Danny Freeman
Template:TOCnestleft Danny Freeman is a Tennessee activist.
PSA meeting Fall, 2012
Monday 10 September 2012, Progressive Student Alliance UTC held its first Fall meeting, at the UC Fortwood Room.
- The PSA at UT Chattanooga is a Feminist, anti-Racist student organization committed to fighting for Social and Economic Justice in our campus community and beyond. Join us this Monday to see what we're about, what we're doing, and how you can plug into the movement for justice in Chattanooga and in the South!
Those signalling their intention to attend, on the Wherevent meeting site included Mark Gilliland, Sally Buice, Gayle Tyree, Jason Burford, Danny Freeman, Dominique Pennington, Blake Wood, Michael Frazzitta, Jonathan Rousseau, Spencer Cantrell, .[1]
"Living wage"
March 2013, members of the United Campus Workers and the Progressive Student Alliance delivered a letter to University administrators and asked for living wages for all campus employees.
Jared Story, an administrative assistant with the College of Nursing and a United Campus Workers member, said many employees on college campuses across the state are unable to maintain adequate health care, housing and transportation due to low compensation.
“There are hundreds of workers on this campus and across the state that make less than living wages,” Story said. “Some of them have two or three jobs to support their families, and some are on government assistance. Our state institutions should be paying living wages.”
Story said United Campus Workers members also oppose contracting services to private companies, as some may not offer the same benefits that are received by state employees.
Members of these organizations also emphasized inadequate adjunct faculty pay as a main concern, as many must maintain additional employment in order to get by.
“There are a lot of departments that use adjunct faculty, and that is one way of cutting down on pay,” Dr. Parthasarati Dileepan, professor of management and vice president of the UTC chapter of United Campus Workers said. “The number of adjuncts has increased and at the same time, compensation has remained very low.
Dr. Grady Bogue, interim chancellor, personally received the letter and said he would discuss the issue with members of the University executive council.
Danny Freeman, a Chattanooga junior and Progressive Student Alliance member, said students are directly affected by inadequate faculty and employee wages.
“Students have a special kind of leverage in the University, and that is because we pay tuition,” Freeman said. “So basically the University is here to serve us, and we are directly affected by living wage issues because their [University employees] working conditions are our learning conditions.”[2]