The University of Idaho Argonaut

The Career Center does not have the authority to grant permission to enter classrooms, but complaints indicate the company implied they had such permission. However, the approval is the decision of the faculty teaching the class.

Billington explained in the e-mail the Career Center expects all employers to provide instructors with accurate information about their company and their purpose so the instructors can make an informed decision about the interruption of their class.

She said Southwestern is not like a normal employee company because the work on independent contracts.

"The company really has no obligation of the students' success or failure," Billington said. "I really don't think students understand the implications of an independent contractor."

Southwestern representative Brandon Devlin has been coming to UI for four years. He said he has had a tremendous response from students and that the company has mostly had a positive response on campus.

"We're disappointed but we still have a large number of students this summer," he said.

He said the surveys were never handed out during class and that while the surveys requested phone numbers, completing any part of the survey was voluntary. 

"We feel grateful to have spoken to students at the University of Idaho," Devlin said. "We hold no resentment toward the University of Idaho for their decision ... I would love the opportunity to earn the right (to be back on campus) in the future."

He said he felt it was unfortunate to focus on the negative experiences, and very little attention has been paid to the students with a positive Southwestern experience. He does not think the ban will impact the number of interested students, but that UI is doing a disservice to students by not supporting those who are interested in Southwestern employment, he said.

"The complaints that were made were valid complaints," Billington said. She said if students want to continue to work with the company, they should research more information before committing to employment.

Along with the banning of Southwestern Company on campus, the Career Center is tightening the recruitment policies to avoid future problems. Billington said this is the first time they have had to ban recruiters from campus.