In Frank Emspak’s autobiography written several years ago, he said, “by the time I finished my undergraduate career at UW, I was probably their most expensive student.”
He wasn’t kidding. Through his pioneering efforts as a class-conscious undergraduate, Emspak organized fellow University of Wisconsin-Madison student employees. Together, they forced the state to start paying students higher wages decades before other schools across the country did so.
A labor organizer, academic, activist and major leftist figure both in Madison and nationally, Emspak died June 14 at 80 years old.
The Cap Times | Honor Frank Emspak as an epic advocate for workers