On Wednesday, November 4th student representatives from the Campus Solidarity Working Group displayed a visual presentation focusing on the issues of Vassar job security in the College Center Atrium.
The multimedia project, on display today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., had several different facets—the center of the Atrium was stacked with dozens of “blocks,” cardboard boxes painted red and featuring pictures of Vassar employess. Nathan Orians ’10 explained that they represent the ways in which Vassar employees are the “building blocks” of the college’s success, and by “touching them and moving them around,” visitors to the project might gain a new understanding of the importance of the work employees provide for the college.
More photographs of Vassar employees were hung along the wall; some included the stories of individuals who had been laid off in the past few weeks. Across the ceiling of the Atrium’s lower level were 15 white teeshirts, each representing a worker that Vassar has fired due to budget cuts since the beginning of the year. Alongside these shirts were almost one hundred smaller, paper cut-out shirts, representing the projected number of employees the College will lay off over the course of the year. The shirts were hung as if on a clothesline, because the College “has hung them up to dry,” said Orians.
The members of the Campus Solidarity Working Group have been working actively through the semester to ensure job security for Vassar employees through many mediums, such as weekly protests, petitions, and meetings with senior administrators. Met with limited success in their endeavors, students involved in the project hope a new medium will help to raise awareness and to educate members of the Vassar community in the issues facing employees.
“There’s been a formal, official discourse about these issues, but no opportunities to discuss how it affects people on the micro, personal level, or how it affects the college beyond this one dialogue,” said Jamie Stevenson ’10, a student representative from the Campus Solidarity Working Group and one of the designers of the project on display in the College Center. She hopes the project will demonstrate to fellow students and community members the other ways in which job cuts affect Vassar, besides what is related by senior College administrators.
