Rose Espinola | A SLAP to the University

Students sent 800faxes and e-mails to Penn President Amy Gutmann. A rally in October took place outside of College Hall, and students sent a delegation to the University president’s office. Mops were delivered every hour to her on Nov. 12. I was abroad last semester, and I thought that by the time I returned to campus, Gutmann would surely have found a resolution to Penn’s questionable investment in HEI Hotels & Resorts. Nevertheless, I found myself and several other Penn students trekking down to Virginia Jan. 16 to picket in front of an HEI-owned hotel.

Why did Penn students picket in the cold with workers outside of the HEI Sheraton Crystal City on a Saturday night? Because our university is implicit in the injustice that HEI employees experience every day on the job. Penn invests in HEI, and Wharton San Francisco — the University’s west-coast MBA-for-Executives program — is one of the biggest customers of HEI Le Meridian San Francisco.

Over the past year and a half, students have met with Penn and administrators, delivered letters to Penn decision-makers, signed petitions, attended rallies and teach-ins with professors and HEI employees or read The Daily Pennsylvanian’s near-dozen mentions of the HEI campaign (including a jeer last May for the University’s failure to act). But a few people might still be wondering: What is the problem with HEI?

When the company buys a hotel, they often cut back dramatically on staffing levels. This makes already dangerous hotel work even more taxing. At HEI’s hotels one worker might have to do the work of two or three. Additionally, many workers struggle to afford basic health insurance for themselves and their families. HEI’s profits literally come on the backs of its workers.

HEI workers deserve the same things that many of us take for granted — a living wage, health care and basic respect on the job. But when employees at several HEI-owned hotels have tried to organize themselves, the company has retaliated. Ferdi Lazo and Herman Romero, HEI employees who have visited Penn’s campus to speak to students, were laid off after publicly organizing. The National Labor Relations Board has even issued a complaint against HEI for alleged violations of federal labor law.

A Penn education should not come at the expense of workers’ basic rights. With such flagrant injustice, I thought Gutmann would have made the greatest attempt to disassociate our university from HEI Hotels & Resorts. I trusted that by the time I arrived back at Penn, she would have issued a public statement calling on HEI to change its practices and stating that Penn would not invest again in the company.

Furthermore, I expected that she would have ensured that Wharton San Francisco would have stopped patronizing a hotel where management’s refusal to listen to workers led them to call for a consumer boycott of the hotel.

Disappointingly, Gutmann has not done any of these things. She has not even agreed to meet with students and workers. I trusted in my University, and Gutmann has failed me, my peers and the global community to which we belong.

What happened to the Penn Compact? Signed by Gutmann, our university promises “to advance the central values of democracy: life, liberty, opportunity and mutual respect.” Where are the life, liberty, opportunity and mutual respect for the employees of HEI? As a Civic Scholar, I am beyond disappointed by Gutmann’s inaction on this issue.

Gutmann: Penn’s silence, inaction, and continued financial support of HEI make me fear that you support the rights abuses that are occurring at their hotels. If we cannot divest from HEI, please work with the Student Labor Action Project to hold a public forum and help me and my peers understand why this world-class university is unable to uphold the promises we made in the Penn Compact. Rose Espinola is a College junior and a member of SLAP. Her e-mail address is respi@sas.upenn.edu.

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