On January 27, the Purdue Mortar Board hosted a supposed conference on "leadership." Mortar Board was founded by women to promote women's accomplishments in college, then admitted men in 1975. The speakers were a majority of men, led by business people and a few true leaders in the way of changing the world … give a shout out for women leaders. In fact, the opening speaker equated leadership with success ascertaining that earning six figures and a country club membership as qualifiers.

For the past month, the workers of the Kukdong Factory in Mexico, contracted by Nike, were fighting for their livelihoods. The workers, mostly women, were fired after staging a work stoppage to protest worms and raw food in their promised meals, low wages, forced resignations, intimidation and police and employer brutality. The Workers Rights Consortion interviewed workers both sympathetic to and against the corporation, finding these claims to not only be legitimate but severely understated. Purdue's administration has refused to act both swiftly and responsibly on Kukdong.

Kukdong was not mentioned at the conference, which, to me, consisted of capitalistic, patriarchal and egotistical values. Few community leaders, no labor leaders and no human rights leaders were present and minority students were scarce. This conference was a disgrace to the true leaders of the world who never stop fighting for the disenfranchised, poor and discriminated. Leaders have destiny forced upon them, to uphold every person's integrity while sacrificing much for the cause. True leaders do not earn money and join country clubs; they are common people who fight daily for the dignity of all without reward, as the leaders of the work stoppage at Kukdong exhibited. How can we expect Purdue to act as a human rights leader when leadership does not exist in the administration, nor at "leadership" seminars?