May 23, 2007

Students arrested in labor protest

Stanfordites occupy president's office

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

Eleven Stanford University students were arrested Tuesday after occupying the university president's office for five hours in protest of sweatshop labor.

Lt. Jon Hernandez of the Stanford Department of Public Safety said the students would be charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and would be released "depending on what comes up on their background check."

The students entered the office of President John Hennessey at about 11:30 a.m. to protest the school's alleged use of sweatshop labor to produce official university clothing. The students were handcuffed and loaded into vans by police around 4:40 p.m.

"They shut the building down early and gave them five minutes," to decide if they wanted to leave, said Dan Shih, a sophomore and spokesman for the Stanford Sweat-free Coalition.

Shih said that his group has been working with university officials for three months "to make sure all Stanford clothing is sweatshop-free."

In a report submitted to Hennessy, the students requested that the university join the independent nonprofit Worker Rights Consortium and implement its Designated Suppliers Program, already adopted by Columbia, Duke and the University of California system, among others.

Hennessy was not available for comment late Tuesday.

That same afternoon, speakers in various stages of undress reiterated the coalition's position.

"We've opened their eyes to how serious we are," sophomore Cynthia Liao said.

Not far from where the afternoon rally was taking place Lemai Ruan, who isn't a student at the school, was posing for her wedding photographs. She said she wasn't worried about naked protesters ruining her shots.

"Nice background!" said her mother.


E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.