Inside a white bubble tent, in the heart of Georgetown University, Diane Foglizzo, a brown-haired, strong-willed senior, is on the sixth day of her hunger strike. She said she's lost 10 pounds on a meager diet of water and orange juice. Another student activist, weakened by hunger, was rushed to the hospital Saturday.
But Foglizzo looked neither exhausted nor worried yesterday. She and her comrades were making buttons and preparing protest plays, their bodies seemingly nourished by their cause.
It's a cause unlike those of previous generations of campus activists, who've protested against the Vietnam War, apartheid in South Africa, Asian sweatshops and the war in Iraq. Foglizzo is starving herself for those closer to home: Georgetown University's janitors.
"These are people we see everyday, who make it possible for us to go to class," said Foglizzo, 21, who is majoring in culture and politics. "We can affect their lives directly now."
She and 24 other Georgetown students participating in the hunger strike want to boost hourly salaries and job and wage security for the university's 450 contract employees, mostly custodial, food service and security workers.
The workers receive on average $11.33 an hour, which includes wages and health benefits, a Georgetown spokeswoman said.
The activists said that is not enough. They want the university to put in place a plan that will pay workers "a living wage" of $13.95 to $14.93 an hour by July.
"The main demand is that Georgetown commit to paying its workers a wage that allows them to support their families with one fulltime job," said Liam Stack, a senior majoring in Muslim-Christian relationships.
Stack added that 143 workers at the university hired by contractors are paid less than the living wage, along with 25 hired directly by the university.
Georgetown officials said they are committed to fairly compensating the university's workers. An advisory committee is weighing a proposal by Georgetown Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas to phase in wage increases to a minimum of $14 an hour by summer 2007.
After that, wages would increase annually, taking into account inflation. In all, it would cost the university nearly $550,000 over the next two years.
If $14.93 was set as the minimum hourly wage right away for all its workers, including its 4,500 direct employees, it would add $1.8 million annually to the university budget, said Julie Green Bataille, a university spokeswoman.
