UM honored in Model UN
At the National Model United Nations Conference held in New York last week, a team of 14 UM students won the prestigious “Outstanding Delegation” award. This award is the highest honor granted at the competition, and only six of the 200 schools that participated in the competition received it. Congratulations to the UM team: Christian Wilson (Head Delegate), Nitin Aggarwal, Adele Bagley, Federico Cuadra, Andrea Echevarria, Fabiola Gambiarazo, Seema Gohil, Sebastian Gonzalez, Maisha Kiala, Megan Kinsella, Carlos Llinas, Edith Londono, Altagracia Louissaint and Jessica Piha.
Downloads don’t harm record industry, says study
(U-WIRE) NEW YORK
As the Recording Industry Association of America continues to cite music piracy as the primary cause of its profit slump, a recent study plays a slightly different tune. In a study released March 29, Professors Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard and Koleman Strumpf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill claim that the effect of music piracy on recording industry revenue is “statistically indistinguishable from zero.” The study further suggests that “while downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing.” Amy Weiss, the RIAA’s senior vice president of communications, called the study an “interesting contribution to the literature,” but stated in a press release that “the results are inconsistent with virtually every other study done by academics and research analysts about the impact of illegal file-sharing.”
Lands’ End caves to college labor demands
(U-WIRE) NEW YORK
Just months after Columbia University severed its contract with clothing manufacturer Lands’ End, the brand has pledged to make up for some of the labor law violations that lost it Columbia’s business. Columbia ended Lands’ End’s contract as a licensee of the university in response to charges of blacklisting in its El Salvador supplier factory, as well as a serious breech the company’s contract with Columbia. Providing $53,000 in machinery and materials as well as 100 hours of expert advice, Lands’ End will help the first union-friendly factory in the history of El Salvador’s export apparel industry get off the ground. The new factory “Just Garments” is the first in the history of the export apparel industry in El Salvador to sign a contract with a union. The victory for El Salvadoran labor, negotiated through the Workers Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, is also a victory for the Columbia chapter of SEEJ, Students for Environmental and Economic Justice.
The new 2004 ‘Canes Film Festival T-shirts have arrived! T-shirts can be purchased for $10 at the Motion Picture Office in the School of Communication in room 4024.