December 12, 2005

WSU drops Web link after state chamber protest

Wayne State University removed a link from its Labor Studies Center Web site on Dec. 2, after the Michigan Chamber of Commerce filed a campaign-finance complaint against the university. The complaint, filed with the Michigan Department of State, called for a halt to what the chamber called WSU's "misuse of tax dollars." The chamber alleged in its complaint that Wayne State was using public resources, including its Web site, to advocate placing a minimum-wage question on the November 2006 ballot. "As a public body, the university is prohibited from making any expenditures to help put a measure on the ballot or to help pass it," Robert LaBrant, senior vice president and general counsel for the chamber, said in a release. The Web link cited in the complaint was developed by three Wayne State students as part of an internship project on the issue of minimum wage as public policy, said Hal Stack, director of the university's Labor Studies Center. The students' internship ended this semester, but the university had not yet removed the link from its Web site, he said. "It's clear that we made a mistake," in allowing the students to post the link, said Stack. "It shouldn't have been on the university's site, and it should have indicated it was a student project."

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