News releases

Statement by Chancellor David Ward
Progress on sweatshop issue
2/19/00

I have returned early from a scheduled trip in order to underscore the comments that I asked Vice Chancellor Paul Barrows to share with you yesterday. I have agreed to end our affiliation with the Fair Labor Association and have been successful in working out an agreement with the presidents of the universities of Michigan and Indiana to participate in framing the Worker Rights Consortium. I am confident other schools will join us as we continue leadership on this issue.

This is a major accomplishment and opportunity. It only works to our advantage, however, if the entire campus community is behind it. So I ask you again to come back to the table to work with the leadership of the faculty and academic staff governance units to create an appropriate mechanism through which we can contribute to the growth of the WRC and also pursue the several other anti-sweatshop initiatives for which we are the most active proponents.

You now face a decision. You can decide to go forward as a part of the university community, as partners with the faculty and academic staff in governance. Or you can decide to continue insisting on unilateral demands. I fully support governance. I categorically reject unilateral demands.

We are at an end point. I have committed this campus as far as I can without additional input from the governance process. You can choose to rejoin that process or not. As a campus, we will move forward. I will not accept any more demands. Do not expect negotiations with me for a decision you must make.

You are interfering with the mission of the campus by disrupting class access and other university business. This campus honors free speech. There are numerous venues to support that right. In view of the established governance and speech traditions of this campus, your occupation of this building is a continuing transgression against the freedom of speech of every other member of the university community.

I will not allow this to continue. I will not engage with you in a discussion about how it should end. I expect you to leave. I expect you to reinvest in a governance process that will make us stronger in our efforts to find solutions to the sweatshop issue.
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