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Editorial: Nicaragua trip, but not SAS, deserves ASUA money

Wednesday, ASUA agreed to fund former Students Against Sweatshops member Arne Ekstrom's trip to Nicaragua. Ekstrom, a graduate student, intends to look into the living conditions of workers in factories manufacturing UA apparel. In the end, they agreed to give Ekstrom $150 towards his project. While ASUA should fund fact-finding expeditions such as this, Ekstrom is not the best person to carry-out student-funded research.

As you might expect, this issue didn't pass easily, requiring two hours of debate before passage. Two hours of debate over $150 in funding is a bit excessive to begin with. ASUA has a budget in the high six-figures. Such a small expenditure doesn't deserve two hours of deliberating time on the floor of our august senate. While the money isn't a waste, the excess of time spent is appalling, especially when more pressing issues should be taking up the time of our elected officials.

This proposed trip is a great deal more than just graduate student research. The students of this university have made it more than obvious that they care about sweatshops. Even the attention given to this issue, on behalf of the student body and ASUA itself demonstrates this.

A trip to Nicaragua to examine factories manufacturing university apparel is a worthwhile use of ASUA funds, but Arne Ekstrom is not the person to get it. Ekstrom is a former member of Students Against Sweatshops, and has said that he believes there is something fishy going on in the factories. Then, he tells us that he's going to be objective in his analysis. The truth: he isn't going to give an objective analysis, and we all realize it. The small amount of money given to Ekstrom by ASUA is a sign that they understand it, too. The problem is that in dealing with such a politically charged issue, it is difficult to find someone who doesn't have an opinion going into the research.

All of this is not to say that we shouldn't fund this sort of expedition. As tensions between the university administration and SAS mount, it becomes more certain that university administration will never put any money towards wuch an expedition, If the students think it should be done, ASUA should fund it. However, we should give it more than $150. If ASUA is going to fund the trip, they should actually fund the trip and give enough money to make a difference.

Despite objections raised during debate, ASUA shouldn't be concerned that graduate students are going to come out of the walls looking for money. First off, this is an exceptional case. While Ekstrom is not the right person to receive funding, his project is one of the rare ones that ASUA should concern itself with. Second, if we do get a flood of graduate students looking for funding, we should be glad; hopefully, it will mean that all of them are working on projects that are of interest to the student body as a whole.