'Living Wage Forum' To Be Held Nov. 11

by Sara D. Spain, Student Newswriter

University Life and the Business School Christian Fellowship will sponsor the Living Wage Forum at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Building in the Hankamer School of Business.
The forum will focus on the "Christian call to love our neighbor as we do ourselves," said Dr. Todd Lake, dean for university life. "This means we need to help our neighbors earn the food and clothing and money for health care and housing that they need for themselves and their families." Notre Dame held a similar academic conference several years ago.
The forum also will address "both the moral and economic aspects of the living wage," said Dr. Jerold Waltman, a political science professor at Baylor. Waltman's argument in his book, The Case for the Living Wage, is based on the requirements of citizenship and the Christian notions of the "just wage."
According to Waltman, "the idea of the living wage began in Baltimore in 1994 and has since spread to approximately 100 other local government jurisdictions."
Panel participants include Scott James of Pura Vida Coffee and a Baylor alumnus; Waltman; Baylor students for Social Justice, who will present a case study; Richard Troxell, Chair of the National Universal Living Wage Organization; Dr. Charles North, assistant professor of economics, Hankamer School of Business; Dr. John Singletary, assistant professor of social work, Baylor School of Social Work; and Lake.
"The need to have this discussion is very clear in a country where 45 million people have no health insurance," said Lake. "We are the largest Christian university in the Protestant tradition in the world. It is critical that we think together about how to live out the gospel, which Jesus told us would be 'good news for the poor.'"
For more information on the Living Wage Forum call the Office of University Life at (254) 710-3517.