University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 18, 1990
7B
Minimum wage benefits may not last
By Amy Hudson
College Press Service
The April 1 increase in the federal minimum wage has put more money in the pockets of the nation's 8.1 million working students, but long-range effects and other factors may take the gains away, college officials warn.
After years of congressional haggling about how much or whether the minimum wage should be raised, the first of two increases took effect April 1, putting it at $3.80 from $3.35. On April 1, 1991, it is set to rise again to $4.25.
"We're happy we're getting a raise," said Eileen Regan, a work-study employee at Bard College in New York.
She has been waiting a long time. The federal minimum wage had not been raised since 1981.
Many students and labor nationwide were getting impatient. For example, Bard announced it would raise work-study wages to $3.80 just as members of a student ad hoc committee, angry that they were earning less than their counterparts on neighboring campuses, were preparing to demand a raise.
At many schools, however, campus officials are not sure they can pay the higher wages.
The problem is complicated even more by federal proposals to make schools and students liable for Social Security taxes for the first time and by making schools pay a greater percentage of work-study students' total wages.
"Individual institutions will have to either come up with more funds or cut jobs," said Dallas Martin of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAF-SAA) in Washington.
At Bard, it means some of the school's 300 work-study students won't have jobs next year, comptroller Chuck Crimmins said. "We're going to try to find the money somewhere, but it's probably going to affect students the most," he said.
At Dakota State College in South Dakota, "It's going to be a real labor crunch," reported financial aid director Mark Lee.
Pam Steinmetz, assistant director of intramural sports at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said, "It quite possibly could lead to some understaffing. The ones that get rehired next fall will be happy, but the ones we can't afford (to hire) will be really hurt."
Lee said he would have to cut the student work force by about 10 percent next year, from 180 employees
to boast. Croft, acting director of financial aid at Central Washington University, said, "We are concerned about (cutting jobs), but at this point we just don't know what the effect will be."
to about 160.
will be.
Washington students, like those in many other states, already earn a state minimum wage that is higher than the federal level. The minimum jumped to $4.25 January 1. In Missouri, state legislators may ask voters to decide whether to have a state minimum that would be linked to the federal standard.
Many individual campuses already have their own wage floors.
Student workers at state schools in Minnesota will earn a minimum of $4.25 an hour beginning this fall, up from $3.95 the schools' governing board decided March 28.
Several other schools, including Appalachian State and Western Michigan universities and Waukesha County and Gateway Technical colleges in Wisconsin, already pay their student workers more than $3.80 an hour.
Also part of the new federal minimum wage is a clause that allows for a "training wage" — 85 percent of the minimum wage, but no less than $3.35 an hour — that can be paid to
workers under 20 for at least three months but no more than six months.
But the U.S. Department of Education, which oversees most federal college programs, has told colleges that work-study students, who take up the vast majority of on-campus jobs, should not get the lower training wage.
NASFAA, the financial aid director's trade group, also has advised schools that paying some work-study students the training wage would make them appear discriminatory and would complicate their book-keeping.
"It's better to just pay everybody minimum wage, period," Martin said.
Students who work off campus and fit the training wage specifications, however, may be stuck earning less.
A higher minimum wage isn't the only factor that could cut student jobs.
Under the work-study program, federal and sometimes state governments pay 75 percent of the money students earn. Schools contribute 25 percent. Now the Department of Education has passed regulations that will require schools to pay 30 percent of their work-study students' wages.
For instance, it means Dakota
State will have to come up with $1.14 per hour for its work-study workers, which campuses rely on as a subsidized source of cheap labor, instead of the current 84 cents per hour.
Colleges can expect no quick relief from the federal government, Martin said.
Lee said, "As far as someone picking up the tab, institutions will find a way to cut costs rather than raise tuition."
And although still uncertain, a proposal to require student workers at public colleges to pay Social Security taxes, which would reduce students' take-home pay by 7.65 percent, could end up costing students and colleges millions of dollars.
The tax plan is part of the budget that President Bush submitted in January, which Congress is considering.
Since 1939, all college students have been exempt from Social Security taxes on wages paid by the colleges they attend.
More than 1.5 million students would be affected by Bush's proposal. Based on government projections, the tax would cost the students $150 million, or about $100 an student. Campus employers, who would have to match the 7.65 percent tax, would be liable for the same amount.
Earthday
Continued from p. 1b
Esprit and Church & Dwight, maker of Arm and Hammer baking soda.
"I'm curious by the fact that so much attention is being given to Earth Day this year compared to past years," George Washington's Gillette said.
Collegians maintain that the Exxon oil spill, deforestation and the threat of glabal warming, not a successful marketing campaign, have led them to become environmentally active.
Sunday, April 22
republicans and KU Democrats about ozone depletion will be at 300 Strong Hall.
KU Earth Day activities from April 18 to April 22:
Sunday, April 22
*Noon—An Earth Day festival will be at South Park. The festival will include educational booths, workshops, live music, local artists and craftsmens, food vendors, children's learning activities and a poster contest. Rainout date is April 29.
Wednesdav. April 18
Wednesday, April 18
7 p.m. — "Successful Environmental Campaigns; Successful Groups Do Make a Difference," a forum sponsored by KU Democrats will be at Adlerson Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The forum will include a discussion of campaigns for recycling, finding alternatives to plastic foam and ending incineration of chemicals and other wastes.
ACLU lawsuit contends that university policies punishing racism violate student rights
1 p.m. — A parade will start at Buford Watson Park and end at South Park. The parade and festival are sponsored by campus and community environmental organizations.
Thursday, April 19
7 p.m. - A debate between College
1 p.m. — The KU museums will feature activities related to nature until 3:30 p.m. This is an annual celebration of the museum's contributions to communities and their role in preserving natural and cultural heritage. All activities will be at the Museum of Natural History, Spencer Museum of Art, the Museum of Anthropology and The Wilcox Classical Museum.
College Press Service
The University of Wisconsin's anti-discrimination policy, which outlaws racist words and acts, violates students' constitutional rights, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in a lawsuit filed March 29.
A similar ACLU suit caused a federal judge to strike down the University of Michigan's anti-discrimination policy in August 1989. Michigan now has an interim policy that allows for penalties only when one student directly harasses another.
Wisconsin's policy allows officials to punish students who utter general racial insults or engage in racist acts.
"We agree with the intentions of the rule, but they're taking an anti-educational approach to the prob-
After the Michigan ruling, several schools narrowed their policies, including Tufts and Penn State universities, and the University of Conklin.
But others, including all public colleges and universities in Massachusetts, the nine-campus University of California system, Trinity College and Emory and Brown universities, still have policies that stop people from using potentially offensive words.
Edgar, executive director of the ACLU's Wisconsin office.
tem," said Ron Novy, editor of the Post at Wisconsin's Milwaukee campus and one of the individual complainants. The suit was filed on behalf of two students from the Madison campus, seven students and the Post from the Milwaukee campus, and an instructor from the Green Bay campus.
but the ACLU said the rule,
unvelled last year after a string of
racist incidents, was too vague.
"There isn't enough of a description or notice to students so that they can determine whether or not their speech is prohibited," said Eunice
In Massachusetts, officials are not fazed by the legal challenge.
"There has to be a balance between the First Amendment and victims of racial acts," said Terry Zoulas, spokesman for the state's governing Board of Regents.
The National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities, a trade group for private colleges based in Washington, cited Department of Education figures that show a 7.1 percent increase in Black enrollment at their institutions between Fall 1986 and Fall 1988. Black student enrollment increased 0.2 percent at public institutions during the same period.
The rise reverses a trend of shrinking Black enrollments. Between 1982 and 1986, Black enrollment dropped 5.4 percent at private colleges and 4.6 percent at public campuses, the institute reported.
Private institutions get more minorities
Overall minority enrollment at private schools increased 5.3 percent from 1986 to 1988, compared with $^{3}$.3 percent during the earlier period. Public colleges had a 4.5 percent increase, a slowdown from the 5.4 percent rise charted during the 1982-88 period.
Private colleges, said Gail Raiman of the NIUC, have better financial-aid packages and do a better job retaining minority students than do their public counterparts.
College Press Service
Private colleges are doing better job than public institutions of getting minorities to enroll, according to federal statistics released March 28.
"I think there is a real commitment here, and there has been for a long time," she said.
Despite the nationwide increase in minority enrollment at private schools, minorities accounted for a greater proportion of the student body at public institutions: 19.9 percent compared with 18.4 percent.
Texas' Higher Education Co-ordinating Board announced March 26 that Hispanic student enrollment at public universities increased 8.6 percent from the Fall 1988 to Fall 1989, while Black enrollment up was 5.5 percent.
And in Maryland, the Higher Education Commission reported March 30 that Black enrollment at the state's public colleges went from 10.1 percent in 1985 to 13.4 percent in 1989.
--handmade Jewelry GOLDMAKERS 723 mass.842-2770
Lawrence Donor Center
--handmade Jewelry GOLDMAKERS 723 mass.842-2770
Get involved with Lawrence Donor Center's cash giveaway. Become eligible for $175 in cash prizes by donating plasma just 3 times in each 2 week period.
Names are re-entered with fourth donation. Plus, new donors earn $30 for first 2 donations in same week, while return donors can earn up to $22 per week. Donors who haven't donated for 2 months receive $15 for first visit. The next drawing will be held April 30.
ATTENTION WATER SKIERS KU Waterski Team & Club Meeting for beginners to competitive skiers Wednesday, April 18
8-5 M-F, 10-1 Sat. for new donors. 816 W.24th
8-6 M-F, 10-3 Sat. for repeat donors. 749-5750
7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 18
International Room, Kansas Union 5th Floor
KU Waterski Tournament April 28 at Ski Lake on K-10
President Matt Corbett or Joel Erickson
749-0659
843-7402
Any Questions? Call:
LAURIE Anderson
8:00 p.m. Wednesday April 18, 1990 Hoch Auditorium KU
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall,
Box Office; student tickets are
available at the SUA Box Office,
Kansas Union; all seats reserved;
public $16 & 11; KU and K-12
students $8 & $6.50, senior citizens
and other students $15 & $12; for
reservations, call 913/ 864-3982.
Partially funded by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts; additional support provided by the KU Student Senate Activity Fee, Swaundish Society, and the KU Endowment Association.
You'll be glad you did!
719 Massachusetts Street APRIL SPECIAL
BBQ CHICKEN
Served with side dishes of cole slaw, baked beans, fritter, pickle, bread, & homemade tater curl fries piled high to the sky.
one-quarter
one-half
BBQ Chicken $3.95 BBQ Chicken $4.95
BBQ Chicken sale through Apr. 30. No other coupons accepted with this offer.
22
VISA-MC-AMEX No coupons accepted with this offer Where a meal is a meal, & a meal is a deal. 719 Mass.
11