The Hammond Report

After reading this about nine protesters at the UM yesterday conducting a sit-in in President George Dennison's office demanding the U adopt an anti sweatshop labor program, I came to the conclusion that these folks were a bunch of phonies and cowardly.

The protest is to «encourage» the administration to sign a letter called the «Designated Suppliers Program» discouraging the use of sweatshops in the manufacture of Griz Gear. Honestly, a very worthwhile cause. My question is the true motives of the student group

While there are some who will praise and honor them, I question their true motives when I find out that Dennison wasn't even in the country when they «took over» his office.

Dennison is traveling in China and wasn't contacted by administrators during the first sit-in at UM since the Vietnam War protests of the late 1960s.

Then we find out VP Foley and Dennison had been meeting with this group many times over the years in order to come to an understanding.

Foley estimated that he has met with Students for Economic and Social Justice 15 or 16 times over the past two years, including this week. He said Dennison has talked with them «probably six or seven times.»

«I think we all encourage dialogue, but sometimes these issues aren't as simple as signing the dotted line,» he said.

I'm sure they made it clear to the students in those conversations why they couldn't just sign the letter.

Even if Dennison were here, Engstrom said, the university isn't in a position to sign the letter «without doing our due diligence on the legality of the letter and the implications of the letter.»

Then came my favorite part. The administration saw the letter for the first time on Wednesday.

Administrators hadn't seen the letter until Wednesday, Engstrom said later. He and Foley wondered why the students had made no request to meet with Dennison about the letter before they took over his office.

Why did the students not wait for Dennison?
Why did the students take over Dennison's office when they knew he was out of the country?
Why did they protest only one day after the administration received the letter?

Wow! Very courageous and brave.

Well, they made the front page of the Missoulian. That's their true motivation. Not really accomplishing anything real but padding their Liberal resume' with a protest.