Sixteen members of the Brown chapter of Students for a Democratic Society protested inside Sayles Hall Tuesday over defense contractor Raytheon's presence at the spring career fair. Though students noticed the protestors as they entered the fair, most walked by without more than a passing glance.
Raytheon - which employs 80,000 people worldwide and had $20.3 billion in sales in 2006, according to its Web site - produces several types of cruise missiles and a variety of defense systems. SDS member Will Pasley '07 called the multi-billion dollar company "war profiteers ... who should not be on campus."
A representative from Raytheon at the career fair declined to comment about the protest.
"We want to make sure that people who are here for the career fair know what sort of businesses the companies they are looking at deal in," said Bucky Rogers '07, a member of SDS. "They could end up helping manufacture missiles that will kill thousands of people unnecessarily."
Though students have questioned the choice of employers at the career fair in the past, this is the first time in recent years that there has been a student protest at the fair, said Kimberly DelGizzo, associate dean of the College and director of the Career Development Center
"It was a complete surprise," DelGizzo said. "Nobody sought us out beforehand to talk."
Employers present at the fair are invited by career services or approach the University interested in recruiting students, DelGizzo said.
"Our students are interested in a wide range of employers. If a student is not interested in a particular employer, (the student) will not talk to them," she said.
Though DelGizzo said the University could potentially turn a company away for ethical or legal concerns, this has not been done in at least 10 years, if ever, said Barbara Peoples, senior associate director of the Career Development Center.
"We have employers here representing all different industries and sectors," including information technology, consulting, financial services and non-profits, Peoples said, adding that the diversity of potential employers is important to a general career fair.
The Brown chapter of SDS - a multi-campus, student-run organization with roots in the 1960s anti-war movement - seeks more than just changing the career fair lineup, Pasley said.
"SDS is a multi-issue organization. We are trying to ... get Raytheon off campus, but also end the (Iraq) war and decrease poverty, so this issue just fits into our overarching vision of a better world," he said.
