While students lined up in the University Union Ballroom to listen to presentations from potential employers, protesters gathered outside to protest Philip Morris’ presence at Sacramento State’s annual career fair on March 2.A club on campus, Students Taking Action Against Nicotine Dependence, organized the protest.

-Cyndra Krogan, STAND’s faculty adviser, said the club consists of eight core members and eight to 10 more students who help with activities such as protests. The club started in January 2001 when the American Lung Association awarded them a grant.

-Joshua Wood, a member of STAND and vice president of university affairs for Associated Students, Inc., said that the organization was able to collect more than 1,000 signatures from students last semester opposing Phillip Morris’ inclusion in the career fair, but the career center did nothing about it.

-“Now we’re doing all these petitions, but they’re addressed to President (Alexander) Gonzalez because obviously the Career Center is not going to do any thing about it,” Wood said.

-Last semester members of STAND got in trouble for sending Philip Morris fake resumes saying things like “My name is Josh, I like to kill people for a living; my objective is to get a job where I can oppress third world nations.” The university threatened the group with disciplinary action if they continued with their falsified resume campaign, Wood said.

-There were replica child-size coffins at the protest booth as well. Jessica Gonzalez, the president of STAND, said they were there to promote awareness of the children who die in the foreign tobacco fields because of pesticides that are considered illegal to use in the United States.

-The people at the Philip Morris booth refused to comment on the situation to The State Hornet and other news outlets including The Sacramento Bee and Channel 3 news. They also refused to give copies of their promotional literature to students who identified themselves as reporters for The State Hornet.

-Sherene Sasser, the career events specialist who put together the Career Fair, said the criteria for companies to attend the career fair is that they have to have jobs available. They are not allowed to make students purchase anything to get started, and the jobs must be legitimate.

-“Philip Morris has jobs that pay well,” Sasser said. “They meet the criteria and are a legitimate employer.” Sasser also said that a lot of students apply for jobs with Philip Morris at the career fair, and telling Philip Morris that they cannot come may upset students who are looking for good paying jobs.

-“If no students were interested, then Philip Morris would probably not come,” Sasser added.

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