From Kent State to U.C. Berkeley, civil rights to genocide in Darfur, college students have a tradition of organizing activist causes. In the past decade, sweatshop-produced university apparel has been an oft-protested issue, but a new and expanding program is aiming to ensure fair compensation and labor conditions for workers.
The Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), launched in the fall of 2005 and revamped in 2006 by United Students Against Sweatshops, requires university apparel companies to "produce garments in truly sweat-free factories where workers have a voice on the job and the power to win livable wages," according to the program's Web site.
Currently, about 40 universities across the country - including Brandeis, Columbia and the entire University of California system - have pledged to take part in the Designated Suppliers Program.
The DSP gives universities three years to switch to buying from factories that meet various criteria, including "compliance with internationally recognized labor standards" and "respect for workers' associational rights."
Although Tufts has not signed up for the Designated Suppliers Program, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, the university does not sell apparel from suppliers that use sweatshops.
"Tufts already had an approved vendors list that excluded sweatshops and businesses located in countries where there was no fair trade agreement in place," Reitman said in an e-mail to the Daily. "I don't know if this accomplishes exactly the same goals of the DSP ... but it sounds similar."
But according to United Students Against Sweatshops, individual pledges by universities can be difficult to back up without enforcement from the DSP or alliance with the Worker Rights Consortium, the umbrella organization under which DSP falls. "Though universities have adopted anti-sweatshop policies, the reality is that university apparel is still made under sweatshop conditions in factories around the world," according to the organization's Web site,
Both Reitman and Associate Dean of Students Marisel Perez were unfamiliar with the program and unsure if any administrative discussion had taken place regarding a possible Tufts subscription to it.
Associate Professor of Sociology James Ennis explained that the issue of whether university apparel is produced ethically has come up before.
"I remember ... demonstrations at Harvard, probably 10 years ago," he said. "My sense of it is that it was getting a lot of attention a bunch of years ago."
With the revival of the DSP, concerns seem to be on the rise again. Since the program began, students have held protests, rallies and sit-ins at Purdue University, several University of California branches, the University of Michigan, the University of South Carolina, SUNY Stonybrook and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, among others.
In April, University of Southern California threatened to suspend 13 students if they refused to halt a sit-in over sweatshop-produced clothing outside of USC President Steven Sample's office. The students were members of a student organization, the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, that had been campaigning for eight years to get the university to change its policies.
Ennis said that new programs devoted to sweatshop labor in university apparel have sparked renewed interest in the issue.
"The fact that somebody has gotten it together to say, 'It's not just that we should be concerned about this issue, but there's something that can be done institutionally' - that vehicle and opportunity may itself raise the level of action," he said.
According to United Students Against Sweatshops organizer Zach Knorr, campaigns for fair labor practices are occurring at 50 to 60 campuses throughout the country.
"Universities in theory are not businesses," he said to the Montreal Gazette in an interview. "They're supposed to hold themselves to a higher standard."
Ennis explained that universities are an ideal place for organization of social movements for many reasons.
"The more the college students share characteristics and social attributes, the more likely they will be to mobilize," Ennis said. Such characteristics include age, socioeconomic background and politics.
The connections made in the university setting also help to facilitate social movements, Ennis said.
"The more a group of people are linked together, the more easily they will be able to mobilize," he said.
The anti-sweatshop campaign is part of a tradition of mobilization on college campuses, Ennis said.
"College students know some history; they have a sense of what kinds of things have happened: the civil rights movement, feminism, environmentalism," Ennis said. "Such campaigns [as the anti-sweatshop campaign] key into students' either memories or readings of past kinds of campaigns."
Along with similar characteristics, shared networks and tradition, Ennis said that college students are uniquely poised to become involved in social movements.
"Young people are idealistic ... They're in a place which fosters critical thinking; they have spare time and resources; they have the ability to connect with one another," he said. "They want to make a difference."
