STATEMENT

For immediate use

Nov. 17, 1997

Faculty chair issues statement about Nike trip

Dr. Richard “Pete” Andrews, chair of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty, today (Nov. 17) issued this statement following the news Friday (Nov.14) that Nike Inc. officials have agreed with Chancellor Michael Hooker's suggestion to send a UNC-CH delegation to visit its plants abroad.

“Last Friday Chancellor Michael Hooker announced that, at his suggestion, Nike Inc. has invited a delegation from UNC-Chapel Hill to tour its facilities in southeast Asia to see its production practices for themselves. The delegation was proposed to include the chair of the faculty, several students and a reporter from The Daily Tar Heel. Detailed plans for such a trip, as well as decisions about specific participants and their commitment to participate, have not yet been made.

This invitation represents an unusual opportunity to provide some of our students with a first-hand view of a distant part of the global economy that is increasingly connected with our own lives, both through the university's decisions and through our own purchases as consumers. If such a visit can be planned so as to have strong educational value, therefore, I would welcome the opportunity to help bring it about.

I would only want the university to accept such an invitation, however, if it can be carefully planned so as to reach credible conclusions and to learn more than the information that is already available from others' visits. I have read the report prepared by former ambassador Andrew Young after his visit to several of these facilities, for example, as well as a number of the critiques and commentaries on it, and these are readily available to our students as well. I would hope that such a visit could be designed to accomplish something more or different than could be learned simply by reading these documents, or by echoing or disagreeing with his report.

In particular, I believe that such a delegation should include faculty members who are especially knowledgeable about the societies and kinds of workplaces that would be visited, in addition or if necessary instead of the chair of the faculty. UNC has outstanding experts in Asian studies, industrial hygiene and other relevant fields who could provide far more knowledgeable and credible assessments of what we might observe than could I and the students alone. It should also be planned with careful attention to the widely recognized principles for independent inspections of such facilities. A visit by such a group might indeed provide greater knowledge and understanding to share with the rest of the university community, as well as an exceptional educational opportunity for the students involved.

To examine these issues and their context more systematically with our students, I have also today proposed to the Director of the University Center for International Studies, Professor James Peacock, that we cooperate in arranging a multidisciplinary seminar course on "Economics, Ethics, and Impacts of the Global Economy: A Case Study of the Sports Apparel Industry," for academic credit during the spring semester. The course would be open to students from any discipline who are willing to make a serious commitment to examining this subject, including but not limited to potential participants in such a trip. It would include lectures by faculty and outside experts on each of the key aspects of the subject, assigned readings, and research and discussion papers prepared by the participating students. The lecture portions of the course might also be opened to all interested students and faculty, and summaries of its findings might be made available to the broader university community as well.

A rigorous multidisciplinary examination of the Nike case will also provide a useful starting point for exploring other aspects of the university's and North Carolina's relationships with the global economy, and the opportunities and issues associated with them. Examples include recent proposals to further internationalize UNC's educational programs, which was recommended to the provost in a major report last year, and to review more closely the relationships between the university and other businesses with which it might consider sponsorship or partnerships, a discussion which both faculty and students have requested and which the chancellor has indicated he would welcome.”

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Andrews, also professor in the School of Public Health, can be reached at the following phone numbers: 966-2359, Rosenau Hall office, 962-1671, Carr Building office; or e-mail: pete_andrews@unc.edu.