THE HOFSTRA
HEMPSTEAD, NY VOLUME 87 ISSUE 12
CHRONICLE
TUESDAY April 12, 2022
KEEPING THE HOFSTRA COMMUNITY INFORMED SINCE 1935. NEWS
Hofstra student employees demand minimum wage
and it doesn’t make sense,” said Julia Manwaring, a junior dance and psychology double major. Manwaring works as a pride guide for Hofstra Photo courtesy of Sharon McCutcheon Admissions Hofstra student employees form a student workers and is paid colaition amidst unfair wages. $9.50 an hour. The univerBy Madeline Armstrong sity is allowed to pay students NEW S E D I TO R less than minimum wage under As Hofstra Student Employa provision of the Federal Fair ment sends out an appreciation Labor Standards Act. This legal email to student employees to loophole enables universities celebrate National Student Employment Week, students across to apply for a certificate from the Department of Labor to hire campus claim they are being student workers and pay them unfairly paid. Hofstra student less than the minimum wage in employees are paid less than their area. the Nassau County minimum “New York state’s minimum wage of $15 per hour. wage does not apply to students “The school is paying less working at their own college,” than what a living wage is,
said Karla Schuster, assistant vice president of the Office of University Relations. “Hofstra’s student employee pay schedule is designed to offer employment opportunities to the largest number of students.” However, a number of students are facing financial difficulties due to their minimal pay. “I don’t know if the university understands how financially independent some students are,” Manwaring said. “We do have a variety of students here from different socioeconomic backgrounds.” Brianna Brown, a junior early childhood and childhood education major, works as a Resident Safety Representative (RSR) and is paid $9.50 an hour. According to Brown, if she worked from midnight to 8 a.m., she could make $11 an hour, but those hours are not cohesive with her class sched-
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NEWS
Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmed to Supreme Court By Michelle Rabinovich AS S I S TANT S P ORT S ED ITO R
Photo courtesy of H2rty
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
History was made on Thursday, April 7, when the 117th Senate voted 53-47 to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Jackson’s ascension to the bench comes after Justice Breyer’s retirement in late January and President Joe Biden’s nomination of her on Feb. 25. Hearings began on March 21, and lasted four days. The schedule started with an introduction, then proceeded to questioning for two days and ended with a testimony from the American Bar Association,
according to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Several students spoke about the joy they felt after hearing the news. Ariana Lowe, a senior psychology and criminology double major, was excited about the announcement. “I was relieved to hear that the vote passed [in the Senate],” Lowe said. The actions of both the Democratic and Republican Parties have been a prominent topic of discussion since the hearing began. One student hopes that Jackson will be an example to the next generation, because senators from the Republican
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Opinion
Houseless people are still people, stop thinking you’re superior to them
Photo courtesy of Krystalb97 New York City mayor Eric Adams enacts his plan to combat homelessness as his administration begins clearing homeless encampments.
By Dickinson-Frevola MA N A G IN G ED ITO R
Many things are moralized in the United States: health, access to resources and attempts to exercise bodily autonomy, among others. Failure to adhere to or achieve specific standards is seen as a moral failing on behalf of the individual, not as a failure of the state to adequately provide oftentime life-saving resources. As such, houselessness, an endemic that affected over half a million people in the United States in 2020, is seen as the fault of the individual experiencing it, rather than a result of inaccessible safe and equitable housing, fair job opportunities and strong support systems. Houselessness in New York City is nothing new. New Yorkers sleeping, working and living on the streets are treated as an eyesore instead of citizens who have been failed by their government. Recently, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has taken action to emulate the legacy of former Mayor Bill de Blasio by making the situations of houseless individuals worse. Armed officers have gone into the communities
these individuals have built and stolen or destroyed their belongings and shelters. When it comes to addressing houselessness, conversations are dominated by pearl-clutching sentiments that houseless people are violent criminals who pose a threat to society. But it seems these people only care about the theoretical violence that could be levied against them rather than the ongoing systemic violence that forces their fellow citizens to brunt unjust antagonism from law enforcement. Even if you overlook the fact that unhoused people are more likely to experience violence than those who have access to housing, let’s clarify one thing: it is violent to turn a blind eye to your citizens’ suffering, to your citizens’ poverty and to your citizens’ lack of access to nutrition and safe housing. Thus, it is undeniably violent and immoral to actively encourage brutality and disrespect towards the unhoused for the sole reason their lack of housing makes others “uncomfortable.”
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