Concern over sweatshop committee unwarranted

As a member of SAS and of the negotiating committee that met with President Likins, I would like to respond to Dave Towers' concern regarding the possibility of a task force that would be "stacked" with SAS members.

Mr. Towers' letter is another example of a university member expressing slander towards an individual or group without first finding out the real facts.

Had Mr. Towers bothered to ask SAS members (of which he knows several) about the task force, or visited the seventh floor of the Administration Building, he would have happily been given a copy of the description of the task force that SAS presented to President Likins and that he heartily agreed to.

This description included a detailed means for determining how the task force would be formed. To quote briefly from the addendum to the Commitment, "SAS and President Likins will each present to the Faculty Senate a list of twelve names of persons who have demonstrated interests and/or area of expertise in labor and human rights issues.

President Likins and SAS will request that the Faculty Senate appoint six people from each list, for a total of twelve people in the task force."

By the way, the Faculty Senate met May 3 and agreed unanimously to set up the task force exactly as was proposed in the commitment addendum.

Thus, given the proposal initiated by SAS and agreed to by the president and the Faculty Senate, it seems unlikely that the task force will be "stacked" on any side.

As mentioned earlier, the idea, means of formation and description of the task force were generated by SAS; one can see that if SAS had the intention of "stacking" the task force, they would not have proposed the means of formation that they did.

Thus, Mr. Towers, I think you can rest assured that the intention of all parties involved IS that "this board equally represents, in so far as it is possible, the views of all those who have a concern in this issue," as long as they are actually knowledgeable of labor and human rights issues. I would also advise you to please make sure you know the facts before you spout off slanderous opinions regarding any organization.

Shamini Jain
Research specialist
Department of Medicine