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UA labor rights task force finalized

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat After a 10 day anti-sweatshop protest in the president's office lobby, UA President Peter Likins signed Students Against Sweatshops' labor resolution on May 3. The Faculty Senate recently finalized a labor task force as part of the agreement.

The 12-member UA labor and human rights task force is now finalized, but a Students Against Sweatshops spokesman said yesterday he has some concerns with the committee.

"I am a little bit disturbed about it (the task force)," said SAS spokesman Avery Kolers. "It seems like a bit of a swindle to me."

Kolers said his concerns arise from the issue of the committee's make up. As a part of the resolution that ended a 10 day sit-in last April in the lobby of University of Arizona President Peter Likins' office, the labor and human rights task force was to be created this fall.

According to the agreement, the Faculty Senate executive committee was to select six nominees each from the lists submitted by Likins and the SAS.

Law professor Andrew Silverman was on both lists of nominees and has been named as the convener of the task force.

Of the remaining 11 members, six were nominated by Likins and only five by the SAS, which Kolers cited as his primary concern.

Kolers said there was apparently some uncertainty as to what would happen if a person was selected after being nominated by both Likins and the SAS.

"It is an issue that has been raised," Kolers said, adding he had some fears the situation would arise.

Larry Schooley, presiding officer of the Faculty Senate, said the final list was determined after the executive committee examined the balance of the expertise of all the candidates.

"If we scratched a name off both lists, it just wouldn't work," he said about making one more selection from Likins' list. "It could have just as easily gone the other way."

Nominees for the task force were required to have a record of labor or human rights activism, or academic interests in those areas.

In addition to Silverman, the task force includes anthropology professor Ana Alonso, Udall Center graduate student Mette Brogden, anthropology professor emeritus Richard Henderson, Mexican American studies graduate student Josu­ Limon, economics professor Ron Oaxaca and public administration and policy associate professor Edella Schlager, who were all nominated by Likins.

The SAS nominees selected for the task force are interdisciplinary graduate student and SAS member Ari Anand, sociology graduate student and SAS member Tim Bartley, history professor Karen Anderson, English graduate student Catherine Chaput and community member Carolyn Trowbridge, a nurse at Tucson Medical Center.

Kolers said he was also concerned that Trowbridge is the only member of the task force who is not affiliated with the university.

"Making this too much of an in-house affair can make this unproductive," he said. "There are more people than just the university community who have interests here."

Schooley said the decision to limit the number of community members to one or two was made because the task force is primarily concerned with the university.

The task force will meet later this month for the first time, Silverman said, once he finds a time that will suit all the differing schedules.

Although he has been named as the convener of the task force, Silverman said the chair will be voted on at the first meeting.

"Many of us (on the Faculty Senate) are quite hopeful the committee will select Andrew Silverman as the chairman," Schooley said.

Schooley said the task force was designed to be a balance of disciplines and gender, among other things.

"It is a really good group," he said. "There is a lot of really relevant expertise available here. We felt all nominees for both lists were very well qualified."

In terms of qualifications, Alonso said she has a long-term interest in human and labor rights issues, both in teaching as well as in her research.

She has done field work in Mexico and worked with rural peoples, which she considers to be useful experience for the task force.

"I am very impressed that President Likins and the SAS have put in the work to come up with this," she said.

Alonso said the task force will serve several purposes, including making assessments of important issues, creating a useful dialogue with the university and coming up with some positive proposals.

"Forming the task force is an excellent idea," she said.

As a registered nurse at Tucson Medical Center, Trowbridge has also been a community activist all her life.

She has done community activities such as dealing with homeless issues in Tucson, as well as health rights work in Central America, primarily Nicaragua. Additionally, she worked with the anti-Apartheid movement in the 1980s.

"When someone's basic human rights are assaulted, we have an obligation as human beings to make sure people have their basic rights met," Trowbridge said.

Likins was unavailable for comment yesterday, but UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said she has not yet seen the list.

"I have a lot of faith in the Faculty Senate that they spent a lot of time and made thoughtful selections," Kha said. "I trust their judgments."

Schooley said that there is a procedure in case any members of the task force at some time resign or are not be able to serve.

In such a case, Schooley said the executive committee would ask the group that made the original nomination to submit two more names for consideration to fill the vacancy.

In addition to the task force, the agreement between Likins and the SAS requires that all UA licensees publicly divulge the locations of all operating factories by April 2000.