This afternoon three of our members had a few quick errands to run on campus. We had to do some banking, we needed to add our fall meeting time to our banner, and then we had to go by the university general counsel’s office to set up a time to view some documents per a request that our member Brendan Laws made. We also had to pay $40 for another public information request. The Texas Public Information Act is really useful because it allows citizens a way to look at documents created by the government. Click here for a quick primer: Texas public info.
Anyway it was just another routine day on campus for a few activists. However as is often the case at the University of Houston, where they make up new laws everyday, the most mundane task can turn into an ugly incident of oppression of happy go lucky students.
It was about 1:45 when we walked toward the lawyers office. We came upon Leslie Pruski, (secretary to Dona Cornell, the general counsel) in the hallway. She asked who we were here to see and we told her Valerie Coleman-Ferguson, one of the lawyers on staff. Pruski went into the office and told someone. A woman came out and we told her the same thing. She told us to wait, which we did. We sat for around 15 minutes. Now bear in mind all we had to do was give them $40 cash and get a receipt and go. Another woman passed through the reception area we were waiting in and we asked her to check on things. She returned and told us they were checking on the law and would get back to us. They had to check on the law to see if they could accept cash? But wait it gets better. Then still another woman came out and showed our member Tim a receipt and took his $40, but instead of letting us have the receipt she said she had to take it and photocopy our money and our receipt.
So we waited another ten or fifteen minutes. Except now Brendan was going to be late for work because it was 2:30 so we went ahead and went into the hallway where the offices are and the video above shows what happened.
It’s important to note the the lawyer in this video, Mr. Rangel, is not just having a bad day, he has a bad day everyday students are around on legitimate business. For review and contextual purposes, below are two more videos showing Mr. Rangel acting unprofessional and ignorant. We think this accurately reflects most UH staffer’s attitudes towards students or at least the ones that we’ve encountered over the years of our activism.
Its also important to note that our group is primarily made up of working class students. We mention that because we had to buy this expensive video camera and we must continually buy tapes for it just to protect ourselves. Its bad enough that they jack up the tuition every year, but it is just ridiculous that we can’t do the simplest errand on campus without having these folks go beserk on us. This idiotic behavior of staffers just makes us use up more film and more time documenting it.
On Tuesday, April 21 four Students Against Sweatshops members went to a “town hall” meeting that UH president Renu Khator was presiding over. As usual Khator’s thuglike security just couldn’t handle students wanting to exercise their first amendment rights. Here’s what happened:
Last Friday afternoon November 7 six USAS members were handing out flyers in front of Cullen Auditorium. President Renu Khator was having a ceremony called an investiture. Apparently her $500,000 plus salary (it actually comes to more than $700,000 with all her benefits) is not enough, so she must have big ceremonies to show everyone how important she thinks she is.
Anyway while two of us were holding a banner that said “Khator ignores student concerns,” Marie Martinez, Khator’s secretary stood directly in front of us apparently trying to block our sign from the view of the faculty members who were marching into the auditorium in some kind of ass kissing parade. One of our members said, “Do you have to stand right in front of me?” and that’s when Ms. Martinez slapped him.
Wednesday morning our member filed a criminal complaint with the University of Houston police department. The cops tried very hard to convince him not to file charges and even said they couldn’t give him a copy of his own complaint! They relented and gave him a copy. We’re hoping that Ms. Martinez will have to pay a fine. Stay tuned for the further adventures of USAS at the University of Houston.
Richard Alderman is a faculty member at the University of Houston’s law school. For many years Mr. Alderman has been pushing a populist image of himself as the “People’s Lawyer.” He writes a weekly column for the Houston Chronicle, the only daily paper in the fourth largest city in the country. He also appears on channel 13 Houston’s ABC affiliate.
Earlier this summer Mr. Alderman took part in a scam on the University community and all taxpayers that was known as the “Apparel Task Force.”
Here’s a quick history: Back in January we got our student government to unanimously pass a bill to join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC, a third party non-profit labor monitor made up of students, college administrators and labor rights experts with 181 university affliates: WRC ) and to sign the Designated Supplier’s Program, (DSP a proposed solution that would designate factories who meet basic labor conditions the right to make university licensed apparel) our president / chancellor Renu Khator set up an appointed “apparel task force” with 5 profs (none of whom ever published on labor rights, sweatshops, corporate responsibility or other related field) 1 staffer and 1 student. We gave a presentation to the “task force” (which they conveniently scheduled at the end of the semester when our college paper stopped publishing) where we laid out the facts and messaged DSP as the solution. We of course video taped our entire presentation and you tubed it.
In the apparel task force’s “report” which documents we obtained revealed Alderman drafted, the task force members claimed “Students Against Sweatshops said that the there likely will be little impact from joining WRC or the DSP.” We of course took issue with their blatant lies and asked 3 times in writing for them to retract and correct their falsehoods. They refused. Read their “report” Task Force report
So this morning we passed out over 300 flyers to attendees of Alderman’s “People’s Law School,” at the U of H law center. Read the flyer: alderman-flier-revised
Well Mr. Alderman and one of his associates were none to happy that we would stand on a public sidewalk and exercise our first amendment rights. Here’s what happened:
Bright and early a couple of us stood outside the law school and handed out the flyers. Everybody thought we were part of the program and gladly took a flyer. One campus cop was sitting in his car nearby. After about 10 minutes a well dressed middle aged man confronted one of our members (we think he was a law professor too) and said what we were was doing was “wrong,” and that our member was “insane.” We just replied we’re standing up for workers rights. He took issue with that and said that we were “vilifying” the people’s lawyer who does so much to “help people.” We replied yeah unless they are garment workers or students working to improve labor conditions. The unknown white male asked what the size of the lawyers house had to do with anything and we said we thought it demonstrated how the people’s lawyer was all about taking for himself and not giving back. Then the unknown white male stomped off in a huff. We thought our flyer comparing wages and living conditions of the People’s Lawyer and UH garment workers in Bangladesh would make these white males more aware of their privilege. It certainly got their attention. Interestingly enough one attendee later told me that us she asked if they would help her fill out a complaint for small claims court and they told her no they didn’t do that. So it seems that the whole event is just an opportunity for lawyers to troll for clients.
A few minutes later the “people’s lawyer” himself came up to us with the campus cop (who of course knows us well) in tow. About that time two more cop cars rolled up. Then Mr. People’s Lawyer claimed he tried to help us. We said lying about our campaign and the DSP doesn’t help anyone. Then he trotted out the tired excuse that no one signed the DSP! We said 45 schools have and that he could look at the WRC’s website and see for himself. Then he slipped up and said that he was “Trying to stop the school from signing the DSP,” he had read the DSP letters from other schools! In a polite as tone as possible we said “We don’t have to listen to you and please get away from us,” and continued to hand out fliers. Mr. People’s Lawyer didn’t know what to do and then the cop said to him “What do you want to do?” Mr. People’s Lawyer said its OK. I guess ordering a cop to arrest students for passing out fliers would have been too much for the people’s lawyer to live down later. Then we told him if he wanted to speak to us he could make an appointment. He didn’t like that too much and stomped off.
Tell the People’s Lawyer to stop fronting for a corrupt UH adminstration and tell the truth about the university and their oppression of garment workers: You can email him here: alderman@uh.edu or call him at his office: 713.743.2227.
A public information request we recently filed revealed that the UH campus police have been secretly videotaping us. On July 15 we held a press conference in front of the library on campus. In reply to our request the UH general counsel provided us with a DVD showing that police officers were hiding in bushes and videotaping us. Apparently these low rent Steven Spielberg wannabes could not actually figure out how to record sound so their nine minute video just shows us standing around in front of the library getting ready for our press conference.
Our press conference addressed President Khator’s phony apparel task force “report” and Khator’s press release which ignored its recommendation to join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). Several corporate media outlets were in attendance. We also videotaped our press conference and posted it on youtube. See Press conference part 1, Press conference part 2
Maybe these low rent UH goons could just watch our video and learn something about the sweatshop issue.
It’s also important to note that the Khator and her administrators always tell us not to video them mainly because they don’t want a record of their lies and also because they have a bad habit of fabricating false disciplinary charges against us. But Khator has no problem with her junior G-Men clandestinely taping us without our permission.
Khator should take the time to hear student concerns
To the editor:
I’m a freshman at the University of Houston, and in my experience UH President Renu Khator is not very open to students.
I tried to set up a meeting with her on a weekly basis, representing the student group United Students Against Sweatshops to discuss human rights issues that affect our UH garment workers, but I received no direct feedback.
Instead, I was redirected to the vice president of Student Affairs while this issue is one that can only be handled by the financial and administrative departments.
I thought maybe Khator hadn’t been informed of the reasons that I was attempting to meet with her, so I decided to peacefully wait for her in her waiting room to discuss this in person.
I was reading a book when administrative officials began heckling me and told me that it was impossible for me to meet with her that day. I said, “That’s all right, I’ll just wait here and read my book just in case.”
Eventually the police were called. They took me into their custody, escorted me from her office and informed me that if I ever enter Khator’s office without an invitation, I will be arrested.
I don’t understand how Khator can hear my input, as a student, if I will get arrested for trying to talk with her about human rights issues that concern me.
