BY WENDY BOULDING
Confronted with the difficult task of balancing big business with education, the Edmonton Public School Board has begun to take an active stand on the issue.
In December, Board members voted to hold a public hearing (Vue, Dec. 19-25 issue) to allow the Nike corporation to face off with its local critics accusing them of unfair labor practices within their Asian factories.
After hearing both sides the board was to make a decision as to whether or not it would continue its association with Nike in co-sponsoring a street hockey program for inner city kids.
The program, entitled P.L.A.Y., is run in conjunction with the Edmonton Oilers. Nike runs similar programs with NHL and NBA teams throughout North America.
Nike is launching a full line of hockey equipment this March. Superstars Mats Sundin, Jeremy Roenick and Sergei Fedorov are part of Nike's aggressive marketing campaign. Nike has also bought Bauer, Canada's top hockey supplier.
Nike has also secured licensing deals with the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs' new '97-'98 jerseys will be designed by Nike.
But the school board has now changed its mind.
During the first meeting of the year, board members voted 6-3 not to go ahead with the public hearing. Rather than focusing on Nike, the board has decided to broadly examine the issue of corporate sponsorship and to begin the process of establishing a policy statement that would potentially regulate just how much corporate influence will be allowed in Edmonton schools.
It was the uproar caused by concerned labor groups that pressured trustees to take a closer look at the moral obligations they had to the district.
"It was the Nike issue that forced us to look at all of our future relationships with corporations," stated trustee Janice Melnychuk. "Sure you can be involved in sponsorships, but there has to be altruism."
Melnychuk feels it is vital to have input from both the community and educators before a policy statement is created. Trustees publicly acknowledged how important it was for the Board to be responsible to the community.
What Melnychuk seems to fear the most is that if standards aren't set by the school board now, in the future financially-starved Edmonton schools may become vulnerable targets for corporations to prey upon easily influenced consumers.
"I think we need to have a broader discussion on how much we feel is an appropriate influence of commerce in our schools. If we don't look at it in a broader sense we may lose the ability to address it in the future. We don't want to give corporations a marketing advantage, but we don't want to weaken the entrepreneurial spirit we are being forced to adopt."
Originally, Trustee Jean Woodrow voted to have a public hearing, but changed her mind after receiving a letter from Nike.
"The idea wasn't to judge Nike. That wouldn't have been fair," she said.
"We had received information from the Alberta Federation of Labor and from members of CUPE and I had agreed to have a hearing so we could hear information from both sides. But we received information from Nike that I felt answered all of my questions and gave us enough facts."
Woodrow went on to say, "Having Nike and CUPE together would have opened up a big can of worms that wouldn't have done us any good as far as our future relations with business is concerned."
Sessions between the school board and members of the district will begin in March. Eventually, public debates over the issue will be planned.
With corporate sponsorship trickling into school programs, new challenges are being forced upon the school board. Many of the trustees acknowledge that they do not want take away the educational opportunities corporate sponsorships offer. But at the same time they want to maintain a high standard of integrity.
Said Woodrow, "I hope the public won't see this reversal as the board backing off from our standards. That's not what we're intending to do. On the other hand, we don't want to alienate business. We need to draw a fine line and I think we are well on our way to developing a criteria that will do so."