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
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