Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

J.P. Mason, vice president of the Virginia Tech student group Global Student Alliance, tightens a clothesline with more than 30 Virginia Tech-related apparel items Wednesday. The student group wants the school to join the Workers' Rights Consortium — a nonprofit aimed at "combating sweatshops" and protecting the rights of textile workers across the world.

Meredith Katz, president of Global Student Alliance, puts a T-shirt on the group's clothesline. Katz says Virginia Tech officials should "make sure their apparel is made under fair labor conditions."

BLACKSBURG -- A group of students who say Virginia Tech hasn't done enough to thwart unfair conditions for textile workers wants the university to re-examine its apparel licensing program.

On Wednesday morning, members of the Global Student Alliance, a student club formed this year, hoisted a clothesline on the Drillfield filled with orange-and-maroon Tech merchandise in a protest of sorts to raise awareness about the changes they want to see.

The alliance also submitted a letter to Tech President Charles Steger asking that the school join the Workers' Rights Consortium -- a nonprofit aimed at "combating sweatshops" and protecting the rights of textile workers across the world. The alliance also wants Tech officials to sign the WRC's affiliated licensing code of conduct, called the Designated Suppliers Program.

That program provides a list of factories worldwide that have been deemed fair to workers and asks university licensees to ensure that clothing sold with the Virginia Tech logo is made in one of those factories and under specific conditions. Forty-five schools nationwide, including the University of Virginia, have joined the Designated Suppliers Program. Schools that join the WRC must pay annual dues of either $1,000 or 1 percent of their gross licensing revenues, whichever is greater. In 2007-08 fiscal year, Tech grossed $1.9 million in licensing revenues. It netted $1.7 million, which is designated to student scholarships, according to university spokesman Larry Hincker.

At least 180 schools are affiliated with the WRC alone.

"The university has an opportunity, and we would argue an obligation, to make sure their apparel is made under fair labor conditions," said Meredith Katz, president of the alliance.

In 1999, Tech joined another nonprofit aimed at protecting workers' rights, the Fair Labor Association. The university pays $5,000 annually to be a member. Hincker said he doesn't understand the alliance's uproar, but he met Katz and Mason on Wednesday afternoon and said he wants to hear more about the concerns.

Still, he stresses, "there is no evidence whatsoever that any Virginia Tech products are made in sweatshops."

He said he welcomes the students desire to prevent such practices, he said.

"This just has not been on the radar screen of really anyone in higher education like it was eight or nine years ago," he said.

The FLA has at least 200 colleges across the nation and big-name corporations, such as Nike, which has an endorsement deal with Tech, affiliated with it. Businesses that join the organization are asked to ensure their factories meet quality labor standards, and universities are to contract solely with those who comply. Members of the student group say it is a good start, but not good enough.

"The whole question comes back to what is Virginia Tech doing to enforce the standards they have in place," said J.P. Mason, the club's vice president.

Both nonprofits have similar aims and both claim to independently investigate factory conditions and publicly report them.

Dick Rademaker, founder of the Licensing Resource Group, a firm that works with colleges such as Tech to manage licensing marketing, royalties and compliance, said there is a difference.

The WRC is more of a watchdog organization that hunts for problems and ways to fix them. The FLA waits for issues with compliance to come to light.

"It really is a terrible thing to track," Rademaker said. "To me, working together you're going to accomplish more than you do the other way."

Mason and Katz argue that the FLA is outdated and compromised by corporate conflicts of interests. Its governing board has six corporate members, including employees from Nike, Adidas and Patagonia, who sit alongside representatives from university and human rights groups. The WRC has no corporate board members but has a member from the union giant AFL-CIO, universities and other fair-rights groups, the students say.

Rademaker said he doesn't see that as a conflict. He said he sees whole departments at those companies devoted to ensuring compliance. However, he says universities do have a duty to ensure compliance.

"In the final analysis, it really is up to the university to enforce," he said. "The universities really do need to be more active."

He admits the FLA has been lax in the past years with ensuring its licensees are compliant but said the nonprofit is improving. His company is helping FLA train licensees.

"We're not saying abandon Nike or abandon Champion, but this is a chance that it can be Nike and still be good," Katz said.