Exciting Student Wages Petition Update!

Greetings,

I want to update you on the status of the petition.

Since the petition went live, our coalition of students has worked diligently and strategically. We met with Dean Wall and shared personal stories from students directly and negatively impacted by the shockingly low wages William & Mary Law School pays student employees. We gathered substantial intel from other law schools nationwide on how much they pay student employees to bolster our argument that William & Mary Law School is in the minority by paying students as low as $12/hour. After meeting with Dean Wall, we asked SBA to support our petition, and they unanimously agreed to send a representative to our meeting with Dean Spencer to state SBA supports increasing student wages.

Yesterday, a group of 8 students formally presented the petition to Dean Spencer and asked him to commit to making a plan to increase hourly wages to $20/ hour for all student employment positions and Legal Research and Writing Fellow stipends to $3,600 per semester. While he refused to commit to a number because he is a “responsible adult,” Dean Spencer committed to “substantially increasing student wages.” Dean Spencer and Dean Scianandre told us about the complicated budgeting process that happens in the spring. While they committed to raising student wages during the next budget allocation, they cited the budget process as the reason they can’t raise student wages for this fiscal year. We asked Dean Spencer to invite a coalition member to the budgeting meetings in February. We also told Dean Spencer that the minimum wage will increase to $15 in 2026, so $15/hour is unacceptable and not a viable solution. After our meeting, Dean Spencer asked Dean Wall to attend an emergency meeting regarding student workers, which required Dean Wall to halt his Trust & Estates class mid-lecture. While we do not know the substance of the meeting, we know it took place less than an hour after we met with Dean Spencer. We successfully convinced the school administration to prioritize increasing student wages.

There are a few takeaways from the meeting with Dean Spencer. One is, that if we stand together, we can achieve incredible things. Without the collective action of law students, Dean Spencer would not have committed to increasing wages. Another takeaway is that Dean Spencer wanted us to believe he intended to increase wages before we asked for a meeting with him. But we have him on the record in the spring telling students at the “State of the Law School Address” that increasing student wages was not a priority for him.

Additionally, Dean Spencer tried to avoid meeting with us by sending us to Dean Wall, who has no decision-making authority regarding student wages. Two days before our originally scheduled meeting with Dean Spencer in early October, his assistant told us there was no meeting, despite our email correspondence confirming a meeting on October 2. But for the pressure we put on Dean Spencer, he would not have committed to raising student wages.  

A commitment from Dean Spencer to “substantially” increase wages is a huge victory, but the work is not done. We must hold him accountable and ensure that he pays students their worth. A student who works 16 hours per week at $20/hour can barely afford to pay the average cost of a studio apartment in Williamsburg. Anything less than $20/hour is unacceptable.

We are here for the long haul. But we need your help. Our coalition will begin planning our response to the administration’s answer-but-not-really-an-answer to our petition. If you want to participate in the strategic planning, please fill out this form. Additionally, please continue sharing our petition. We ask you to share the petition with 5 of your friends. Only with planned, strategic action can we accomplish our goal of $20/ hour for all student employees and $3,600 per semester for Legal Research and Writing Fellows.

Thank you for signing our petition. Dean Spencer would not have committed to increasing student wages without you.

In solidarity,

Kyle Hyde