Kim Pearson

© 2003-4. All Rights Reserved

Leah Emmanouilidis' 12/12 class assignment

Interoffice Memo

Date: 12/11/00

To: Jesse H Rosenblum, College Relations

Cc:

From: Leah Emmanouilidis, College Relations advisor

RE: Corporate Sponsorship and donations

Priority:

[Urgent]

Due to the recent controversy surrounding NIKE/Tiger Woods sponsorship of the Trenton Jr. Golf Program, I feel it is necessary the College establish guidelines for dealing with corporate sponsors.

At this time, The College of New Jersey doesn’t have any standards of criteria for dealing with corporate sponsorship in general. This shortcoming became a problem when there was debate surrounding NIKE funding the Trenton Jr. Golf Tournament, which The College was co-sponsoring.

This lack of established guidelines for evaluating corporate donors cause us great difficulty in deciding whether or not to proceed with the co-sponsorship. Additionally, protests by United Students against Sweatshops posed a threat to the public relations of The College.

In order to ensure that we wont be in this situation again, we must set some written guidelines for the corporate Foundations Relations Officer and College Relations to base decisions.

Below you will find some recommendations for action in this matter.

Task Force Committees:

Similar to the approach taken to draft the College’s mission, the Corporate Funding Committee will consist of smaller internal committees.

The Corporate Funding Task Force will be composed of many different types of people.

All Students, Faculty, Staff and Administrators will be offered the chance to participate. Groups such as Amnesty International and Students Against Sweatshops will be welcome. The Board of Trustees should also be involved. The Alumni Association will also be offered the opportunity to participate This list does is not limited to only those mentioned above.

These people will be broken down into subcommittees. Each will have a specific role in analyzing corporations and their practice.

Standards Committee

First we will need a mixed group to begin forming a set of standards by which corporations shall be evaluated before we accept donations or sponsorship. This will most likely be a lengthy process, but we will set a timeline of goals and do our best to make such decisions in a reasonable amount of time.

Research Committee

We will also need a group to take these guidelines and evaluate current and prospective donors. This group should begin researching before all the guidelines are completed. That way, if something new to consider is uncovered, it can be brought before the Standards Committee.

This is just a beginning. Many additions will follow as the task force comes into being. The College must create standards that support the ideas put forth in the mission statement. This must be accomplished in an orderly and timely manner, while encompassing all the stakeholders involved.

I hope you will consider my suggestion and work with me to establish the task force necessary to support The College’s mission and goals.