DePaul University has agreed to join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) on a conditional basis as part of its ongoing effort to eliminate sweatshop labor conditions that have existed in the collegiate licensed products industry.

     In February DePaul's president, the Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M., appointed a University Licensing Code of Conduct Committee to recommend guidelines to protect the workers who make DePaul's products, and to decide what organizations DePaul may join to help spark reform.

     DePaul's provisional membership will enable representatives from the committee to attend the WRC's founding conference to be held in New York City in April. "It is our understanding that universities that attend will play a role in creating the WRC's governing structure and a model for monitoring manufacturers to prevent sweatshop practices," said James R. Doyle, DePaul's vice president for student affairs, who has been coordinating the university's anti-sweatshop initiatives.

     The WRC is a grassroots organization championed by college students across the country who have collaborated with workers, labor groups and non-governmental organizations to seek improvement of workplace conditions for workers who manufacture clothing for colleges and universities.

     DePaul representatives who participate in the conference will bring back information necessary for the committee to consider full membership in the WRC. The committee includes appointees from DePaul's Faculty Council, Staff Council and Student Government Association, employees with human rights and labor expertise and employees with responsibility for implementing DePaul's licensing program. The committee will present its recommendations to DePaul administrators for consideration by May 1,and a final decision on a course of action will be made shortly afterward.

     DePaul already has begun to insert language prohibiting unfair labor practices into contracts with licensees and has reserved the right to revoke the contract of any manufacturer who violates that agreement.