Correction: Nov. 16th
Regarding a previously printed article: “$12 Minimum Wage Passed in Tacoma, What it Means for UWT” by Ryan Chambers in the Nov. 16th issue of The Ledger: Here are some corrected facts about the Student Activities Fee Committee and their involvement.
Student employees are currently earning $11 dollars an hour on campus. UWT was expected to follow the Seattle policy, which was established in April/May of this year. However, UW President Ana Mari Cauce (who was interim president at the time) determined that UWT should decide its own course of action regarding the $15 minimum wage policy.
According to ASUWT’s Director of Finance, Bronwyn Clarke, “This message got lost in translation between [Cauce] and the UWT SAFC.”
The University and SAFC are still planning for the future and holding meetings within the Tacoma Minimum Wage Task Force until the end of Autumn quarter. “In the interest of fiscal stewardship, the committee decided to ask departments to budget for $13 beginning Jan. 1st to prepare for the possibility of UW Tacoma having no option in the matter,” says Clarke.
There was no concrete plan on increasing the Student Activity Fee by $2 (from $159 to $161), although it had previously been a possible solution. “SAFC tossed around possible projections of fee increases, [but] ultimately concluded that the decision of whether to increase fees to accommodate a $15 minimum wage should be left to a future SAF committee,” says Clarke.
The Ledger regrets these errors in the Nov. 16th issue. To learn more about SAFC and the Tacoma Minimum Wage task force, contact Bronwyn Clarke at asuwtfin@uw.edu
