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Students demand worker rights Mail Tribune/Steven Johnson SOU students put up signs and slept in tents Sunday and Monday to demand that SOU President Steve Reno sign the university up with a student-based watchdog group that monitors working conditions in foreign clothing factories. Reno promised a decision today. Reno urged to sign up SOU as part of sweatshop opposition By SARA MURPHY ASHLAND � Surrounded by signs scrawled in sidewalk chalk and painted on sheets, about 20 Southern Oregon University students gathered on the lawn of Churchill Hall Monday morning to demand SOU sign on with the Workers Rights Consortium. President Steve Reno joined the protesters � some wearing no shoes, one wearing Nikes � to address accusations that he�s delaying making a decision. He promised the students he would decide today. The WRC is a student-oriented labor watchdog group that monitors working conditions in foreign clothing factories. Joining the group would help SOU ensure that clothes bearing university emblems are not made with sweatshop labor. "I want to be able to walk into the (SOU) bookstore and be 100 percent sure that the things I�m buying aren�t made with unfair labor practices," said Kansas Callaway, a student senator who camped out Sunday night on the lawn near Reno�s office window. She and other members of the "Sweatshop Patrol" also spent Monday night in 11 tents pitched near Churchill Hall. "A few years ago I was where you are," Reno told the students, referring to his own college career in the 1960s. He said he hasn�t been trying to "stonewall" the students, but wants to include the entire SOU community in the decision-making process. The Student Senate and the Bookstore Advisory Committee each recommended the university join WRC. Reno said he is waiting to hear from other university groups, including the Faculty Senate, before making his decision. Late Monday, the Faculty Senate asked for a delay so it could appoint a subcommittee to study the matter. The University of Oregon joined the WRC earlier this spring, spurring Nike founder Phil Knight to stop donating millions to the school. Though SOU has no donors on Knight�s scale, Reno said its only fair to hear from everyone. "I want to listen to these other people not because I�m worried they�re going to yank their gifts, stop supporting the university, or even stop liking me," Reno said. "I want to listen because they are a legitimate part of this university." Reno said some people have concerns that the WRC, a brand-new offshoot of the United Students Against Sweatshops, is not yet a mature organization. The WRC has 51 members, including the entire University of California system, and one paid staff member. The UO is the only Oregon school so far to sign on. Bookstore Director Lara Mann said the Bookstore Advisory Committee recommended SOU join for one year while it continues to research WRC and its rival, the Fair Labor Association. The WRC is a student-centered organization, while the FLA serves the entire apparel industry, Mann said. FLA�s labor reports go first to the manufacturers, while the WRC reports directly to the public. "That�s been the real bone of contention with the students and a lot of people," Mann said of the FLA. "It�s kind of the fox watching the hen house." If SOU joins the WRC, Mann said the university will draft a code of conduct for vendors to follow. Mann said she is already requesting codes of conduct from vendors supplying her fall orders. So far, she said, vendors have been happy to comply. "Whether we join both groups or either or neither, I think it�s great that we�ve opened the dialogue," Mann said. "The vendors are on notice." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA