Kim Pearson

© 2003-4. All Rights Reserved

Meredith Edwards' assignment for Introduction to Professional Writing

Date: December 2, 2000

To: Jesse Rosenblum

From: Meredith Edwards

Subject: Junior Golf Program

The Junior Golf Tournament will be a two-week camp that will provide children living in Trenton the opportunity to learn the sport. The children will be living on campus in the dorms and will be taking a bus to a local golf course where professional golf players will instruct the children and oversee the tournaments that will take place.

The corporate sponsor will be Nike. If The College decides to support Nike’s sponsorship, Tiger Woods will be coming to publicize the project.

Nike is a target for sweatshop controversy. In Thailand, there are reportedly many Nike sweatshops. Tiger Woods earns more in a day sponsoring Nike than the sweatshop workers earn in a year. Students of The College of New Jersey want administrators to denounce financial relations to sweatshops, and if we hold the tournament, there may be an absence of student support.

Although there is controversy involving this program, it would be beneficial for The College and the members of the Ewing community if The College hosts the program. The children in the community will be given the opportunity to learn how to play a sport that they normally wouldn’t be able to learn about. It will give them the opportunity to (in some cases) to get off the streets and to have some fun.

By hosting this program, The College will not only be doing something beneficial for the community, but it will also enable our school to gain publicity that will be beneficial to our quest of becoming known as a public ivy league school. It will also give The College the opportunity to endorse our College Bound program to these children and to their parents. College Bound will be able to extend its 100% success rate of students who complete the program that go to college to these children who participate in the Junior Golf Program.

Part of The College’s mission is to, "Preserve and transmit knowledge, skills, and wisdom to benefit the people of New Jersey, the nation, and the world." This program will, in fact, be supporting the community and will benefit its members by supporting the power of education and knowledge. In the Action Statement, the college wants to be able to build the community by creating spaces and programs to enhance academic and creative accomplishment. It also wants to broaden the perspectives of The College community by, "Welcoming more reciprocal visits by students, faculty, staff, and professionals from outside The College, and promoting increased study of, and participation in, the global community." The Junior Golf Program will help The College succeed with its mission by allowing the members of the community to learn the sport and increase their knowledge and skills.

We are in no way supporting sweatshops by allowing Nike to sponsor the program. We are instead trying to give children the opportunity to have some fun and to learn a new trade, and allowing Nike to sponsor the program is the only way to make this happen. The College has announced that there are no items in The College’s bookstore that are made in sweatshops, proving that we are not supporting them.

By refusing to allow Nike to sponsor the program, we would be sending the message to our students that we are against sweatshops. However, by having Nike sponsor the program, we are not saying that we do support them. This program has nothing to do with sweatshops, but rather has to do with our desire to help underprivileged children. It would be more beneficial to have the program than to not have it. If Nike is willing to make this program happen, we should let them.