Featured photo by Maia O’Brien
Story by Noah McLane, Kameron Scott and Maia O’Brien
MTSU campus workers marched on campus calling for bi-weekly pay on Dec. 3. They were met by MTSU’s Vice President and Spokesman for Marketing and Communications, Andrew Oppmann, during a march that reached its climax in front of the Cope Administration Building.
Nearly 40 United Campus Workers demonstrators departed the Student Union courtyard for Cope at noon after fueling up on Donut Country, armed with only their voices and homemade signs written on paper plates.
“We’re not asking for a lot here,” Levi Dandridge, the Student Worker Advocacy Group (SWAY) president and a junior in the recording industry program, said. “This isn’t raises, this is merely just a change in pay structure. Other universities in Tennessee have already made that change, and it’s time for MTSU to make that change too.”
MTSU clubs like the Young Democratic Socialists of America and SWAY have fought for this change for nearly two years, but some feel the administration has forgotten about them.
“We’ve had a delegation from the union speak to McPhee about bi-weekly pay already, and he kind of blew us off,” Dandridge said. “We’ve also had a petition signed and talked in front of the Board of Trustees, and they blew us off, so we felt that we needed to make our position loud and clear.”
Shortly after Dandrige and the rest of the group arrived at Cope and began chanting “bi-weekly pay,” a very official-looking man emerged from the building and went to the protestors – Andrew Oppmann.
He told the students the rest of the administration was away at lunch but that he would stay and listen to them.
“They’re our students. I want to make sure they’re heard – they came all this way,” said Oppmann.
The administrator listened to people like Ashton Beatty share challenges he and other campus workers faced while waiting up to six weeks for their first paycheck.
“I have a lot of friends who work on campus,” student Gwyneth Runyen said, “and hearing that they haven’t been receiving pay very often hurts me. I can’t imagine going a whole month without getting paid to buy the things I need. ”
One demonstrator, a graduate of MTSU’s aerospace program who works on HVACs for MTSU, told Oppmann that he fell behind on rent and had to pay late fees for six months because of the delay in receiving his first paycheck.
There are some benefits to monthly pay periods, however those are mostly for the entity employing people, not the employees. Monthly pay gives businesses more cash flow, which allows them to be better prepared to adapt to sudden changes, and it lowers the processing cost of running payroll, said the Academy to Innovate Human Relations (AIHR), an online HR training academy.
Some people marching, like MTSU housing worker Margaret Luttrel, said she was worried about getting Christmas presents for her loved ones.
“I have no idea what I’m going to get people because I’m not getting paid, which is so sad – honestly, I really hate it,” Luttrel said.
Another concern marchers repeatedly spoke about between chants was whether the university administration would actually hear their calls.
“I am part of the administration, and I heard them,” Oppmann said after spending about 15 minutes conversing with marchers. “We’ve got great students, and they’re coming out trying to make their point of view heard, [I’m] proud of them.”
Kameron Scott and Maia O’Brien are reporters for MTSU Sidelines
Noah McLane is the lead news reporter for MTSU Sidelines
To contact the News Editor, email newseditor@mtsusidelines.com.
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