SAGES to Protest Adjunct Wages, Respect for Life Display

By Erin Shanahan

The gender equality and contraceptive activists, SAGES, have been promoting two events: Fordham Faculty Forward’s “Student and Adjunct Income Inequality Rally” to be held this Wednesday, April 15, as well as “SAGES Protest Against Respect for Life Week.” Specifically , SAGES will be protesting the “Cemetery of the Innocents,” which they termed “the baby graveyard” held on April 29.

SAGES passed out flyers regarding these two events outside of McGinley this past Thursday, April 15.

The upcoming event held by Fordham Faculty Forward was inspired by a National Day of Action named the “Fight for $15.” By attending this event, students will be standing with workers and community members to fight for a new standard adjunct salary.

Currently, adjuncts at Fordham receive, on average, about $3,800 per course, with a cap of 2 courses per semester. No benefits are included. Fordham Faculty Forward fights for a new standard of 15k per course and a new minimum wage of $15/hr.

Fordham Faculty Forward’s struggle for a higher minimum wage interests SAGES because of the relation between class inequality and gender inequality.

“The right to provide for your family is a part of women’s rights, specifically to provide for children,” said SAGES founding member Rachel Field, FCRH ’15, “An adjunct professor here at Fordham is making significantly less than the amount necessary to afford child care.”

In addition to the Faculty Forward Rally, SAGES will be holding a protest against Fordham Respect for Life’s demonstration held on McGinley Lawn called the “Cemetery of the Innocents,” on April 28.

SAGES plans to stand in solidarity with people who have experienced the emotional pain of being involved with an abortion. They plan to speak out against Fordham Respect for Life’s demonstration by engaging in conversations with students, handing out flyers against the event, and using a large banner to cover up the demonstration.

“We are here to stand in solidarity with students who feel very hurt by the demonstration,” Field said. “No one should feel ashamed of their experiences or past decisions. Why are we as a campus shaming students? We want to show students that they can speak up and have a voice.”

According to Field, after last year’s “Cemetery of the Innocents” Fordham’s Women’s Empowerment group had a discussion with Fordham Pro-Life regarding the hurtful and negative aspects of the demonstration.
“It was very fruitful in discussing the way that the graveyard works to shame students on campus, particularly women, who have been through abortion,” said Field. “This conversation was part of a Women’s Empowerment effort to create a deeper dialogue around the tactics used by Pro-Life.”

SAGES expressed that it has big plans for the future of the coalition.

After building internally throughout the winter, SAGES intends to continue expanding their established sexual health network, which is called the “Just a Friend Network.” This network allows students to gain access free contraceptives through a network of their peers.

In addition, SAGES plans to launch a rebrand of the coalition called Fordham Students United (FSU).

This organization will act as a broader-based student movement organization. It will promote all students who are concerned with the problems of sexism, racism, free speech or equality of other types.

“These issues are not gone. We’re not gone.” Field concluded, “This is not something that happens in one semester because it is exciting and then disappears. This is work that take a long time to develop and cultivate and it will be continuing regardless.”