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University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wisconsin extends coaches’ contracts The UW Athletic Board approved the contract extensions of five UW coaches at its monthly meeting Friday. Football coach Bret Bielema —one-year extension through 2013 Volleyball coach Pete Waite —one-year extension through 2012 Men’s soccer coach Jeff Rohrman—one-year extension through 2009 Women’s soccer coach Paula Wilkins—one-year extension through 2009 Men’s cross country coach Jerry Schumacher—multiyear contract through 2011 UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez also received a performance evaluation from Chancellor John Wiley at the meeting. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, he said the feedback was “very positive.”
BADGERS BOILED IN BIG TEN UPSET Purdue Boilermakers end UW Badgers’ conference winning streak SPORTS
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dailycardinal.com
Monday, January 28, 2008
UW cuts contract with New Era Student hears worker abuse stories first hand By Lexie Clinton THE DAILY CARDINAL
Following the sports merchandise company’s repeated incompliance with workers’ rights inspectors, UWMadison decided Friday to terminate its licensing contract with New Era Cap Company. The termination, which is effective immediately, cuts off New Era as a licensee and forbids the company from manufacturing its signature baseball caps and sportswear with the official University of Wisconsin logo. “We’re terminating the contract based on New Era’s actions not really being the type of company this university wants to be associated with,” said Dawn Crim, special assistant to the chancellor, at a Labor Licensing Policy Committee meeting Friday. The university decided to terminate because of New Era’s refusal to comply with UW-Madison’s code of conduct that says UW logo licensees must allow a monitoring agency to observe work practices. Crim said New Era violated this agreement when it did not allow the Worker’s Rights Consortium, a labor rights monitoring organization hired by UW-Madison, to enter its U.S. factories. If the WRC was allowed access to the New Era facility in Mobile, Ala., it is likely they would have found poor labor practices, according to UWMadison sophomore Chynna Haas,
UW faces unclear financial effects
MATTHEW WISNIEWSKI/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Special assistant to the chancellor Dawn Crim speaks about UW’s decision to end its licensing contract with New Era Cap Company during Friday’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee meeting. who traveled to the factory earlier this month with students from other universities with New Era contracts. Haas traveled to Alabama as a student delegate of United Students Against Sweatshops. At Friday’s LLPC meeting, Haas shared stories from many of the black, single mothers who sort caps at the distribution factory and say they experience daily racial abuse and sexual harassment. Haas explained New Era’s point system that gives workers penalty strikes when they skip work. A worker can get up to seven points before
being laid off, but Haas said the strikes are unfairly applied. She said women were given strikes for tasks such as going to the hospital for a heart attack, leaving to attend to a house fire or moving a son on his first day of college, even with a note from the university’s dean. Haas said some of the workers made a stride in forming a union, but their membership has led to retaliatory action from supervisors. “Workers who show up wearing their union shirts, proud to finally get respect at work, are being targeted for bogus reasons,” she said.
UW AND THE STATE BUDGET
WISCONSIN’S BUDGET SHORTFALL Source: State Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Department of Administration
By Britney Tripp
New Era released a statement Jan. 21 denying all allegations of unfair labor practices. Haas said she could understand the grounds for UW-Madison’s termination with New Era but was unsure how its message would resonate at the factory in Mobile, where workers see hundreds of different logos a day. “It’s not a strong enough message to the workers,” Haas said of the New Era termination. “I wish the university would have the courage to stand up to New Era and say we’re cutting new era page 3
State cuts expenses, recession still looms By Charles Brace THE DAILY CARDINAL
THE DAILY CARDINAL
A report by the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau Thursday predicted a $300 to $400 million budget shortfall for Wisconsin in 2007-’09, with uncertain implications for the UW System. All state agencies Friday were told by the Department of Administration to cease non-essential travel, hiring and leases, partially in response to the projected budget shortfall. “It’s too soon to predict how or if these directives will affect the university,” UW-Madison Spokesperson David Giroux stated. Giroux said the university has already excluded jobs deemed unnecessary and that all travel currently being done within the university is essential to research in other parts of the world. “The biggest contribution [the UW System] can make right now to this state in its current economic condition is to keep doing what we do best: educating students, engaging in world class research and connecting Wisconsin residents with that knowledge,” Giroux said. According to Giroux, higher education can effects page 2
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Preliminary numbers show the state budget may face a shortfall of $300 to $400 million State agencies have been directed to stop all non-essential travel, hiring and lease renewals Personal income and sales tax revenues for December 2007 were both lower than December 2006 Risk of economic recession in early 2008 assumed to have increased by 40 percent
State agencies will stop all non-essential hiring, travel and lease renewals, according to a memo released Friday—yet another sign the Wisconsin economy faces difficulties. State Department of Administration Secretary Michael Morgan sent the memo to curb state expenses, largely in response to a recent report from the state Legislative Fiscal Bureau that said the state budget may face a shortfall of $300 to $400 million. Linda Barth, spokesperson for the DOA, said memos like the one sent Thursday are typical when it looks like revenues are going to be lower than expected. The state budget was written assuming funds from income, sales and corporate taxes would increase at a rate of 3 percent each year. The report from the LFB said sales taxes in December 2007 decreased by one percent and income taxes decreased by 1.2 percent when both were compared to December 2006. Barth said it was important to remember the fiscal report was only preliminary and not a full analysis. The last time a memo was sent stopping travel and other expenses was 2003, when Gov. Jim Doyle first recession page 2
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”