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BY MENGHAN JIN

In print | Published March 25, 2010

In response to the controversy over the return of Coca-Cola products three years after the Kick Coke campaign banned them from campus, the administration has formed the ad hoc Committee on Purchaser Responsibility to determine the purchasing ethical responsibilities of the college and recommend policy changes if needed.

“The first charge of the committee is to decide whether the college needs a policy,” Vice President for Facilities and Services Stu Hain said. “If they decide that the college needs a policy, then they are to develop the policy and develop a mechanism to implement the policy.”

If the committee does end up drafting a policy, it will have to recommend ways to carry out the policy, due to be installed for the 2011-2012 budget, without negatively impacting the college’s budget, Hain said.

The committee is composed of three students, Paul Eisenberg ’12, Emily Dolson ’13 and Ben Hattem ’12; two staff members, Nadine Kolowrat, associate director of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations (CFGR) and Carmen Duffy, investment associate of the Committee on Investor Responsibility; and three faculty members, David Cohen, associate professor of astronomy, Hansjakob Werlen, professor of German and coordinator of the German Studies program; and Erin Todd Bronchetti, associate professor of economics. Director of the College Bookstore Kathy Grace was appointed chair by the president’s staff.

“Perhaps the most important and difficult job of the committee — speaking as an economist — will be to consider the true costs of any of our recommendations,” Bronchetti said. “Thus, it will be crucial for us to weigh whether the benefits of more responsible purchasing outweigh the value and benefits of whatever must be given up.”

The decisions of the committee will be facilitated by the ethical purchasing research that was carried out last semester by Zein Nakhoda ’12 and Rebecca Kranz ’13. Their work culminated to a report titled “A Review of Ethical Purchasing Guidelines,” a copy of which will be provided to each of the nine members of the committee.

Clients involved in ethical purchasing take into account the labor practices and environmental sustainability of different companies before making purchasing decisions. Part of the committee’s charge will be to come up with its own definition of the practice.

“The two interns researched procedures and plans at other colleges and universities regarding ethical purchasing particularly as they related to labor practices and to environmental sustainability,” said Joy Charlton, executive director of the Lang Center who oversaw the research, in an e-mail. “Having such research at hand means that wheels don’t have to be re-invented. … This process can stimulate creativity as well as generate wisdom.”

Controversy over Coke products on the campus over the past couple years prompted this research and consequently the formation of this new committee.

In 2006, several students initiated a Kick Coke campaign in order to use consumer purchasing power to protest the company’s unethical labor practices. The campaign was successful in abolishing Coke products from campus, but this past fall, due to economic pressure and improvements in the company’s labor practices, the administration decided to reinstate Coke products. To prevent future conflicts, Kick Coke campaign activists asked the administration to consider adopting an ethical purchasing policy. Now a year later, a committee to assess the demand of a policy is taking shape.

“I think I see it, more than anything, as an important mechanism to oversee Swarthmore’s operations and try to make it so that Swarthmore is abiding by an ethical standard, purchasing goods, services, etc.,” said Alfredo Chuquihuara ’10, member of the Swarthmore Labor Action Project.

Dan Symonds ’11, student council financial policy representative, and Deivid Rojas ’11, StuCo vice president, both recognize the significant role of the Committee on Purchaser Responsibility.

“We need to build more trust and this is a great way,” Symonds said. “By letting students have access to purchasing information — detailed information — I think that we can build a lot of trust and prove that there’s not a whole lot of disagreement between students and the managers about how we can move this college forward.”

Recent controversy regarding the labor practices of AlliedBarton is not connected to the formation of the Committee on Purchaser Responsibility, Hain said. Yet, student activists still hope that the committee will put the AlliedBarton controversy first on its agenda.

“We want Swarthmore to be held accountable for the type of work they’re contracting out and what that means for the actual workers. Once the committee becomes established, I do hope that one of the first actions they take is to study this process with AlliedBarton,” Chuquihuara said.

While the committee was not formed specifically to rectify the AlliedBarton issue, it will probably examine the problem and develop a process in which similar issues can be vetted, Grace said.

“As chair of meetings, I see my responsibility primarily as making sure the meeting goes well and that we get accomplished what we’re supposed to get accomplished and that the voices of the individual members of the committee get heard,” Grace said.

The three student positions on the committee were available and publicized to the entire student body, but interest levels were low to the point that StuCo Appointments Chair Sonja Spoo ’13 was forced to extend the deadline of the applications. Nevertheless, StuCo was able to select three well-qualified applicants to fill those positions, Spoo said.

“I think this is a very, very important committee for this school, especially for students who like to be active,” Rojas said.

According to Spoo, the committee will have its first meeting before the beginning of next week. Students, staff and faculty are all hopeful that the committee will commit to its charges before the end of the semester.

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