Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Administration, Student Activists Release Details of Compromise

By Clay Risen Hoya Staff Writer

The group of student protesters who occupied the office of University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., publicly announced in Healy circle yesterday afternoon the compromise with administrators that ended their sit-in early Tuesday morning. Under the compromise Georgetown will seek full public disclosure of the locations of the factories where university apparel is manufactured, which was the students’ main demand in the sit-in.

The compromise allows the university to endorse the controversial code of conduct proposed by the Collegiate Licensing Company. The CLC is the liaison between approximately 170 universities, including Georgetown, and the companies that manufacture their clothing.

The compromise requires that Georgetown terminate contracts with individual manufacturers if they fail to disclose the locations of their factories within one year. Also, the university’s continued endorsement of the code of conduct depends on CLC’s “reaching substantial progress . on the issues of full public disclosure, living wage, universal compliance and independent monitoring.”

CLC’s progress will be evaluated by a Georgetown Licensing Implementation Committee, also formed by the compromise. The committee will be made up of four faculty members, four students and four administrators.

The compromise, reached early yesterday morning, brought to an end 27 student’s 85-hour occupation of the office of University President Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., which began Friday morning. “I’ve never been happier in my entire life,” said former GSC president and sit-in co-organizer Ben Smith (MSB ’99).

Addressing the crowd on behalf of the university, Dean of Students James A. Donahue said, “I am happy to say the climate . indeed the agreement is something everyone at Georgetown can be proud of.”

He added, “what we have done in the past . five days to get to this point represents what universities, indeed what Georgetown University is all about. The agreement represents something that is truly a collective effort.”

The compromise makes Georgetown the third university in the past week and a half to announce that it will seek disclosure within a year as a condition for signing the CLC code. Duke only agreed to this concession after a 31 hour sit-in in it’s Chanellor’s office by protesters. University of Wisconsin at adison also agree to seek full disclosure, and last night student began a sit-in there, demanding the take an even more aggressive role in improving labor conditions at collegiate clothing manufactures.

The code of conduct, which sets working condition standards for apparel factories, was written by representatives from 14 colleges and universities on a task force convened by the CLC, an Atlanta-based firm which handles athletic apparel licensing. However, the solidarity committee and its counterparts at several other universities argued that the code allowed too many loopholes in its implementation, including no provision for the disclosure of factories’ locations.

The announcement rally, which drew over 250 people, culminated in a symbolic co-signing of the agreement by Dean of Students James A. Donahue, Senior Associate dean of Students Penny Rue, Smith, and solidarity committee President Andrew Milmore (SFS `01).

Milmore also praised the students who had helped organize and sustain the sit-in, providing food, clothing and emotional support over the weekend. “Student support . has pretty much demolished all the conventional wisdom about Georgetown,” he said. “I feel like a freshman.”

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