The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
ADIDAS
From page 1A
University monitor the labor stan-
dards in its factories.
The UniversityAthletic Depart-
ment did not respond to repeated
requests for comment for this
story in time for publication.
LSA junior Blase Kearney, a
member of student group Students
Organized for Labor and Econom-
ic Equality, said he doubts that the
University will enforce its labor
policies. Kearney said he thinks
the switch from Nike to Adidas
won't result in a real change in
labor practices.
"Because they subcontract all
their labor, you're getting virtu-
ally no change," he said._
The factory in El Salvador
accused of labor malpractice was
also manufacturing Nike and Rus-
sellAthletic apparel.
Kearney said he doesn't think
the University's Advisory Com-
mittee on Labor Standards and
Human Rights will be able to
monitor Adidas' labor practices.
The committee, which reviews
the University's licensing con-
tracts and labor standards issues
for University goods, meets once
a month.
Kearney said the University
could ensure fair labor practices
from companies like Adidas and
Nike if it endorsed the Desig-
nated Suppliers Program, which
identifies factories throughout
the world producing university
apparel under fair labor condi-
tions.
Kearney and other SOLE mem-
bers were arrested in April after
they held a sit-in in University
President Mary Sue Coleman's
office demanding that the Univer-
sity join the program.
Coleman said earlier this year
that the University would not join
LEASES
From page 1A
student relations committee
- made up of MSA members and
City Council members - met with
Ann Arbor landlords to review the
ordinance.
The review was prompted by a
clause in the original ordinance,
which said it should be reviewed
in one year.
The revised ordinance is a com-
promise for both students and
landlords, Greden said.
"The students hated the waiver
and the landlords hated the wait-
ing period," Greden said.
Greden said he hopes a resolu-
tion will go before City Council for
the first time in December. That
means it won't affect most stu-
dents until next fall.
MSA Vice President Moham-
mad Dar said the negotiations were
the DSP because the program lim-
its the production of collegiate
apparel to the small numberof fac-
tories approved by the program.
According to the Worker Rights
Consortium website, the Univer-
sity's Adidas apparel will be pro-
duced in factories in China, South
Korea, Taiwan and the United
States. None of these factories
currently listed as producing Adi-
das apparel for the University are
sponsored by the DSP.
Student activists at the Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley
began protesting Adidas in Feb-
ruary after the company threat-
ened to reduce production at a
subcontracted Indonesian factory
where workers attempted to form
a union.
The University of Wiscon-
sin at Madison's labor stan-
dards code of conduct is nearly
identical to the University of
Michigan's Code of Conduct for
Licensees. That code applies
to the University's eight-year,
$60-million Adidas contract,
signed in June and set to take
effect next year.
Members of the Student Labor
Action Coalition, a group at the
university, said the company
breached the terms of the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin's labor stan-
dards code of conduct. That code
requires fair payment for workers
and protection from harassment
for employees who protest their
workingconditions.
University of Wisconsin junior
Jan Van Tol, a member of SLAC,
said in an e-mail interview that
drastic action is necessary to
make Adidas take the issue seri-
ously.
"We want our administra-
tors to issue a strong threat to
Adidas," Van Tol said. "Codes of
conduct are not just meaningless
pieces of paper that can be freely
ignored."
Gregg Nebel, Adidas's direc-
tor of social and environmental
affairs, said the company is com-
mitted to providing compensation
for the workers in El Salvador.
"We will not stop fighting for a
resolution in the El Salvador issue,
and we will do the same for oth-
ers like it where the evidence of
wrongdoing is clear," said Nebel,
who has worked on the El Salva-
dor labor case for more than two
years.
The University of Wisconsin
has begun soliciting donations
from alumni in an effort to repay
the workers.
Nebel said all contracts
between Adidas and universities
follow Adidas's Supply Chain
Code of Conduct, which is post-
ed on the company's website, in
addition to each college's own
code of conduct for labor stan-
dards.
"Adidas's workplace standards
are communicated to all of our
factories worldwide," Nebel said.
"We're committed to ensuring
that these standards are main-
tained in all of our workplaces
throughout the world."
University of Wisconsin
Chancellor John Wiley said the
university had "serious con-
cerns" after sending a represen-
tative to inspect the disputed
factories in April, according the
The Badger Herald, a campus
newspaper. The university has
not severed ties with Adidas,
though.
Wiley said cutting the Adidas
contract would prevent the uni-
versity making further progress
in global labor issues.
University of Wisconsin junior
Phoebe Taurick, a member of
SLAC, said the steps the univer-
sity has taken so far have been
ineffectual.
"These steps are just ways to
make our administration feel like
they're doingsomething about the
issue," she said.
RC
From page 1A
riculum. The curriculum provided
an intellectual common ground
on which any students in the RC,
regardless of their majors, could
meet, Cohen said.
once the required classes had
been completed, each student
designed an individual concen-
tration with the oversight of a
faculty member. This meant no
two students in the RC at that
time were studying precisely the
same thing.
SURVIVAL OF THE RC
Unlike other small col-
leges within big universi-
ties in this country, the RC has
prospered since its formation.
Cohen said one of the reasons for
this sustained life was that the RC
was never cut off from the Univer-
sity. In fact, the RC is still part of
LSA, and all the resources available
to LSA students are shared with
those in the RC.
"What we did - I think wisely
- was find a reasonable balance
between independence and auton-
omy," Cohen said
STUDENT GOVERNANCE
For the first seven years of the
RC's existence, its students and
administrators played an equal role
in the college's governance. The
governing body, called the repre-
sentative assembly, was comprised
of eight RC students, eight faculty
members and the director of the
college. This body made all admin-
istrative decisions concerning the
college. This way, students could
play a role in designing the educa-
tion they and their peers received
in the RC, Bright said.
But students felt the core cur-
riculum was at odds with the
ideology behind the governance
structure, so bit by bit, the core
curriculum was overthrown.
According to Bright, a compro-
mise emerged that created a set of
core requirements that still exists
today: students must become profi-
cient in a foreign language, take an
intensive writing seminar in their
first year and live in East Quad for
at least two years.
Eventually, the administrative
assembly itself was phased out, and
in 1974 it was eliminated.
GRADES: A RECENT
INNOVATION
Until 2001, the RC did not give
grades to its students. Instead,
professors gave students written
evaluations. This changed in 2001,
when then-LSA Dean Shirley Neu-
man demanded that RC professors
include grades on every student's
transcript. Today, grades are given,
but there are also written evalua-
tions.
"There was a lot of anecdotal
evidence that written evaluations
without grades did not inhibit
alumni in the outside world,"
Bright said. "But there was pres-
sure from higher institutions to
provide a GPA for students. There
was a national call the RC had to be
responsive to."
Janet Hegman Shier, an instruc-
tor in the RC since the early 1980s
is a proponent of the written evalu-
ation system.
"I'm so steeped in the philoso-
phy of providing written feedback
to people, it means so much more,"
she said. "You get much more of a
profile of a student when you see
evaluations that comment on how
the student learns."
Bright said his interactions with
students were markedly different
when there were no grades than
they are now. He didn't see com-
petition among students under the
old system, and his students were
forced to come to their own con-
clusions about how they did on an
Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7A
assignment based on his comments.
This, Bright said, was more condu-
cive to education.
"Pedagogically, a non-graded
environment is better," he said.
"It's not about the grades, it's about
learning."
STUDENT LIFE
RC senior AmandaDavidsonsaid
the RC has been the centerpiece of
her time at the University.
"The RC has been literally my
whole experience at U of M," she
said. "For me it's sort of like a con-
fort zone in the way that the Uni-
versity is so big and it's like a family
- as dumb as that sounds - but at
the same time it's like a family that
like inspires me a lot."
Davidson said that she believes
that one of the more important
parts of the RC is the combined liv-
ing and learning environment.
"It's not just the academic
thing, but the fact that you all
live in East Quad and your class-
es are there," she said. "The fact
that you can come down to class
in your pajamas - I mean, I don't
think the RC wants to broadcast
that - but it really just shows how
comfortable everybody is with
each other."
Laura Thomas, an RC Creative
Writing instructor, knows the col-
lege from the perspective of both
student and teacher. She graduated
from the RC in 1988.
"An RC education certainly mod-
eledself-directionandcommitment,
searching for a greater good and
integrity in what you do with your
life's work, which has sustained
me during challenging times in my
career and family life," Thomas said
in an e-mail interview.
Thomas said her favorite part of
the RC as a student was the mentor-
ing experience she received from
each of her professors.
"Now that I am on the faculty,-I
realize how much effort and love
that takes," she said.
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For Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007 Something surprising takes place within
ARIES your family scene.
(March 21to April 19) SCORPIO
Bosses, parents and authority figures (Oct. 23to Nov. 21)
in your life might surprise you today. You're f1ll of bright, original ideas
This could be pleasant pornot. today. These could be triggered by meet-
(However, I think it will be pleasant, or ing someone new and unusual. It's an
at least a bit shocking.) interesting day.
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this. CAPRICORN
GEMINI (Dec. 22to Jan. 19)
(May 21to June 20) Today the Moon is in your sign, mak-
Surprise gifts and goodies can come ing a pleasant aspect to unpredictable
your way today. Keep your pockets Uranus. This could bring surprising
open! If others want to be generous to events or people your way, but your rou-
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CANCER AQUARIUS
(June 21to July 22) (Jan. 20to Feb. 18)
Something might throw you for a loop Quite likely, you'll be surprised by
today, probably in a conversation with some event today. Or perhaps, you'll
partners or close friends. Someone close have an opportunity to learn something
to you is going to do something that sur- unusual - political, religious or philo-
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(July 23 to Aug. 22) (Feb. 19to March 20)
Interruptions at work are highly likely A friend or acquaintance might do
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VIRGO play important roles in the lives of oth-
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