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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2000)
Letters to the editor Columnist off mark Beata Mostafavi’s column (ODE, March 9) presented a short sighted view of today’s job market. Students are already pushed to work way too much while in school, often at the expense of their own education. This work your-way-to-success dogma is Capitalism 101, and in the long run, it does the individual more harm than good. I worked full time for five years before returning to graduate school, and I acknowledge that my resume, which includes eight internships while in school, helped me land my first full-time job with a good starting salary at a large daily newspaper. But they did not help me perform better than colleagues who had invested more time in their studies. As I sought to write the kind of in depth articles that get a young re porter promoted, I regretted that I had not devoted more time to learn the intricacies of urban is sues, women’s studies and eco nomics. A broad base of knowl edge, good writing skills and the critical thinking skills to put it all together are vital to job success. These fundamental things are usually better absorbed in college than in the daily crush of the job market. These things also equip you to be active, well-informed citizens. Of course employers like in terns. Interns offer companies cheap labor and ways to reduce training costs and mold pro-com pany employees. There is nothing wrong with getting a little work experience while in college, but in the long run, students are best served by devoting most of their time to their studies. We’ll all spend the rest of our lives work ing. Now is the time to get the most of your education. Ursula Wiljanen Ph.D. student in comparative literature Let our voices be heard For a year now, the anti-sweat shop issue has been visible all over campus. As students, we have dong research, and we have educated and been educated by groups on campus. Through many different outlets, we have heard the views of our peers, Nike and the Emerald. Students heard the various viewpoints, advertise ments, editorials and street theater \ ' ' performances. And then we vot ed. One thousand, two hundred thirty-seven students, three quar ters of the voting student body, used their voices to show their support for the Workers’ Rights Consortium. Many of these stu dents may not know that because of the University’s current lack of democracy, our voice is nonbind ing. University President Dave Frohnmayer is the only one who has the decision-making power on this issue. In short, 1,237 students have taken a stand, and Frohn mayer has the option to disregard the vote. I urge those students to make sure their voices are not ig nored. Halle Rubin Williams history University should adopt WRC Last year, a small group of col lege students from the United States entered the Ex Modica fac tory in El Salvador to ask workers about their working conditions. The students were discovered by guards who forcefully took their film and ordered them out of the factory at gunpoint. What did this factory have to hide? According to the National La bor Committee, a U.S.-based hu man rights nonprofit group, the conditions in Ex Modica are hor rendous and reflect patterns of ex ploitation they have found in ap parel factories throughout the world. In Ex Modica, the NLC reports, workers (mostly young women and children) earn 60 cents an hour, a wage that does not buy even basic staples for a small fam ily. Indeed, the NLC has talked to women who are supplementing their children’s diets with coffee because they cannot afford food. Furthermore, workers are verbal ly humiliated by guards, allowed to go to the bathroom twice a day and fired if they become pregnant. Finally, and perhaps most dis turbingly, according to the NLC and other human rights groups, sweatshop workers in Ex Modica and throughout the world are fired if they try to organize. Surprise, surprise, Ex Modica produces University licensed ap parel. If we adopt the Workers’ Rights Consortium (the recent vote was merely a recommenda tion that the administration do so), we have the opportunity to address this injustice. The WRC will create a safe atmosphere for workers to speak up when they are wronged and to organize if they so wish. The administration should sign on today. Seth Quakenbush senior Frohnmayer takes HRA’s credit If University President Dave Frohnmayer were speaking the whole truth about the Workers’ Rights Consortium in his com mentary (ODE, March 29), then we would applaud his efforts of cooperation, shared-governance and community. We support working together as faculty, staff and students to address issues that affect everyone. Frohnmayer’s statement, how ever, that “the ‘sweatshop’ licens ing issue began with an initiative from the President’s Office” is an outright lie. The Human Rights Alliance, given a mere parentheti cal clause in his letter, spurred the administration to start the Li censee Code of Conduct Commit tee and provided most of its re search materials. This committee came about only after the HRA spent two terms meeting with ad ministrators and faculty, holding public informational forums and working locally and nationally with student, labor and human rights groups to illuminate the im portance and urgency of this is sue. Is it “working together” if one group does the majority of the work and another takes all the credit? Frohnmayer’s commentary is a political ploy to undermine the ef forts of students who have been working tirelessly for more than a year to educate the University community about workers’ rights and the University’s role in sweat shop labor through companies that produce licensed apparel. Under the guise of seeking co operation, Frohnmayer establish es adversarial positions within the University. President Frohnmay er, if you truly support “living wages, reasonable hours of work and adequate safety and health for those workers who make Univer sity licensed products,” why are you prolonging the suffering of those workers by delaying your decision to adopt the WRC? Agatha Schmaedick international and environmental studies Chad Sullivan music and history You Could Win A Day with the President Enter to win a day with University of Oregon President, Dave Frohnmayer. Enter at the table in the EMU on March 29,30, or 31 st. The winner will be announced on April 4th in the Emerald. MusiqueGourntel Catering to the Discriminating Collector CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED CLASSICAL MUSIC, OPERA, BROADWAY, FILM SCORES & TALKING BOOKS ON COMPACT DISC I CD’S FROM $3.95 ~ 8 In the Fifthpearl Building 207 E. 5th Avenue OPEN 7 DAYS Free Parking 343-9000 3u Sfe SUMMER JOBS! 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