AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: Duke students rally against sweatshops

The Chronicle DURHAM, N.C. (U-WIRE) -- Just before 8 p.m. Saturday night, a weary but triumphant group of 21 Duke Students Against Sweatshops members packed up their belongings and walked out of the Allen Building -- their obliging home for more than 30 hours. Each proudly held a memento of their day's accomplishment: a photocopy of the University's commitment to, within a year, obtain the full list of factory addresses from companies that produce Duke-licensed goods. Under the protesters' and administrators' agreement, the University will sign the Collegiate Licensing Company's Code of Conduct, but will also press for stronger monitoring. "Our goal now is that hopefully other schools will sign similar agreements," said senior Tico Almeida, an SAS founding member. "If a good number of schools sign on to such agreements, then there's no reason [for Duke] to wait 12 months for disclosure." The SAS sit-in began just after 1 p.m. Friday when about 80 students marched over from a rally on the Chapel steps, chanting and carrying T-shirt-shaped signs demanding stronger sweatshop activism. SAS organized the protest as a last-ditch effort to keep Duke President Nan Keohane from signing the CLC code, which she must do by today to meet the deadline. Under the proposed code, the 170 schools whose licensing arrangements are overseen by the CLC would require that the factories producing their goods abide by certain human rights standards. The companies would hire an external agency to enforce these rules by monitoring their factories. Universities could receive factory addresses only on a case-by-case basis. Student activists have long insisted that the code is too weak because it does not require that companies disclose their addresses to participating universities, meaning that schools could not enlist the aid of independent human rights groups to ensure honest monitoring. Under this weekend's compromise, the University will sign the CLC code with one important condition. If Duke cannot convince the CLC to strengthen its code within 12 months, or if Duke is not allowed to demand full disclosure from within the CLC, then it will withdraw from the group. At that point, the University could either set out on its own or join a new licensing group with full-disclosure standards. Although senior Ben Au, an SAS founding member, was pleased with the University's commitment to a time frame, he said, "It is disappointing that we could not have a stronger code now so that the lives of workers could be bettered now rather than later."