Jason Butkowski's 12/1 press release assignment
Date: December 1, 2000
To: Jesse Rosenblum
From: Jason Butkowski
This can be an incredible opportunity and an incredible pit – fall. We have to look at the benefits and problems inherent in the offer of Nike’s and Tiger Woods’ Sponsorship of the Trenton Junior Golf Tournament.
The Benefits
By being involved in the Trenton Junior Golf Tournament, we re – establish some of the strained relationship between the College and Trenton City and possibly the rest of the surrounding community. Recently, the strain has become very evident with the growing friction between the College and Ewing Township. This strain seems to have come from the change in name from Trenton State College to The College of New Jersey, seemingly distancing ourselves from the city of Trenton. By sponsoring a community event, we can begin to repair that breach.
The opening ceremonies for the tournament also coincide with Alumni Weekend. Since the change in name, alumni have been reluctant to support the school. This event would be much publicized, and reestablishing relations with Trenton and the surrounding areas might also help to repair this breach, since 70 percent of our alumni live within 100 miles of the College.
Also, an ongoing relationship with Nike might be beneficial to the College from a fiscal standpoint. A Nike sponsorship might be a draw to athletes at the school. A more conducive environment to athletics might be in among itself a fundraiser for the school, since it has been shown to be a great fundraiser at other schools.
The Problems
We have recently been asked to sign a pledge saying we would not support companies that use sweatshop labor by a group of students on campus. Nike has been one of the biggest targets of anti – sweatshop movements. Tiger Woods recently went to Thailand, where he was asked to support the anti – sweatshop unionization movement in one of the Nike plants. He refused and crossed the picket line. By being involved with this project, we may lose credibility among the students.
Another possibility is protests of the event by students. For such a highly publicized event, with alumni and the community keeping their eyes on us, student protests would be disastrous. In fact, student protests might even completely reverse the beneficial effects of the publicity of the event with alumni and the community.
We also have to worry about losing credibility among potential students and members of the community who support the anti – sweatshop campaign. This is a campaign that has been picking up steam lately, and with the growing support to the anti – sweatshop campaign, we may lose out on potential students and support from the community.
Recommendations
I think it’s too soon to come to a decision. The beneficial and negative effects of this endeavour all hold very nearly equal weight. So, I propose holding a press conference with the school, in which we have representatives from Nike, the Trenton Junior Golf tournament, and the student organization against sweat – shops on campus speak out about the event. From this we can try to judge what the students’ response to the event would be.
If we do decide to go through with supporting the tournament, we should issue a statement to the campus community, detailing our reasons for going about supporting the event. We should not try to pursue any professional relationship with Nike, in that the students would view this as fragrantly supporting sweatshop labor. If we do support this, we should let the campus community know that it is to benefit the youth of Trenton, not to support sweatshop labor. We should hold programs and organize events so that the students can voice their opinions of sweatshop labor, without doing so and jeopardizing the image of the College at the actual event. We should sign the pledge, with the understanding of the students that our support of this event is not a support of Nike, since Nike is supporting the event which is run by the Trenton Junior Golf tournament, not run by the College of NJ.
Concerns from the Recommendation
While I think this is probably the best plan of action concerning this situation, there is still no way to say for sure what the students’ reaction will be. The plan is to diffuse the situation if it gets to that point. Hopefully it will not get to that point.