Around New England

Professor Says Harvard Students Too Good To Clean Other Students’ Bathrooms

April 8, 2019

A Temple University professor of higher education has suggested that a program at Harvard College in which undergraduates clean the bathrooms of other undergraduates for money is demeaning to the workers.

The program, called Dorm Crew, is one of the highest-paying jobs on campus, and is popular with students who need money. The starting pay is $16.25 an hour.

But Sara Y. Goldrick-Rab, a Temple professor, is offended by it.

“Low-income students at HARVARD working 20 hours a week in their first year of college cleaning [expletive deleted] dorms?? And we keep giving this wealthy place our public dollars why exactly?” Goldrick-Rab said in a tweet.

The professor was reacting to a story in The Hechinger Report, which covers education, that quoted the professor about student debt. The story also mentioned students at Harvard who work Dorm Crew, which drew the professor’s ire after the story was published.

But Dorm Crew students defended the program, which allows them to pick when they want to clean bathrooms and pays them a high wage to do it.

“I am middle class, on financial aid, and work for Dorm Crew entirely because I want to,” one junior tweeted, according to The Harvard Crimson.