UM community protests Iraq business initiative

ORONO – A business conference about economic opportunities in Iraq originally scheduled to take place in Scarborough last week has been postponed, but students, faculty and community members gathered at the University of Maine Thursday night to protest it.

The university was to be a co-sponsor of the Nov. 13 conference, along with the U.S.-Iraq Business Alliance and the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce, a unit of the college of business.

“The issue is certainly far from dead, and our work is certainly far from over,” said Greg Field, executive director of Portland-based Peace Action Maine, about the postponement.

UM’s participation in a conference of business executives looking to exploit the spoils of war is symptomatic of the increasing corporate role of universities nationwide, according to professor Doug Allen.

“[Universities] are seen as a good investment. We say our students are our number-one ‘commodity,'” Allen said. “And to talk about us making a ‘killing’ over there economically is kind of obscene,” he said, referring to lost Iraqi and American lives.

UM President Peter Hoff stood in defense of the university, arguing that the conference provided business students and faculty opportunity to observe and encourage ethical business practices.

“It’s their job to teach people not only how to conduct business, but how to conduct it in sound, ethical ways,” Hoff said. “These [conferences] are not like classes or seminars on campus.”

Hoff said he was surprised to learn that few UM faculty members had been invited to the conference and does not encourage the university’s participation in Iraq’s future economy.

“I would not pay $850 of my money to attend,” Hoff said of the conference registration fee. “I have no particular interest in the University of Maine or any subset of the University of Maine being involved in business ventures in Iraq.”

Allen countered Hoff’s assertion that the conference is free of political agendas, claiming participants are clearly engaging in war profiteering.

“Caspar Weinberger was the keynote speaker – what does that say? He was the hawkish secretary of defense under Reagan,” Allen said.

Both men commended the more than 80 attendees at Neville Hall for debating UM’s sponsorship of the conference, but issues concerning its participants and agenda have not been truthfully addressed, Allen said.

Field echoed the demand for greater accountability, specifically for U.S. policy-makers in Iraq.

“We need to see who is cutting the deals, and how they are being cut,” Field said. “Without transparency in these policies, we lose and the people of Iraq lose.”