SA considers Wal-Mart boycott

Representative spot left vacant; applications due Wednesday

November 14, 2005 —

The SVSU Student Association heavily debated a resolution to boycott Wal-Mart before voting to table the discussion for a later date during its House meeting Monday, Nov. 7.

Parliamentarian Nick Madaj authored the resolution, which would have boycotted the corporation and prevented registered student organizations (RSOs) from seeking reimbursements of expenses from Wal-Mart. The resolution also included Sam's Club.

"This is a company that has labor issues, including with discrimination," Madaj said as he introduced the resolution. "It is not appropriate to fund a corporation that has such issues."

The resolution featured nine clauses outlining reasons to boycott the corporation. Some specific reasons listed included the company's alleged poor providing of health care, insistence against the need for unions, and misleading "Always Low Prices" slogan.

Madaj also addressed some representatives' concerns that SA should not be taking such a stance and telling other RSOs how to spend their money.

"This is not absolutely unprecedented," said Madaj, who mentioned that the student government at the University of Michigan passed a similar resolution against Borders bookstore in Ann Arbor. "We have taken up political issues before."

He added that there are already restrictions on how RSOs may spend their money if they wish to be reimbursed, and felt that this restriction would be no different.

Several representatives were apprehensive about voting in favor of the resolution, especially without other students' input.

"It is not our job to say what other organizations can do," said Campus Events chair Beth Schaefer, who added that she would accept restricting SA purchases, but not those made by other organizations.

Public Information Officer Ashley Verner took it a step further.

"This should be brought up with the whole student body, not just RSOs," she said. "I agree with the intent, but would like to see it be more wide scale."

Some felt the resolution should be more inclusive of all corporations that have such issues. Madaj explained that Wal-Mart is the only corporation with such issues that would realistically be dealt with by SA.

"Wal-Mart is the only corporate criminal we deal with," he said.

Representative Anderson Bearden argued in favor of the resolution, using the statewide precedent of other universities passing similar resolutions on not just a national level, but an international level as well.

"It is not just that we disagree with Wal-Mart's practices, but they have actually been documented for their failures," he added.

SA President Emily Hammerbacher was concerned with the representatives' "complacency" to act on the issue.

"We need to stop acting like 'we don't have the place (to do this)'," she said. "If we just sit here and take it, then we are ignoring the issue. This is something that we can definitely touch."

The debate, which went twice as long as debates normally do on resolutions, was concluded with a vote to take the resolution back to the Legislative Committee. Ironically, Madaj made the motion to revisit the resolution at a later date after Hammerbacher had suggested doing so.

SA will be holding an open forum this Wednesday for students wishing to discuss the matter with representatives. Students can direct any questions or concerns to representatives in attendance during the forum, being held in the Alumni Lounge from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Also at the meeting, it was announced that representative Steve Beson had resigned. Beson, who cited time conflicts as his reason for resignation, was elected in April.

To fill the vacancy, SA will be appointing a new representative on Monday, Nov. 21. The appointment process will be similar to the one in which three representatives were appointed on Sept. 19.

Applications are available at the SA office, Curtiss 118, or in the Student Life Center, and are due by Wednesday at 10 p.m.