Ohio University President Roderick McDavis announced an ad-hoc committee that will address socially responsible resource management.
The committee will comprise representatives from Procurement, Information Technology, Institutional Equity, Legal Affairs, the Ohio University Foundation, staff members and one representative from each of the five senates — graduate student, undergraduate student, faculty, classified and administrative.
“To fulfill our educational and humanitarian functions, we must consider ethical factors and social effects when establishing policies and practices,” McDavis said in a press release. “We also must establish policies and positions that are accountable, meaningful, and attainable. I am grateful to the committee members who have volunteered to help research these issues and provide recommendations.”
The committee will address Bobcats for a Conflict-Free campus’ initiative to encourage electronic companies to make products with minerals that have been legally mined. The organization's concern stems from the mining of minerals in areas throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo that are rife with violence.
Conflict-Free hopes OU will support these companies with a change in its procurement policy that favors products created with “clean minerals” — those mined in peaceful areas. Conflict-Free also wants a change in the shareholder resolution policy to use the votes in OU’s stock shares to encourage companies to make products without minerals from conflicted areas.
Though these changes are Conflict-Free’s long-term goals, the group also wants to see immediate response from administration with a statement acknowledging a link between the companies purchasing illegal minerals from the Congo and the violence in the area.
OU’s Honors Tutorial College posted a statement supporting the conflict-free initiative in May 2011.
However, McDavis feels a similar, universitywide statement would be insubstantial and ineffective, said Becky Watts, McDavis’ chief of staff.
“He’s very interested in researching what’s the best stance to take that is most meaningful and achievable,” Watts said.
Conflict-Free President Ellie Hamrick said she wants the university to pressure electronic companies to analyze the materials they are using in technology production, but she doesn’t want the university to stop purchasing these products altogether, because it would negatively affect the Congo’s legal mines.
McDavis' ad-hoc committee is a deviation from the original committee planned in January, which included only representatives from each of the senates, Hamrick said. In this new committee, OU employeeswill outnumber students, a ratio that doesn’t seem to be a “democratic process,” Hamrick said.
Hamrick has unanimous support from Graduate Student Senate and Student Senate; she visited Student Senate again Wednesday evening.
Hamrick contacted the Board of Trustees via email and phone early in February. Though one trustee spoke to her off the record, Board of Trustees Secretary Tom Davis also called and asked Hamrick not to directly contact trustees again because trustees are not supposed to speak to individual parties regarding politics, Davis said.
“I think that’s what I’m trying to communicate, and I’ve made that clear to her before,” Davis said. “She’s simply tried to go directly to (the trustees). I’ve always found her to be very respectful. I’m happy to continue to work with her on what she’s trying to accomplish.”
Davis said he feels comfortable the Board of Trustees has done everything it can to make sure any changes “happen through the university,” Davis said.
Hamrick said Conflict-Free has been “playing the game” by contacting the people she feels appropriate to gain recognition, believing that the lack of administrative accessibility suggests “larger issues of power structures” at OU.
“Any students who want to make an actual change at this university have to put up with some level of bureaucratic runaround or generally having trouble with having their voices heard,” Hamrick said. “Students should be able to contact the people who are using students’ money to make decisions about students’ education. The least we should be able to do is send them an email without getting retaliation.”
Current Student Trustee Danielle Parker agreed the board should not be contacted directly. Instead, she suggested students contact the student trustees so that they can “point them in the right direction,” she said.
“I think the Board is not necessarily supposed to be accessible to all students,” said Parker, a junior studying public relations. “We heard this issue last year. It’s a really good issue, and I’m 100 percent in support of students. Everyone should have opinions and have their opinions be heard — though this is not always the way it should be heard.”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
