Confusion abounds over the WRC question
■A Columbia University law
professor claims the WRC
already meets University
requirements
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
The legal fog surrounding the
Worker Rights Consortium became
even thicker
Monday, when
a WRC official
issued a state
ment saying
the organiza
tion has al
ready met the
University’s
conditions for
membership.
University
President Dave Frohnmayer said in
an Oct. 25 statement that the Univer
sity could not pay its membership
dues because the WRC was neither
an incorporated entity nor had tax
exempt status.
Citing a legal opinion written by
University Counsel Melinda Grier,
Genetic rally
continued from page 1
He said when people consume
these “marker genes,” which are of
ten bacterial genes, it may reduce
their antibodies’ ability to fight off
disease, because the diseases will
figure out how to get around the an
tibodies.
(( OSPIRG has a long his
tory of defending the con
sumer right to know and
protecting the health of
consumers in public
health issues.
Jessica
Smitana
However, he said “the only stud
ies that have been done [on whether
these bacterial genes lower antibiot
ic resistance] were done on rats.”
Tuesday’s event was one of many
events sponsored by the Oregon
Student Public Interest Research
Group this year about health, the en
vironment and consumer safety.
“OSPIRG has a long history of de
fending the consumer right to know
and protecting the health of con
sumers in public health issues,”
said OSPIRG organizer Jessica Smi
tana, speaking about why the rally
was organized. “People need to be
informed that these products are out
there, and that they represent a po
tential risk.”
Calendar
Wednesday, Nov. 1
— Film: Sergei Paradjanov’s “Shad
ows of Forgotten Ancestors.” 6:30
p.m., 115 Pacific Hall. Free.
— Literary arts: Ralph Salisbury
signs copies of “ Rainbows of Stone. ”
7:30 p.m., Knight Library Browsing
Room. Free.
— Film: “The Canterbury Tales,”
1998 version of Chaucer's classic
work. 7 p.m., 180 PLC. Free.
— Lecture: Carol Silverman discuss
es “Gender Display in the Diaspora:
Performance and Music Among East
European Roma (Gypsies).” Noon,
330 Hendricks Hall. Free..
Frohnmayer also said the University
could not move ahead with joining
the WRC because of state laws gov
erning the University’s contractual
powers and liability issues.
But Mark Barenberg, a law profes
sor at Columbia University and chair
man of the WRC Board of Directors,
released a statement responding to
each reason why the University said
it could not pay an invoice for mem
bership dues to the WRC.
Barenberg made his statement to
clarify the WRC’s position in the
hopes that “the president of the Uni
versity of Oregon will reconsider his
decision and will honor his commit
ment to affiliate with the WRC. ”
He then stated that the WRC is “a
fully certified corporation, incorpo
rated pursuant to the not-for profit
corporation law of New York state,”
and that the “purposes and activities
of the WRC fall well within the fed
eral requirements of a ... tax exempt
organization.”
Two of the main reasons for the
University’s decision not to pay the
WRC membership dues arose from
its belief that the organization had not
become an incorporated entity and
that it did not have non-profit tax sta
tus.
Barenberg replied to those points,
as wall as to University’s chief argu
ment that it could be held liable for
the WRC’s actions.
“The WRC is not a membership or
ganization,” he writes. “Universities
which contribute to, and affiliate
with, the WRC are therefore not legal
ly liable as members for any conjec
tured legal liabilities that the WRC
may incur.”
Frohnmayer returned to Eugene af
ter attending a medical symposium
in the Netherlands and said he stood
by his decision despite Barenberg’s
assertions. He said the University
was bound to Grier’s opinion, which
has been publicly confirmed by the
state Attorney General’s office. To pay
the WRC, Frohnmayer said, would
be a violation of state law.
“We don’t have any choice in the
matter,” he said.
He said that while Barenberg may
be highly educated in law, his argu
ments are only assertions, and the
University can’t ignore its general
counsel in matters regarding the
WRC.
In regards to Barenberg’s argument
about the University not being held
liable, Frohnmayer said it was open
to interpretation.
“Notwithstanding an organiza
tion’s attempt to shield its members, a
court could impose liability any
way,” he said.
Frohnmayer added it would be
highly irresponsible to expose the
University to even the slightest
chance of the “significant, if not crip
pling” liability that could be incurred
though WRC actions in foreign coun
tries, which have different court sys
tems than the United States.
While reaction on campus to the
impasse between the WRC and Uni
versity has been subdued, a few fac
ulty members and students have ex
pressed their confusion about where
exactly the University stands on the
issue.
Frohnmayer said progress in the
relationship between the two largely
depends on how the WRC responds
to the University’s criticism.
“We’ve been trying to work with
them since last April, and much of
our correspondence hasn’t been re
sponded to,” he said.
He said issues over the group’s re
fusal to allow input from the garment
industry and its lack of openness to
the press still remain unresolved, and
new issues have just been raised.
Philosophy professor Cheyney
Ryan, co-chair of the Faculty Adviso
ry Council that meets with Frohn
mayer each week, said the council
had not discussed the matter official
ly, but said he personally thinks the
issues surrounding the WRC need to
be clarified.
“One thing we’re just trying to get
clear... is what the University’s con
cerns about the WRC are, and what
[its] position is,” he said.
He said the recent flare-up of dis
agreements between the University
and the WRC doesn’t make sense,
given the long process it has taken to
join in the first place.
“It’s obvious the WRC is a group in
formation, but that’s something
we’ve always known,” Ryan said. “I
don’t understand why now that is a
problem.”
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