I spent the last twelve years cooking for a hot bar buffet in a grocery co-op. Before that, I was a lawyer. I left the corporate fast track to focus on my creative interests (writing a book, composing pop songs). If anyone asked me what I did, I said, “I’m a cook.” Why? Because I’m proud of who I am and what I do. Did anyone look down on me? Yup. More’s the pity for them. You know nothing about someone from what you see immediately in front of you.

We are not born equal. We live in a land where we place primacy on equality of opportunity, but we are not born equal. We are born with different talents and different interests, and those talents and interests do not make us better. They just make us different.

There’s an underlying current of opinion in some universities that having a college degree or studying for one makes us better than those who don’t. Those of you paying attention may have noticed that what got Donald Trump elected in 2016 was a groundswell among ordinary working people without college degrees who were sick and tired of being told what was best for them by folks with college degrees. The moral? Beware of underlying currents. They tend to be nonsense.

We all serve. We just don’t always like to recognize the fact. You get a degree, and you sit behind a fancy desk, but that fancy desk is just another form of counter-top. Your Mont Blanc fountain pen is just a substitute for a mop.

The person serving you a meal. The lady mopping your floors. The custodians caring for the places where we eat, sleep and study. These are good people. Proud of what they do. Proud of the fact that they are helping you and me through the stress of college, so that we can get a degree, and, tomorrow, we can serve them as doctors, lawyers, managers or politicians. It’s all a delightful circle, and we can make it more delightful by being more grateful.

So, next time you see a member of staff making our environment a little more pleasant, say hi, thank you, good morning and see ya. Tip them well because what goes around, comes around. Then, have a word with those standing for CUSG. Get them to ensure that those supporting us are being paid fair compensation.

I don’t believe in a universal minimum wage. It tends to put too much pressure on small businesses. But I do believe that a business as large as Clemson– and yes, we’re a business as well as an institute of higher learning– should be able to ensure that those who help us at least receive a living wage, which, for a couple in Pickens County, SC, is $18.58 per person.

I checked online to see what Clemson pays its support staff. Nada. There is loads about teachers’ salaries but nothing about support staff. Folks, those who support us deserve better than this. We deserve to behave better than this. We are all part of the same Clemson family: President Clements, Dabo, you, me and the good people who make our lives better.

As I say, it is all a delightful circle: when we behave better, our lives are made better, and we do better. We must payback by ensuring our staff get a decent paycheck, so that, in due course, when it is our turn to serve them, they can pay us!