NEW YORK - In the struggle against sweatshop labor, battles are long and hard-fought. This summer, the University continues to position itself on the front lines.
In a conference the weekend of July 10, three University student activists exchanged ideas and insight with about 50 peers from 28 colleges across the country.
In addition to sharing political strategies, their ultimate goal was to form United Students Against Sweatshops, a national student group against the use of sweatshop labor in making university-licensed products.
This national student movement builds on momentum gathered during the year-long initiatives of student groups from universities across the country.
"I think the campaigns so far have been very campus-focused," said Harvard University senior Daniel Hennefeld, an organizer of the conference, in an article in The Harvard Crimson. "We just want to have better coordination and communication between campaigns."
One such campaign was Students Against Sweatshops, an organization formed at Duke early last year. Months of collaborative work on the topic came to fruition March 9 when SAS and University officials unveiled their code of conduct, a set of requirements and recommendations aimed at preventing licensed Duke products from being manufactured under sweatshop conditions.
The finalized code was one of the first of its kind, putting the University at the forefront of the issue. Among its many provisions, the code called for a safe and healthy work environment, the prohibition of forced labor and a minimum age requirement for employment.
It also demanded that companies disclose the location of factories producing University-licensed products.
"Duke's speed in writing the code came from a number of factors [including] support from [President Nan Keohane and Jim Wilkerson, director of stores operations]," said SAS co-founder and Trinity senior Tico Almeida, who helped plan the July conference. "Other colleges can't get started."
Although creating the University's code was a positive individual step, Wilkerson said, Duke alone does not have the market power to effect change.
The next and most important step, student activists said at the conference, will be for the Collegiate Licensing Company-the licensing agent for 160 colleges nationwide-to draft its own code, one that meets the approval of all the colleges it represents.
Bruce Siegal, CLC vice president and general counsel, said his organization has been developing an anti-sweatshop code for nearly a year. It will probably be finished this fall.
To design a code acceptable to all schools, the CLC is being advised by a task force composed of licensing directors from about a dozen member schools-including Duke-who have expressed continued interest in the issue.
Wilkerson, the University's representative to the task force, estimated that 80 percent of the draft CLC code is derived from the University's code of conduct.
Missing from this task force, however, is a formal way for students to contribute their ideas. Students at the conference met with Siegal to express concern over this part of the drafting process.
In an interview after the conference, Siegal said that although he was not opposed to student input into the formulation of the CLC code, individual schools are responsible for determining the extent of student involvement.
Wilkerson-who worked with SAS in developing Duke's code last year-said he is open to student opinion on the CLC plan. "I think student involvement is essential and that is why we have encouraged it," he said, adding that he was unaware how other universities are handling the issue. Even after the CLC code is finished, it must be reviewed and approved by its 160-member institutions. Refining the logistics of the enforcement process could take years, Almeida said.
"All universities' opinions must be taken into account," he said. "This is why it is such a long process."
While students expressed satisfaction that the conference was able to rally people from many schools around an issue, they also stressed that education and activism on individual campuses is just as important.
"I hope that the national group does not eclipse student groups on campus," said SAS co-founder and Trinity senior Ben Au, who attended the conference. "Nothing replaces efforts on campus."
Richard Rubin and Katherine Stroup contributed to this story.
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