University of Virginia Library

By Student Council

Employment Practices
To Be Investigated

By Tom Adams
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

At next weeks meeting of the
Student Council, the investigation
of non-academic employment
practices will be renewed. At the
Council's January 14 meeting, Robert
Banks, a student at the Madison
extension of the University and an
employee of the Buildings and
Grounds department, cited several
examples of racial discrimination he
has observed while serving as a
janitorial supervisor.

Mr. Banks claimed that on one
occasion two Negro applicants for
jobs with the Buildings and
Grounds were told there were no
vacancies. The next day, Mr. Banks
said, two white men were hired
when there had been no reduction
in personnel from the day before.

Pay Differences

He said that a Negro was hired
for a janitorial position at $1.35 per
hour while a white man was hired
for the same type job on the same
day at $1.40 per hour.

Mr. Banks described other, more
subtle methods of discrimination,
such as putting Negroes on night
shifts and hiring them for less than
35 hours a week so they do not
have any benefits or tenure that a
full-time employee has.

Council Invitations

The Student Council has invited
the director of Buildings and
Grounds, Harold Taylor; and two
equal opportunity officers of the
University Alex Sawyer, assistant
director of the Ground Floor
Outpatient Department of the University
Hospital; and S. Arnold
Nunnery, assistant director of personnel
for the University, to its
next meeting.

In a recent interview, Mr.
Nunnery answered some of Mr.
Banks' charges of discrimination,
many of which he personally
investigated. He said that the
difference in wages paid to the two
applicants was because the men
were hired by two different men.

Unsubstantiated Charges

He noted that both he and Fred
Stokes, who was with the personnel
office until his appointment to the
admissions department, had spoken
with Mr. Banks many times about
the charges and investigated them.
He said that his office appreciated
the efforts of Mr. Banks to fight
discrimination, but pointed out
that many of his charges could not
be substantiated.

"We would like to get hold of
some cases we can substantiate."
Mr. Nunnery said.

At Tuesday's meeting of the
Council a committee on employment
was formed to look into
University non-academic employment
practices. It is chaired by
Tom Gardner and Paul Hurdle.
Student Council members are Kevin
Mannix, Ron Cass, Eugene Angle,
and Bud Ogle.

In other business at Tuesday's
Council meeting, Kevin Mannix
reported that changes have been
made in the Alderman Road Legislative
Council's constitution to allow
review of all matters that do
not concern its members, such as
dealings with the Administration.

Bud Ogle reported that the
Virginia Weekly lost quite a bit of
money on its last issue due to theft
of coin boxes on its stands and
stealing of newspapers. He asked
the Organization and Publications
Committee to investigate the possibility
of a Student Activity Fee
subsidy of the newspaper.