Fifty students, carrying signs and chanting into megaphones, marched through the Academic Spine to Capen Hall on Wednesday afternoon to protest UB's policy on sweatshop labor.
The students, many from the group UB Students Against Sweatshops, called for the university to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium, a watchdog group that currently monitors labor conditions for companies providing apparel for over 100 colleges and universities nationwide.
Outside of Capen, the protesters gathered around a blue bench, which served as a podium for several speakers who rebuked administration officials - particularly President William R. Greiner - for what they called a "completely apathetic" response.
"Our mission is to tell (Greiner) that we're not going to pack our bags because they don't want to sign up," said Creighton Randall, the group's spokesperson and a freshman engineering major at UB.
Barbara Ricotta, associate vice president for Student Affairs, said UB's current sweatshop policy is sufficient.
"We're comfortable with the fact that our vendors comply with state regulations," Ricotta said, adding that UB's current policy also requires all vendors outside New York State to comply.
UB released a statement on sweatshop legislation on April 3, stating that current clothing vendors have informed the university that they comply with occupational safety laws. UB's policy also stipulates that all new vendors must comply with those laws.
However, these assurances do not satisfy the members of Students Against Sweatshops, who say that an independent monitoring group must be involved because the industry cannot be trusted.
"If we don't sign on to the WRC, we don't know where this stuff comes from," said Randall.
Frustration at what the protesters saw as the university's unwillingness to address the issue dominated the protest's speeches. Much of their wrath was directed toward President William Greiner.
"We want Greiner, who doesn't come out of his ivory tower to notice us," said Colin O'Malley, a freshman undecided major, to the crowd as the march began.
Greiner did not attend the rally, although in a later interview with The Spectrum he said he has never been opposed to talking to students about his viewpoints on the issue.
"I'm more than happy to sit with people in a cozy setting and chat with them, which I have done," said Greiner.
"I think it's an important issue if you have a lot of our students interested," he added.
Greiner said his willingness to speak to students does not mean, however, that he will likely change his mind on the issue and that UB's "main mission is not to be an enforcement agency for the Fair Labor Standards Act."
"I am very careful in embroiling the university in what are largely political matters - and there are a lot of politics in this," said Greiner.
Ricotta said Greiner met with a student group on the sweatshop labor issue as recently as last year and called the protesters "short-sighted."
"I think the group is failing to build upon what happened in the past," Ricotta said. "He can't start over again every time a new group comes in."
University Police parked a squad car on Founders Plaza and stationed two officers in Capen Hall to deter students from carrying their protest to the administration's offices on the building's fourth and fifth floors.
Several protesters said the anti-war movement must not derail the sweatshop labor movement and that both movements can work together.
"Today's rally is for sweatshops. Tomorrow it may be for peace," said Marquis Woolford, a senior English major who has spoken at a number of protests at UB. "But it is always to end suffering and injustice."
The crowd also included five students from Buffalo State College and a student from SUNY Cortland, the first and only state university to sign on with the Workers Rights Consortium.
As the crowd marched from the Student Union to Capen Hall, they chanted "Students united will never be defeated" and banged drumsticks on overturned water cooler containers.
Nate Cross, a sophomore at Hamburg High School, brought along a small brown dog wearing a green sweater emblazoned with "Beagles for Justice" to the protest.
Students also carried signs, including two large banners with the slogans "UBSAS: Solidarity" and "Stop Ignoring the Morbid Truth: Sign On to WRC Now!"
Passing students had mixed reactions to the protesters.
A group of students who got off the Red Line shuttle outside of the Student Union smiled and waved to the group as they gathered for their march. Two students who passed the group outside of Capen yelled, "Go home! Shouldn't you be studying?"
But neither negative comments from passing students nor the steadily worsening weather deterred the protesters.
"I'm glad that whenever we have a protest, it's windy, raining or snowing," Woolford said to open his remarks. "The most just protests are fought under the worst conditions."
- Additional reporting by Erin Shultz
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
