"The president of the University of Virginia on Friday acknowledged that students fighting for better pay for university workers have a valid case for change, calling the debate “revolutionary” in its shifting of the poverty burden from government to the private sector.

Among the updates on capital improvements, fundraising and faculty accomplishments in his annual State of the University Address, John T. Casteen III touched on what’s come to be known as the living wage issue at the start and end of his hour-long address.

“I have learned, I hope you have learned, in profound ways, from the arguments made from student protesters in the last semester or so,” Casteen said. “Their arguments are, frankly, vastly different and vastly more usable than arguments made in prior years by anyone.”

Included in the audience of about 300 faculty, students and local residents inside Old Cabell Hall, dozens of living wage protesters wore sashes, armbands, headbands and, in some cases, gags, in silent support for their ongoing crusade.

“This is a proposition more sweeping … in its implications than anyone has yet acknowledged or perhaps understood, and yet one so revolutionary in its implications that it deserves to be understood and debated by every citizen,” Casteen said.

Advocates maintain that workers at UVa should earn no less than $10.72 an hour to afford food, housing, transportation, heath care, child care and taxes in Charlottesville.

Casteen, who has met with the student advocates, has promised to examine the possibility of increasing the university’s base pay rate, $9.37 an hour. But the president and students have clashed over whether UVa has control over contract workers’ wages.

The wage campaign reached a crescendo in the past week, with the April 15 arrest of 17 students who staged a sit-in inside Madison Hall for days in a failed effort to negotiate the wage increase with university administrators.

Student organizers, who have won the support of 223 faculty members, held a news conference an hour before Casteen’s speech, criticizing last weekend’s arrests and vowing to keep up the fight. The living wage advocates have asked Casteen to meet again before Friday.

According to UVa spokeswoman Carol Wood, Casteen e-mailed two of the student organizers Thursday to reiterate his commitment to a follow-up meeting and invited them to get in touch with his office to set up a time.

They responded Friday, Wood said, to say that they were interested.

Casteen ended Friday’s address by speaking about the opportunities for workers at UVa.

“They say that the capacity to make dramatic differences in people’s lives are out there and not far away,” he said. “The opportunities for advancement as employees take advantage of the educational programs we offer; the opportunities for better and fair compensation; and the opportunities … are larger at this point than at any time in my recollection or knowledge.”

Abby Bellows, a fourth-year student and wage advocate, said she was disappointed Casteen did not leave time after his speech for questions, but said she was happy that the president showed interest in “better and fair compensation.”

“At this point, we’re doing all we can to encourage the president to put his commitment behind this glowing rhetoric,” Bellows said. “They’ve justified low wages by talking about advancement, that they’re just flying up the ladder. These people are staying in these jobs for 10 years. As a human rights issue, we just can’t have people who are sweeping out floors not being able to live in this community.”" (Liesel Nowak, The Daily Progress, April 22, 2006)