Timeline of Statements

To Dartmouth’s Office of Residential Life, leadership, and the broader community:

Dartmouth’s Undergraduate Advisors (UGAs) are organizing for comprehensive and fair compensation without disrupting financial aid packages, frequent and improved training, and standardized, transparent hiring processes.

UGAs are often the first responders to student mental health and sexual assault and harassment crises, yet receive no more than a day’s worth of in-person training on mental health care and suicide prevention. Additionally, UGAs are given inadequate training in providing resources geared towards sexual assault prevention and support. This negligence forces UGAs to refer students to subpar places, like the Pregnancy Center of the Upper Valley (which poses as an abortion center).  At best, they provide unsatisfactory services, and at worst, they commit psychological and physical harm against students. This crisis comes in addition to our usual duties such as conducting walk-throughs, weekly floor meetings, assisting with move-in and dorm closing, planning and executing floor programming, and assisting with house programming–responsibilities that are not described clearly during the hiring process. 

These are unacceptable conditions for our workforce. Therefore, we have made the decision to organize with the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth (SWCD) to achieve the following:

  1. Compensation

The compensation structure must include room and board coverage, meal plan coverage, and an improved stipend. Currently, first-time UGAs receive a stipend of $6,000 yearly ($2000 termly), returners receive $6,300 ($2,100 termly), and all UGAs receive credit for the 80-block meal plan ($2,130) and are guaranteed a single dorm. No considerable changes have been made to the UGA stipend since previous all-campus minimum wage increases, and the cost of living in Hanover has risen. As a comparison, universities like Stanford, Columbia, and Princeton currently make between $8,000 - $13,000 and guaranteed housing.

We demand the compensation model to:

  1. Offer room and board credit for all UGAs on and working during the academic year

  2. Increase the stipend following suit with Dartmouth’s previous wage increase for other student employees

  3. Implement a raise structure depending on tuition increase.

  4. Maintain full benefits without disrupting financial aid packages.

  5. Provide a stipend for students attending fall training, which is two weeks of required participation on campus, compared to 1 to 3 days in the winter or spring.

    • Currently, meals at 53 Commons are covered but change to the stipend, regardless of UGA attendance.

  1. Frequent & Improved Training

    1. Offer frequent mental health and sexual assault training; at least three opportunities a term with specialists from the Counseling Office and relevant, qualified specialists depending on the training situation.

      • Further training on situations including but not limited to bias incidents, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, etc.

      • Provide clear, written, and transparent training descriptions to UGAs before sessions.

        • Especially Behind Closed Doors, and the expectations for returners acting and first-time UGAs responding.

    2. Provide updated, meaningful, comprehensively researched, verified resources to address the following:

      • Trans and genderqueer affirming care and protection from family rejection, stalking, and/or harassment.

      • Students seeking abortion funds, sexual health, and other reproductive health resources.

      • Students struggling with food insecurity (the current food pantry below Dick’s House is resourced by Upper Valley communal support).

      • Greater financial/emergency aid support for students temporarily or currently unhoused.

  1. Standardized & Transparent Hiring Processes

    1. Aim to eliminate discrepancies between housing communities in rehiring,

    2. Provide an accessible and comprehensive job description, including details about duties, big weekend responsibilities, walkthrough standardization, and a warning system, provided with the job offer.

  1. Facilitation and Workplace

    1. Increase communication between all House communities and their respective Assistant Directors (AD) and UGAs to share the knowledge and increase transparency between houses UGAs and ADs.

      • Offer at least one open-to-staff Assistant Director and upper-management meeting so UGAs can be involved in higher-level decision-making.

    2. Ensure adequate management through increased hiring and training of ADs to oversee the functioning of Residential Life.

This list is subject to expansion and/or change according to the needs of our workforce.

UGAs and Residential Advisors nationwide are organizing around similar demands and workplace issues. At UCSC, students are also organizing to increase support for victims of sexual assault and harassment, and at Columbia, residential advisors working to address similar concerns won their union election. The fight for fair wages and adequate resources for residential advisors through unionizing is also being waged at Boston University, Swarthmore College, Smith College, Tufts, Emerson College, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others. It is long overdue for UGAs at Dartmouth to unionize and join the nationwide struggle to fight for fair working conditions and the compensation we deserve.

In solidarity, 

Dartmouth Undergraduate Advisors and the SWCD

2/18 SWCD WINS $21 WITH THE THREAT OF A STRIKE

HANOVER, NH – At 9pm on Friday 2/17, the SWCD closed voting for strike authorization with 99% of voters in favor of striking. We asked for a response from the College by 11:59 pm on Saturday 2/17 to accept our demands.  

At 5pm today, 2/18/23, Dartmouth College called an emergency meeting in response to our email. On the call, the school verbally accepted our package proposal from January 23, which includes:

  • A $21/hour base wage

  • Annual wage increase based on cost of attendance

  • Area managers included in the unit

  • A 2-year contract duration

  • Mental health and sick pay

We now have a tentative agreement on the full package proposal with the College. SWCD will now hold a unit vote to ratify the contract within the next few days and must meet a majority to do so. The SWCD Organizing Committee will positively recommend this proposal to the unit. The package will likely come into effect by the spring term, if not before. 

We thank Dartmouth College for their flexibility and willingness to listen to its student workers. 

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters and allies: 

  • Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee, Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers, Columbia University Resident Advisors, among our other fellow undergraduate and graduate student unions 

  • Graduate Organized Laborers of Dartmouth (GOLD)

  • FUERZA Farmworkers Fund 

  • Dartmouth faculty in solidarity

  • New Hampshire Faith & Labor

  • Service Employees International Union - Local 560

  • Dartmouth Student Government

  • Dartmouth Outing Club

  • New Hampshire Youth Movement

  • Dartmouth Energy Justice Clinic

  • Palestine Solidarity Coalition of Dartmouth Students

  • Palaeopitus Senior Society

  • Spare Rib

  • Sunrise Dartmouth

  • Upper Valley Democratic Socialists of America

  • Upper Valley for Abortion Rights

  • Any other groups who have expressed their support for SWCD

Finally, we are forever grateful for our wonderful and patient lawyer, Tim Belcher, who has remained with us since our very inception. 

Without compromise,
Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth 

 

1/31/23 SWCD Statement on Dartmouth’s Uncooperative Bargaining Practices 

HANOVER, NH – On the bargaining session held on January 24, SWCD provided the College with a complete contract package. This package contained significant consensus-oriented propositions, and demonstrated on our part great understanding and willingness to engage in productive negotiations. 

After being provided with this generous package, Dartmouth provided us with a paper outlining their proposed wage structure. The paper proposes a base wage of $18.50 for cafe workers and $17.50 for Snack Bar and Collis Market workers. This proposal is identical to the proposal submitted by the College at the end of Fall term. At the time, this second proposal had provoked an outpouring of outrage by student workers, who, after a term of quantitative and qualitative arguments advocating for a 21$ wage, found the 50-cent increase to be mockery. 

The paper further includes percentage illustrations of the wage increases in question. SWCD had provided a position paper illustrating the cost of its proposed wage increases late last year, where it had already calculated that a $21 base wage would amount to about 0.18% of wages paid out by Dartmouth on a yearly basis. We had also demonstrated that all wages paid out to all Dartmouth dining student workers would amount to less than half of what President Phil Hanlon was paid during 2020 (a number which has presumably gone up following post-pandemic expansions). Finally, we had also shown the difference between the two proposals (18.50$ and 21$) amounted to about $16,500 per term, and about $60,000 per year, representing a 0.001% increase in the amount Dartmouth already spends on wages. 

In short, the paper provided to SWCD nothing that it already did not know. In fact, it reminded us that what was to student workers a massive difference in living conditions was a miniscule, negligible expense to Dartmouth. It reminded us that Dartmouth was paying out tens of thousands of dollars in retainer fees, possibly exceeding the total cost of the wage differential, to attorney Joseph McConnell of Morgan, Brown & Joy (whose alma mater, Northeastern University, had a recent wage increase from 9$ to 30$ for dining workers), instead of coming to table and agreeing to pay student workers a fair wage. 

If Dartmouth does not respond with similar concessions alongside their own lack of movement, it will only cement the fact that they have been acting in bad faith. Dartmouth seeks concessions from SWCD but proposes nothing in its turn, spending bargaining sessions talking about the qualitative generosity of their offer. Dartmouth sees concessions by SWCD and then exploits these concessions to reiterate their unsubstantiated demands. 

The paper provided by Dartmouth underlines for us their insistence on a contract that imprisons student workers for three years to an underpaid contract that depreciates annually due to inflation, without recourse via the right to strike. This position is unacceptable to us. We demand Dartmouth to deliver a full response in writing by the end of the work day, this Thursday, to our package proposal.

2/18/22 Statement on Election Date & Neutrality Pledge 

We have come to an agreement with the College regarding the details of our union election!

The election will be mail-in. Ballots will be sent out on Tuesday, March 1st, and will be returned by March 29th. Votes will be counted on March 30th. All Dartmouth Dining Services student workers who have worked at least 4.5 hours since October 13, 2021 through the payroll period ending February 5, 2022 will be eligible to vote. 

In addition, the College has committed to a neutrality pledge. By agreeing to the neutrality pledge, the College will not take negative positions regarding our unionization effort.

We are closer than ever to realizing a democratic student worker union on this campus, and now we have to make sure that we get out the #UNIONYES vote. We have no doubt that at the end of this process, we will have won our union. However, to send a powerful message and start bargaining on strong footing, we need to vote in massive numbers. 

We will be hosting a Solidarity Town Hall with community members, faculty, labor & faith leaders, students and workers this Thursday, February 24th, 6 PM EST, at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth, UCC. Come to learn about our unionization drive, hear from faith, labor and community leaders on worker justice, and express your support for the dedicated student workers doing essential work in service to the Dartmouth community!

2/4/22 Statement on Election Filing

After meeting with the College to discuss the election process, we have now filed for election with the National Labor Relations Board. We are continuing discussions to reach a final agreement on election issues, such as our bargaining unit and election date. We will do all we can to have a process as quick and as free of smears and intimidations as possible.

We now want your support in saying this out loud: #UNIONYES.

 

1/28/22 Statement on Administration’s Response to Open Letter

SWCD has received a response to its unionization letter from President Hanlon. The response turns down our voluntary recognition offer, and as such, we will be moving ahead with an NLRB election to win our union.

Over 80% of DDS student workers have signed cards with SWCD expressing their intent to unionize, and we are confident that at the end of this process, we will have built a powerful student worker union.

The response states the College's willingness to work with our union to set election stipulations, and we expect these meetings to prevent a divisive election process laden with union-busting and intimidation. It is thanks to our unionization drive that DDS student workers now enjoy a 50% temporary raise, and ALL student workers enjoy sick pay for COVID. We are proud of what we have accomplished and look forward accomplishing even more with our union!

1/27/22 Statement on Campus-Wide Sick Pay Win

DDS student workers organizing under the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth (SWCD) have won COVID sick pay! Student workers who fall ill with COVID will now be paid for the shifts they miss. This comes in addition to the 50% temporary raise DDS student workers won ten days ago.

SWCD has not yet received any confirmation as to whether this will apply retroactively to shifts already missed, and will continue its advocacy until all missed shifts are compensated. This victory comes as a direct result of our unionization effort. SWCD has now powerfully proven the possibility of fair compensation for our labor. We will continue our unionization drive to make these gains permanent, fight for further wins, and make sure no worker on this campus is left behind.

It is now time for the College to voluntarily recognize our union. Over 80% of DDS student workers have signed cards with the SWCD, expressing their intent to unionize. The union is here to stay, and we are looking forward to a smooth-sailing bargaining process once the administration makes the common-sense decision to recognize. We are currently waiting for their response, which, after a 2-week delay, we expect to receive tomorrow.

1/17/22 Statement on Administration’s Delay in Responding

We have received a reply to our letter from Dartmouth’s Administration notifying student workers that a “definitive response” will be provided by Friday, January 28. Student workers will soon meet to decide on their course of action.

We continue to emphasize the urgency of sick pay & union protection for student workers. One fifth of Dartmouth students has been infected with COVID and many workers have lost 20+ hours of shifts.

We will continue collecting signatures on our letter, accepting donations to our Union Fund, and keeping up the momentum to make Dartmouth a better place for its laborers. The union is here to stay.

1/10/22 Statement on Dining Service’s Temporary 50% Pay Increase

The Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth has won a temporary 50% raise, an unprecedented achievement for DDS student workers! This is a testament to the sheer power of student workers when they take the rightful step to unionize. 

In the fall, we won a $1-2 raise when the pressure of unionization started to exert itself on DDS. Now that our campaign is public and in coalition with many organizations, like the Association of University Professionals, SEIU 560, and the Student Assembly, our achievements are starting to get bigger. This temporary raise greatly adds to our momentum. We will continue advocating for sick pay, and make this raise permanent.