The University of Wisconsin Student Labor Action Coalition distributed its “report card” Monday to Chancellor Biddy Martin, based on observations of how she has been handling the Honduras-Nike labor issue.
The report card varied as far as satisfaction was concerned, but did show gratitude from SLAC members for Martin’s work in attempting to resolve the issue.
Martin recently wrote a stern letter to Nike, giving the company four months to rectify labor violations.
SLAC member Jan Van Tol said the report card was organized into four categories: swiftness, results, transparency and effort.
“We actually delivered a final exam (to Martin) with the hopes of assessing her position on the issues and we wanted to follow up with a report card to let students know how she did,” Van Tol said.
In terms of grades, the chancellor earned an F in the area of swiftness, incomplete in the results category, C in the area of transparency, and a grade of B in terms of efforts, according to Van Tol.
Martin’s failing grade in the area of swiftness stemmed from the length of time she allowed Nike to pay the allotted amount to the workers, which was four months, Van Tol said.
“Swiftness was the most obvious because something we saw over and over was that [faculty] will drag these things out because they know they can outlast students due to graduation and breaks,” Van Tol said.
He said Martin’s transparency grade of C resulted from her lack of openness as far as negotiations relating to the case, adding many of Martin’s negotiations have been over the phone and unavailable to the public.
Van Tol said her highest grade, B, in the area of effort is due to her commitment to the issue, although SLAC would like to see more results.
Martin’s final grade of incomplete came in the results area from her unavailability to complete the final exam that SLAC distributed to her last week.
According to Dawn Crim, special assistant to the Chancellor, Martin was unable to complete last week’s final due to the inclement weather and problems around campus, but added she and SLAC are working toward the same outcome.
“The work that Biddy is doing shows her commitment to the issue and really [Martin and SLAC] are on the same page and want the same issues resolved, but their tactics are different,” Crim said.
The final exam included multiple choice, true or false, and short answer questions to determine Martin’s knowledge on the labor issues.
One of the multiple-choice questions included on the exam was: How much does Nike owe the former workers of these two factories? The choices given were: a semester of UW tuition, a pair of Air Jordans, $2,176,265.36, or an apology.
“It is finals season for students and we thought it would be nice to share with [Martin] some of the things we were going through and also show her that this sweat shop issue will not go away,” Van Tol said.
