“Hey Hennessy: Where’s the living wage?”

So read the subject line of an email circulated by the Stanford Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) drumming up support for yesterday’s protest, held at noon in White Plaza. A dozen students showed up for the demonstration, which called on University President John Hennessy to increase the living wage for Stanford’s workers.

SLAC members, who lobbied the University on the behalf Stanford Hospital workers last fall during contract negotiations, now say their primary target is Stanford’s living wage for workers, currently set at $11.35 per hour.

“We’re kicking off our living wage campaign aiming to pressure the University to make its living wage policy concrete,” said senior Christopher Vaughan.

SLAC maintains that Stanford’s living wage is insufficient when compared to the cost of living in Palo Alto and the surrounding region. The California Budget Project, “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization seeking fiscal reforms to benefit low and moderate income Californians,” according to its Web site, estimates that a single adult living in Santa Clara needs an hourly wage of $13.41 to survive.

“$11.36 isn’t really a living wage for the Bay Area, where the cost of living is much more,” said Alexandra Goldman, a junior. “We’re hoping to see a wage that’s more appropriate.”

Passing out fliers, chanting with bullhorns and animating a giant puppet, members of SLAC circulated their message around a White Plaza abuzz in the noontime sun. Organizers said the protest was a simple beginning in a concerted effort to raise awareness about a living wage on campus.

“We’re planning on doing a lot of outreach, letting people know that this going on,” Goldman said, adding that she expected events to grow in size and stature as the campaign continues. “We’re escalating what we’re going to do.”

With a demonstrated passion for worker’s rights, Goldman hinted that anything less than a raise in the living wage would be considered a failure by SLAC.

“Ultimately our goal is to get this living wage actually implemented,” she said. “We’re going to do what we have to do.”

While Tuesday’s demonstration targeted student awareness, members of SLAC say that the campaign’s list of potential marks begins and ends with Hennessy.

“We’re operating under the assumption that Hennessy has the ultimate decision,” Goldman said.

The most recent living wage guidelines, released in 2003, called for companies contracted by the University to pay employees a minimum of $10.10 per hour with health benefits, or $11.35 per hour if health benefits are not provided.

“Stanford University recognizes the importance of paying a living-wage to all service workers at Stanford, whether they are directly employed by Stanford or by contractors,” the guidelines read. “Stanford already pays a living wage to its employees and now adopts this living-wage “

SLAC members complain that the guidelines are overly restrictive and fail to sufficiently encompass the campus worker population. They also accuse Hennessy of playing lip service to wage reform and engaging in a “closed-door” process, while failing to make any real progress or openly engage in discussion with the student body.

“Hennessy did call it a moral imperative [when he created the living wage in 2003],” said SLAC member Joseles De La Cruz, a senior. “But what he created was not a living wage.”