Students rally to disclose Penn State's ties to Nike

By Alison Kepner
Collegian Staff Writer

Although Penn State administrators refuse to disclose information about the university's contract with Nike, student protesters promise to continue to lobby the university until it fully publicizes its affiliation.

Students for Accountability and Reform (STAR), set up camp on the Old Main Lawn last week in a demonstration to urge university officials to join Worker Rights Consortium, a sweatshop monitoring organization. Since then, the group has added the disclosure of the Penn State/Nike contract to its list of demands.

Justin Leto, co-founder of STAR, said there is a possibility that Nike is violating Penn State's code of conduct and students have the right to know how the university is tied to the corporation.

Assistant Vice President of Finance and Business Dan Sieminski said Penn State's relationship with Nike is good and the corporation has agreed to all of the university's standards.

"Nike has been very cooperative with working through a code of conduct, abiding with a code of conduct," Sieminski said.

Sieminski said Penn State's code of conduct includes standards for employee wages and benefits, working hours, overtime compensation, child labor, forced labor, safe and healthy working environment, nondiscrimination, harassment and abuse of employees, and ability to associate in collective bargaining.

Aside from agreeing to these standards, Nike also has released the locations of all its factories that manufacture Penn State apparel, Sieminski said. "They have been very responsive."

In an official statement, Penn State President Graham Spanier said Nike has agreed to all of Penn State's demands, including both disclosures of the factory locations and plant inspections.

"They know how strongly we feel about these issues," Spanier said. "They know that our relationship with them would be in jeopardy if they breached the integrity of our understanding."

Spanier said last week he has no plans to publicize the contract.

Nike representative Cheryl McCants said Nike also would not reveal the specifics of its contract with Penn State.

"It's our policy not to disclose contract details without partners' consent," she said, adding Nike does have contracts with some state universities that have been publicly disclosed. However, those universities agreed to the disclosure, she said.

Leto said Penn State has an obligation to inform students about its Nike affiliation because the corporate ties affect students.

For instance, student athletes must wear Nike apparel even if it is against their moral conscience, he said.

"There are a lot of provisions that affect students, but students don't know what they are," Leto said.