Administrators Assume Role As Labor Contacts

Three months after Allan A. Ryan, Jr. left his post as University attorney, Director of Federal and State Relations Kevin Casey and Vice President and General Counsel Anne Taylor have assumed his unofficial role as the administration's point person on labor issues.

Casey and Taylor will serve as liaisons between the Harvard Students Against Sweatshops (HSAS) and University President Neil L. Rudenstine.

For nearly two years, HSAS has been protesting Harvard's membership in the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a consortium founded by manufacturing companies such as Nike to monitor working conditions in foreign factories.

The group urges Harvard to instead join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a group run by labor and human rights organizations.

Both Casey and Taylor have long been peripherally involved in this debate-Casey through his work in the office of Government, Community and Public Affairs and Taylor through her work with Ryan in the Office of the General Counsel.

"I've kept an eye on the progression of this issue," Casey said. "It seemed that I'd be an appropriate replacement."

Both say they look forward to working with students to address issues of factory conditions.

"One of the fun things about working at a university is the energy and brightness and commitment that comes from interacting with kids who are so passionate about issues," Casey said.

Casey and Taylor say they are currently gathering information to determine exactly where HSAS stands.

"Kevin and I are in a learning mode-keeping track of the issue and reading material," Taylor said.

"We want to become more grounded, to catch up and to continue the process of interacting with the students," Casey agreed.

Throughout his career, Ryan forged a close relationship with the student activists that Taylor and Casey say they hope to maintain.

Just this past Friday, a group of HSAS members met with the two administrators to present a platform of eight ways the University could improve conditions in its factories.

"They were certainly receptive," said HSAS member Alexander B. Horowitz '02. "They raised some early objections, listened to us and it seemed like they agreed with what we had to say."

But, he said, the HSAS members were cautioned not to expect too much.

"At the end of the meeting, we were told that the University moves slowly and we shouldn't expect anything to happen soon," Horowitz said.

While Casey and Taylor say they plan to meet again with HSAS, they say change-at least in the immediate future-is unlikely.

"A decision [not to join the WRC] had been reached," Taylor said. "I wouldn't predict that that would be reversed."