Clearly wrong

[jimbogumbo]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/group-international-students-sues-iowa-college-alleging-forced-labor-n1254398

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Wow. That's some shit.

[bacardiandlime]

I thought it was going to be they were forced to work on campus in some capacity. But a pet food factory?! wtf.

[Parasaurolophus]

Yeah, that seems pretty indefensible. It's not surprising the defence is an outright denial, but I find it hard to believe that's a winning strategy, since presumably there's plenty of evidence that they did, in fact, stick them in a pet food factory.

[mleok]

There is more information in this IHE article,

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/13/international-students-accuse-western-iowa-tech-community-college-forced-labor

But, yes, it's truly horrifying what is alleged, particularly at a public institution as opposed to some shady for-profit institution.

[apl68]

It will be interesting to hear what Western Iowa Tech has to say for itself by way of explanation (Beyond that brief boilerplate denial quoted in the article).  Did they perhaps try to outsource a lot of the arrangements to a staffing company that turned out to be sleazy? 

[Parasaurolophus]

It will be interesting to hear what Western Iowa Tech has to say for itself by way of explanation (Beyond that brief boilerplate denial quoted in the article).  Did they perhaps try to outsource a lot of the arrangements to a staffing company that turned out to be sleazy?

Yeah... I guess I'd think that works as an explanation, but doesn't do anything to get them out of legal trouble since, y'know, they're still supposed to oversee those kinds of arrangements.

[apl68]

It will be interesting to hear what Western Iowa Tech has to say for itself by way of explanation (Beyond that brief boilerplate denial quoted in the article).  Did they perhaps try to outsource a lot of the arrangements to a staffing company that turned out to be sleazy?

Yeah... I guess I'd think that works as an explanation, but doesn't do anything to get them out of legal trouble since, y'know, they're still supposed to oversee those kinds of arrangements.

True.  I'm just curious to know whether this turns out to be incompetence or malice on the school's part.  Either way they're in trouble, but at least incompetence can be sympathetic up to a point.

[jimbogumbo]

It will be interesting to hear what Western Iowa Tech has to say for itself by way of explanation (Beyond that brief boilerplate denial quoted in the article).  Did they perhaps try to outsource a lot of the arrangements to a staffing company that turned out to be sleazy?

Yeah... I guess I'd think that works as an explanation, but doesn't do anything to get them out of legal trouble since, y'know, they're still supposed to oversee those kinds of arrangements.

True.  I'm just curious to know whether this turns out to be incompetence or malice on the school's part.  Either way they're in trouble, but at least incompetence can be sympathetic up to a point.

I just don't think incompetence can explain it. The international student  and work study rules are pretty well understood.

[fizzycist]

Sounds like some ugly things happened here. But look, a student comes to Sioux City, IA on a J1 for an entry-level internship while they are doing AA degree in "robotics and automation". I hope they are not expecting that internship is gonna be at Google. It shouldn't be a surprise if it is in a factory of some sort and probably not gonna be glorious work to start.

But for culinary arts those students should reasonably be expected to place into a restaurant (at least pre covid) not a meat packing plant.

On the other points, I'm inclined to give the students the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

[Malarkey]

Yep, that is clearly wrong. Even the basic facts as presented in this article indicate that it is clearly wrong.