their hours have changed dramatically.

Apart from the obvious COVID worries and busy student schedules, on-campus wages for student workers simply aren’t high enough. If McDonald’s starting pay can be $15 an hour, our student wage should be more than just over $10.

Why would anyone work at Sexton when they could do the exact same work in St. Joe or St. Cloud for more money? Outside of basic food service jobs, bartenders, nannies and even some internships pay dramatically more.

The Minnesota large employer minimum wage is the same as our school’s current student worker wage. Why, at a school that charges over $60,000 for room and board, are students being paid the Minnesota minimum wage for the same, if not more work, than off-campus jobs?

The administration knows exactly how many students rely on loans and grants to afford to study here, yet students are paid the minimum wage. Some students are working two or three jobs just to afford the cost of living while taking 16-18 credits worth of classes on top of extracurriculars.

The lack of workers also hurts students in general. Athletes get done with practice around 6:15 p.m. and when the dining halls close at 7:15, these students barely have enough time to get back to their rooms and eat.

On top of that, on Friday and Saturday nights on the Link, having relatively untrained professional and residential life staff acting as security guards on the buses is a safety hazard.

Residential Life staff aren’t enough of an authority figure—and are oftentimes even friends with students—to keep drunk students coming home from the bar in check. If someone were to cause a fight or pass out on the bus, we’re not confident these “security guards” would be equipped to handle it safely and effectively.

The lack of TA’s is also hurting students, especially first-years and sophomores who aren’t adjusted to the non-block schedule. Science labs were hard enough during the block schedule where students were in class for five or six hours a day, and although they’re better this year, without TA’s, labs go slower, and professors are generally less available for help during office hours.

Minneapolis, St. Paul and countless other cities have raised their minimum wages to $12.50. At a very minimum, students should be making this wage. Our college presidents make $400,000 a year.

With the upcoming joint presidency, it’s time to take the wages that one of the presidents used to make and invest it back to the student workers that make the campus run.