I'd like to commend The Spectrum for the concerns it has raised regarding the salary hike for SUNY presidents ("No Compelling Reason for Pay Hike," Oct. 27). I'd also like to commend UB President John Simpson for agreeing that raising presidents' salaries should not be a SUNY priority right now.
Taking the issue one step further, I find it incredibly offensive that salary increases for the highest paid people in the SUNY system are being discussed at a time of not only budget cuts and tuition increases, but of sweatshop wages for those producing our collegiate apparel. These individuals earn in a year but a fraction of what SUNY Chancellor Robert King earns in a week, yet he had the nerve to propose his own 70 percent salary increase. What a disgrace.
I work with the UB Students Against Sweatshops and we're currently lobbying for UB to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent monitoring body that helps schools ensure their apparel is made under safe and fair working conditions. We believe the quality of our institution goes way beyond administrative compensation and even beyond academic excellence; we believe a truly progressive institution is a moral institution as well. Clearly, other renowned institutions feel the same. The Association of American Universities, an organization of sixty of the most respected research universities in the United States, is a body we at UB are very proud to belong to. However, we lag behind the majority of AAU members in a very important area: respect for human rights. Of the AAU public institutions, 66 percent have displayed their commitment to human rights through affiliation with the Worker Rights Consortium.
UB recognizes this problem and is bringing representatives from the WRC and the Fair Labor Association this November to explore prospects of affiliation. We are all excited to see where this visit can take UB. Hopefully President Simpson will choose to affiliate with the WRC, propelling UB even higher in its struggle for excellence.
