The following email was received by Senate President Gilkey on Wednesday 5 April 2000 from Dave Hubin, Executive Assistant President, University of Oregon Phone: (541) 346-3036 FAX: (541) 346-3017 E-mail: Hubin@Oregon.uoregon.edu

TO: Deans and Directors

From: Dave Hubin, Executive Assistant President

Earlier today President Frohnmayer sent to you an e-mail message regarding the demonstration on campus. As an addition to that, I am sending (below and as an electronic attachment) the letter with the "demands" presented yesterday to the President.

President Frohnmayer:

It has been a long road that has brought us to the steps of Johnson Hall today.

The inhumane conditions workers face daily in producing our University apparel impel us to end our complicity with sweatshop labor. We are also driven by the vision of a University structure in which campus workers and students have the power to decide the issues that affect them.

You have promised your commitment to ethical labor standards. However, the University has yet to demonstrate this commitment by joining the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring body developed by students in collaboration with human rights and labor groups around the world.

You have assured us of your belief in shared governance at the University of Oregon. However, the governance structure that is currently in place relies on your sole decision-making power, without giving control to the constituent bodies of the University.

You may know that in the last week Nike withdrew a sports contract with Brown for the University's participation in the WRC. It is our expectation that this recent development will not sway your stated commitment to workers' rights.

We recognize that you are in a conflicted position, pulled by both the sentiments of the University community and the external corporate interests with which the University has economic ties. As the President of the University of Oregon, you have the responsibility to be accountable first to the standards established by the University community. In cases of conflict, we expect the University to follow the mandate of the students, faculty, and staff at the University of Oregon.

One year ago, students at the University of Oregon began organizing and educating the campus community about anti-sweatshop issues. One month ago, the student body voted by a three-quarters majority for the UO to join the WRC. Three weeks ago, the advisory committee you appointed in the fall had a unanimous vote in favor of membership in the WRC.

It has been a long road that has brought us to the steps of Johnson Hall today. This time, President Frohnmayer, we are not leaving until you have acted according to the interests of human rights.

1. The University of Oregon will join the Worker Rights Consortium for a term of five years before re-evaluating whether or not to renew membership in that group.

EXPLANATION: The WRC is working to build the network of human rights and labor organizations in producing regions around the world. The University of Oregon should use its resources toward the establishment of this network by its annual membership fees, with the understanding that factory monitoring will take several years before it will be both effective and widespread.

Additionally, the University's commitment to labor standards should not be compromised by its corporate relations. The University of Oregon's contract with Nike will be renewed in 2003, and it is important that the licensee with whom we have the largest contract is equally accountable to the standards established by the University community.

2. The University of Oregon will commit to not joining the Fair Labor Association or other factory monitoring bodies as long as they have the following deficiencies:

EXPLANATION: In the year since the FLA was formed, the serious structural concerns that motivated human rights and labor groups to pull from it have seen little more than cosmetic changes. Support for codes of conduct and any form of monitoring is so perilous among workers and their advocates on the ground in the Global South, substandard initiatives which represent a compromise with companies could do more harm than good in efforts to build cross-border trust and solidarity to change the systematic exploitation in the apparel industry. This is why we feel it is wrong for our universities -through whom we hope to develop the model for how inspection, verification, and enforcement efforts should work best - to give their stamp of approval to the FLA until it seriously addresses these questions.

3. The President of the University will grant decision-making control to all standing administrative committees. Additionally, the President will change the membership of each of those committees to include equal proportionate representation from the following constituent groups: faculty (administrators of education), classified workers, undergraduate students, graduate students. In addition, there will be no more than one voting administrator on each committee, and as many ex officio non-voting members as necessary. Representatives will be selected for committee membership according to the following processes:

EXPLANATION: The President has authority over the twenty-four administrative committees that report to you. While your position is defined by the State of Oregon to have governing power at the University, you have the equal power to divest yourself of that decision-making control in order to form a structure that is more accountable to the campus community. There is precedent for you to share decision-making control in this way. This structural change is a preliminary step toward a more equitable shared governance system at the UO. 4. The President will demonstrate his commitment to shared governance by sending a letter to each of the members of the University Assembly, inviting them to the Assembly meeting on May 31 and urging them to vote in support of changing the membership of the University Senate in two ways: first, by the inclusion of ten seats for classified workers beyond those designated for librarians; and second to increase the number of student seats on the Senate from five to fifteen.

EXPLANATION: While you do not have the power to change the composition of the University Senate, you have the responsibility to demonstrate your commitment for shared governance with the campus community by advocating for representation in that body that better reflects the composition of the campus population. Now, of all times, you have the responsibility to listen and to act.

Web page spun on 5 April 2000 by Peter B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:peter.gilkey.cc.67@aya.yale.edu of Deady Spider Enterprises