Regents to investigate origin of licensed products

Monday, March 16, 1998 | 10:04 a.m.

Reacting to a column by SUN Executive Editor Mike O'Callaghan, the Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada on Friday voted to investigate whether licensed products made for the system are manufactured in sweatshops.

The issue will be placed on the board's agenda for the April meeting, said Chairman Jill Derby.

O'Callaghan noted in his Wednesday article that a group of students at Duke University in Durham, N.C., formed an organization called Students Against Sweatshops and gained support from school officials to take a formal stand against buying licensed products such as T-shirts from companies that use sweatshop labor.

Regent Shelley Berkley, at the close of a two-day meeting of the regents in Las Vegas Friday, pointed out the article to the board and the board asked that the situation be investigated to determine who makes products for Nevada's colleges and universities.

Board Chairman Jill Derby said no one had raised the issue with the regents before Friday and she was unaware of any problems, but would be very concerned if it was learned products made for state schools were manufactured in sweatshops.

Duke University created a Code of Conduct, wrote O'Callaghan, that states it is "opposed to licensed Duke products being manufactured in sweatshop conditions by forced labor, or under unsafe or abusive conditions."