In its last and perhaps final meeting of the semester, the University Apparel Manufacturing Committee decided not to vote on a recommendation for public disclosure of UR manufacturing sites Wednesday.
The committee?s final recommendation was for President Thomas Jackson to create a task force to study disclosure and examine its the implications for the university and the students.
The meeting discussed the feasibility of full disclosure and considered whether the committee had enough information to make a decision.
Director of Purchasing Quentin Roach said full disclosure would be impractical because the supplier list is a moving target.
?The supplier list could literally change every day,? Roach said. ?Items sitting on our [bookstore?s] floor today could have been sourced one year ago.?
Professor of Anthropology Thomas Gibson answered, ?The information will always be imperfect, but the more information, the better.?
River Campus Dean of Stu dents Mary-Beth Cooper said that UR still needs to decide what level of disclosure is desirable and whether the information available on company Web sites is sufficient.
?I will definitely stay involved in this issue in the coming semester,? Cooper said.
The meeting?s tension manifested itself in various personal attacks among committee members.
An audience of about two dozen members of the No-Sweat Coalition was dressed in UR T-shirts with red tape over the logo. At the end of the meeting they responded to the decision to not vote by taking off their shirts and singing ?We Shall Overcome.? They then marched to Wallis Hall to try to meet with Jackson. They plan to keep going every day until he responds, now that the committee is no longer meeting.
Two committee members were disappointed with the result of the meeting and then resigned.
Senior Shawn Goldman said in an e-mail, ?I understand the need to look into the feasibility of any action the university takes on this issue but … we had not made any progress as a group into evaluating whether or not the academic interests of a university are compromised by disclosing the locations of the factories in which its apparel is manufactured.?
Junior Sarah Clock, co-president of the No-Sweat Coalition and nonvoting committee member, also resigned, citing the lack of progress in the meetings.
Junior and SA President?s representative Ashley Conner is also considering resignation, but has not yet decided.
Clock expressed doubt about the way the committee?s final recommendations will be presented.
?I?m not sure it will be an accurate representation of the committee?s feelings,? she said.
The committee?s future is uncertain. If the committee continues to exist, it will likely have different members, but still have representatives from the same groups. However, Conner is reluctant to give up on the process and plans to work on this issue next semester.
?There needs to be student representation on the task force,? she said.
