I am so proud of my club members and officers for helping the Walk raise over $21,000 this year with over 150 online registrants. We put so much effort all year into making one morning a success and we did it. There is nothing like walking through the scenic Commons and meeting families and friends and knowing you have achieved a true accomplishment. These are people I can never forget. Thank you all.

Keep moving.

Cornell students are working to persuade Cornell University to cut their contract with Nike because a Nike subcontractor did not pay over 2 million dollars in severance to Honduran workers, according to Marlena Fontes, a member of Cornell Students Against Sweatshops and Cornell Organization for Labor Action.

“That’s peanuts to a corporation like Nike, but incredibly important to workers,” she said.

Fontes said Nike broke Honduran law and the Cornell code of conduct that says Cornell will only source from responsible corporations that do not use sweatshop labor. She said the organizations are responding by calling on Cornell to stay true to this code and end their contract with Nike. She said this makes up the Just Pay It Nike campaign.

Erin Dobson, a spokesperson for Nike, said they would not release any more information than what was in their press release. The press release said Nike believes the subcontractor is responsible for the issue in Honduras because the subcontractor employed the workers and therefore Nike will not be paying severance to them.

However, Nike will be setting up programs soon along with two Honduran apparel contract factories and local service providers to train those who are unemployed technical skills so they can compete for jobs. The program will also provide training in micro-enterprise development for those who wish to start their own businesses.

Larry Quant, the associate director of athletics director for financial operations at Cornell, said Cornell’s agreement with Nike is beneficial because Nike provides Cornell with things like uniforms and practice equipment at a discounted price. However, he said he understands the issues surrounding the workers in Honduras.

“We certainly have the opportunity to buy that stuff from other vendors, but it would strictly be a financial cost to us,” he said.

Quant also represents the athletic department on the Cornell Licensing Oversight Committee. This committee is made up of students, faculty, a representative from the Cornell bookstore and others. He said the committee met several times to discuss the issues and made a recommendation to the senior administration at Cornell. He said that not everyone agreed on the recommendation, but would not go in to further detail.

“The recommendation of the committee was to suspend any agreements with Nike until such time as the issues in Honduras were solved to the satisfaction of the workers. It was not a unanimous vote,” Quant said.

Andrew Wolf, member of CSAS said the organization is an affiliate of the organization of United Students Against Sweatshops, which is made up of colleges across the country. He said there are two components to the program. He said students try to convince workers to sign a purchasing code of conduct that designates the rules that they require from the people that are given licensing agreements to use the school’s logo to produce their clothing. Wolf said the second part of the program is that schools help to enforce these rules by partnering with the Worker’s Rights Consortium. He said this is an independent agency that travels to factories around the world and investigates their labor rights and writes reports about what is happening there.

He said the Cornell chapter is leading the campaign against Nike along with COLA and 30 student organizations have endorsed the campaign. Wolf said the groups are trying to get people to sign a petition asking Cornell’s president to end the contract and 5 percent of the student body has signed it.

Wolf said CSAS hosted the Working Out For Worker’s Rights campaign last week. He said students rallied on Cornell’s campus and did aerobics and wore 80s style clothing in front of one of the libraries. They also got people to sign the petition there.

“That was really effective because by doing something fun, people were interested in what you were doing instead of just running away from you. That was a good way to draw people in and draw lots of attention,” he said.

Linda Holzbaur, community organizer for the Ithaca Worker’s Center, said there is a problem with the international policy of the United States because it is based on things like NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. She said this allows global corporations to move their factories to a different location with few labor laws, making it easy for them to oppress the workers there. She said this also ties in to the problem of immigration in the United States.

“That affects not only the people in those countries and their working conditions and salary [by] bringing everybody down, but it also does push a whole lot of people to immigrate to the United States looking for a better life and here there are undocumented workers facing the same or worse treatments than they were getting back at home,” she said.

Maria Coles, chair of the city administration committee, said she has been working with Cornell students to pass a sweat free policy. This policy says that the city of Ithaca will not supply any uniforms to workers if they were made in a sweatshop. The policy also says the city of Ithaca will only buy from companies that treat workers with fairness and human decency and pay whatever the salary is in that country.

Coles said it will discussed and decided whether to adopt the resolution at the next city administration committee meeting. After the meeting, she said the city attorney and his staff will develop that policy and she will provide the drafted policy to COLA to make sure everything has been included. Coles and some members of the Ithaca Common Council will discuss the policy with the student group and then the city administration, which is made up of five Ithaca Common Council members, will vote on it. If it is approved by three votes, it will move on to the rest of Common Council to vote on for adoption.

Svante Maverick, an Ithaca Common Council member, said he thinks the students are doing a great job and anything students can do to hold corporations accountable is a good thing.

“They’ve had fantastic steps this past year. They’ve proved that they can have a real difference if they just localize and stay energized and stay active,” he said.

Coles said she has already received positive feedback from a few people in her ward that are happy the Ithaca Common Council wants to adopt this resolution.

“It is absolutely horrendous that there are still people who are treated as if they were slaves in various clothing factories. It’s an abomination. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a worker’s rights issue,” she said.

Colleges from upstate New York including SUNY Geneseo and Ithaca College participated in the race. Three people formed a team that created a chariot that one person would drive and two people would race. The chariots could not be powered by anything other than man.

Ally Girasole, Jeffrey Goodwin and Jason Sibley-Liddle raced against the other teams and broke through the Red Bull gateway to take first place while people crowded around the raceway cheering and snapping photos. The winners created a sleigh as their chariot while Girasole dressed up as Cindy Lou Who complete with her blonde hair piled on top of wires and a water bottle to produce the classic look. Alongside her, Goodwin and Sibley-Liddle dressed as reindeer to produce the theme of The Grinch Who Stole Red Bull.

When I arrived, a short young man with large nostrils and a contagious smile told me the owner was not in and turned to ask a blonde haired woman if she would be coming in today. She said Katie was normally in at this time and I could wait if I wanted. I felt surprisingly calm for someone with such a large task awaiting her, but my eyes wandered to the exotic merchandise. My feet led me to the sale rack where I fingered a single sleeved shirt adorned with a peacock feather that I knew I would not buy, but a girl can dream can’t she?

The young man complemented my patience while I tried to put a finger on his age. He could have been a college student cleaning up the dressing room and greeting people, but he seemed a bit older too. He eventually asked me to sit on the cushioned couch to make myself more comfortable and he took time out of his work to sit and talk with me. His eyes were never serious, but always smiling even when something was not particularly funny or interesting. I found out he was an Ithaca graduate and I told him about the new dorm that was built because the school had allowed too many people this year and he asked about the Athletic and Event Center that he saw being constructed when he visited campus last week. A friendly boy with nothing to hide, he made me laugh with a story about what he said was his first and last date with a girl at the former restaurant in Towers where she mimicked in a booming voice that turned the heads of everyone in the room how she would open on the future cooking show she desired to have.

Katie called soon after to let Dave know she would be there in a half hour and to apologize to me for getting caught up at her teaching job. I wandered through the store for a bit, imagining myself wearing the plaid hats and oversized sunglasses before taking a seat in the palm of the bright pink chair shaped as a hand. I picked up People magazine and began reading the latest on Sandra Bullock’s hubby problems before Dave intervened with his ideas on Hollywood and reality – we both agreed Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston seemed like genuinely great and real people and we sympathized with them for having cheating husbands.

Our conversation on Hollywood took a backseat when another employee, Tyler, directed me to the front of the store and told me Katie had arrived. Though there were three other woman, I instantly smiled at who I knew must be Katie because she fit the perfect description of an owner of Evolution – black tights with a bright colored V-neck shirt peaking out from her black jacket. She had deep brown eyes and skin and dark corkscrew curls popping out of her head as her tall figure towered over everyone.

We spoke for just three minutes on camera and I got the story I needed. She apologized again and we said our goodbyes within just ten minutes of her arrival.

Though it will be a long weekend trying to fit in a field hockey tournament, homework and the 15 page research paper I still have left to write, I could not be upset at how things went today. There is something so refreshing about taking a step back and learning more about a stranger.

I immediately began looking up news sites and the New York Times angered me. Why are you talking about all of people who want to board a flight and can’t and leaving the actual details of eruption and ash flow on the second page? I feel bad for those who can’t make their flights, but shouldn’t the information about the actual eruption of the volcano be at least on the first page? I want my news fast and you’re slowing me down with stories of bitter people who can’t board flights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/world/europe/18ash.html?pagewanted=1&hp

Chris wanted to go, but was afraid of making a fool of himself and falling on his face, but I was beyond elated and couldn’t wait to hit the slopes for the first time. Little did we know, the results would switch each other’s perspectives.

By the end of the session, Chris was able to swerve left and right down the bunny slope only falling once or twice and couldn’t wait to get back and look up snowboarding gear on Craig’s List. I, on the other hand, was glad I had the experience, but wasn’t thinking about snowboarding again any time soon. The instructor said I was really good at turning for my first time, but what I didn’t know how to do was stop or change speeds. Afraid to go toppling over and rolling down the hill, I forced myself to fall each time I started gaining too much speed, which was more than several times. I have bruises in more places than I would like to admit, but Greek Peak is definitely the place to go for some great snowboarding lessons and good times in the area!

I met my friend from school at Penn Station as well as her two friends from her home in Long Island. One of them attends Barnard while the other goes to Marist. Both were stunned to see my bare skin sticking out from behind the stones embedded in my black sandals and jacket draped across my arm. They could not help but exclaim that I must be crazy and would freeze the whole day in my get up as they began walking through the train station in their brown boots.

Carolyn and I just laughed. If you have lived through Ithaca winters, you can brave 50 degree weather in sandals and a T-shirt.

As they say, patience is a virtue so I tried hard to wait through the other cases that were taken care of before the one I was covering. I can’t imagine if I was on a tighter deadline though and had to wait that long until the case I was covering came up. However, eventually the person I was writing the story about was called up. I got a front row seat with pen in hand ready to record the action.

The only things I heard were a few numbers from his telephone number and “sorry, I can’t do this today” and “lawyer”.

Awesome. People were staring at me because I was on the edge of my seat and twisting my body to try and hear more. Nope.

I talked to the person I was investigating outside after he was given permission to leave. He told me his lawyer said he could not talk about the case and in that five minute period when talking to the judge he was only issued a lawyer.

The Town of Ithaca Court is a difficult place to get a story.