|
United Students Against Sweatshops stage rally, overnight sit-in |
|
|
|
Thursday, 10 April 2008 |
by JILLIAN SWORDS
News Reporter
By CLAIR BAXTER
Editor in chief
Appalachian State University students with the United Students Against Sweatshops started a peaceful protest Wednesday afternoon that is ongoing in the basement of the B.B. Dougherty administration building.
Students with USAS and the Campus Anti-War Network, which is lending support to the protest, rallied on | Listen Now! to appropriate technology major Perry David talk about his involvement in the USAS sit-in. |
Sanford Mall Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
Freshman undecided major Nathan D. Durham is a member of USAS and helped plan the rally.
 Appalachian State University students participate in a United Students Against Sweatshop rally Wednesday on Sanford Mall. Photo by Clair Baxter
|
“At the peak of the rally there was 50, maybe 60 [students]. It was
definitely a big enough rally to support the [students sitting in the
administration building] and the main point of it was to make noise so
they could hear us and so that they would know they were not alone,”
Durham said.
The students were protesting the university administration’s lack of
support for the Designated Supplier’s Program, a program with the
international non-profit Worker Rights Consortium that USAS members say
would ensure all paraphernalia sold in the University Bookstore is
manufactured under fair working conditions.
A group tried to go directly to Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock’s office
Wednesday afternoon but were escorted down to the basement floor by
University Police
| Listen Now! to freshman Nathan Durham talk about his involvement in the USAS protest. |
A group ranging from nine to 15 students have been sitting and sleeping in the lobby of the administration building since.
A group of administrators including Vice Chancellor for Student
Development Cindy A. Wallace, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student
Development Susie L. Greene and Chief of University Police Gunther
Doerr met with the students Wednesday afternoon and conceded to let
them stay the night, accompanied by several university police officers.
They were later given permission to stay Thursday night as well.
 Students participating in the rally gather around USAS sit-in participants to show them support Wednesday afternoon in the bottom floor of the B.B. Dougherty administration building. Photo by Holt Menzies
|
USAS has been attempting negotiation with administration on this matter since last semester.
Chief of Staff for the Chancellor’s Office Lorin A. Baumhover said the
university reviewed the DSP for several months and, after receiving
legal counsel, declined to sign.
The DSP was awaiting approval from the U.S. Department of Justice at that time, Baumhover said.
| Listen Now! to freshman Melissa Hanson talk about her involvement in the USAS sit-in. |
The program’s document has still failed to receive the antitrust clearance the university wants before endorsement.
“In looking at [the DSP] we concluded that we were going to stay with
the current organization that we have,” Baumhover said. “We feel that
there’s enough guarantees in preservation of people’s rights, wages,
treatment practices and so forth. The [DSP] is a concept, it’s not an
organization…it’s too ill-formed for us to sign on to.”
He added that university administrators have met with USAS four times
in the past year and a half, twice with legal counsel and once with
Chancellor Kenneth Peacock.
“I know there’s a notion that we refuse to meet with them and that’s simply not true,” Baumhover said.
Junior Interdisciplinary Studies major Melissa K. Hanson is participating in the sit-in.
“This is a massive student movement and we’re just one part of it,” she
said. “We’re coming and were staying until you either forcibly remove
us or you see to our demands. It’s very clear.”
Please continue to check
theapp.appstate.edu for further updates and read the Tuesday, April 15
edition of The Appalachian for a complete article.
Trackback(0)
 |
News 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
