esposito 12-12 work

Background	The College currently has no set of guidelines for dealing withcorporate sponsorship, controversial or not. This deficiency came to light with the debacle surrounding Nike funding a golf tournament the College was co-sponsoring. With no set of guidelines for evaluating Nike, we ran into trouble with local chapters of Amnesty International and United Students against Sweatshops. Efforts to diffuse the situation were mishandled, creating even more tension. Armed with this information, we must develop a plan so this situation will not happen again.
Corporations	If a corporation is large enough to fund a huge event, they willhave some sort of dirt on their hands. No one is clean. It is not feasible to assume because a corporation has a relatively clean image, they don’t have skeletons in the closet waiting to derail a partnership with The College. Every possible angle must be evaluated in order to protect the College from bad press and internal strife. College Relations and Corporate Funding Relations should have all information possible while making a decision.
Task Forces	To draft a mission statement for TCNJ, we employed various task forces to gather information. I believe this same technique would apply in this case. I believe three task forces should be formed to study the concerns before us. One force should study issues that plague large corporations. Information about sweatshops and unfair labor practices should always be at the fingertips of the College. A second force should study funding options. Which companies tend to fund what events? And what specialized organizations might fund an event the College could possibly run? The final task force should tie that information together. Which companies should we not work with, and which companies can we work with. If a corporate sponsor approaches us, it would simplify things greatly to have information on-hand to evaluate them.
T-F Makeup	Who should be invited to work on these task forces? It should be made aware to the campus at large that task forces are being created to deal with corporate funding issues and any student is welcome to voice his/her opinion. We need a mix of students of administrators. And we definitely need to have people who are members of Amnesty International and USAS. Having members of Amnesty International and USAS not only boosts their opinion of us, it will make things move faster as they have the updated information we need about sweatshops and unfair labor practices around the world.
Updates	This information will of course need to be updated to reflect current events. Perhaps a small committee could be created. Their job would be to make sure all information is current when we are faced with a corporate sponsorship decision. Of course, Amnesty International and USAS (plus any other relevant organization) will be able to review updated information and make sure it is completely correct and unbiased. That we must make clear.
Conclusions	The College of New Jersey has dedicated itself to becoming the Ivy League of public schools. We have invested large sums of money in trying to attain this status. To have that ruined by one tainted sponsorship is an possibility we don’t want to consider. All we have done could be destroyed in an instant. Therefore, these task forces should be created so that College Relations and Corporate Funding Relations have guidelines to work by. Protest groups will have their say, students will have their say, and the administration will have their say. We won’t accept anything less.