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Roger Yoshimura (right) and others march toward the chancellor’s office in Murphy Hall on T

Amid shouting, drumming and the booming of megaphones, a group of about 50 UCLA students from the Social Justice Alliance rallied Tuesday at noon in support of sweatshop-free collegiate apparel.

The rally began at Bruin Plaza and proceeded up Bruin Walk to Murphy Hall, where students demanded that Chancellor Albert Carnesale publicly endorse and support a proposal called the Designated Suppliers Program.

The DSP is a policy that would require factories that produce university apparel to supply exclusively for the university logo goods market and comply with internationally recognized labor standards.

The DSP was debated April 13 at the UC Committee on Code of Conduct meeting, where UC President Robert Dynes was present, according to a UC Riverside press release.

Jennifer Seneor, a first-year undeclared student and member of the UCLA Social Justice Alliance, said the DSP would ensure a living wage and freedom of association to workers at factories that produce collegiate clothing, such as BearWear.

“The whole campaign is demanding that collegiate wear is not made in sweatshops,” Seneor said.

But Cynthia Holmes, director of UCLA Trademarks and Licensing, said she did not agree with the general statement that BearWear products are made in sweatshops.

“There is a code that is made to address this issue, but I will not deny that there are probably instances where there could be problems that need to be corrected,” Holmes said.

“It’s such a huge industry that we need to explore additional ways of monitoring and ensuring our code of conduct, and the DSP is a proposal to address that question,” she said.

Students from SJA were joined by representatives from other student groups, including United Students Against Sweatshops, Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán – or MEChA – and Student Worker Front.

Once outside Murphy Hall, a delegation of three students was sent to speak with Carnesale. After failing to procure a response from the chancellor, the group marched into the building, lined the second-floor hallway walls, and rallied directly outside Carnesale’s office.

Diana Ionescu, a first-year international development studies student, said the students wanted the chancellor to know they do not want to jeopardize workers’ rights by buying apparel made in sweatshops.

“As students at one of the most prestigious universities, we have the opportunity and responsibility to take action,” she said.

The protesters are among a number of students from across the UC system who are protesting sweatshop labor in producing collegiate merchandise.

Two weeks ago, 18 students at UC Berkeley and 10 students from UC Riverside were arrested after visiting their respective chancellors’ offices in the nude during their rallies against sweatshops. It was the second time this month that Berkeley students had been arrested.

The students who visited Carnesale’s office were fully clothed.

Through the Worker Rights Consortium, a third-party nonprofit monitoring association, SJA first discovered allegations a few years ago that collegiate wear may be made at sweatshops.

Phil Hampton, a spokesman for UCLA, said the UC Office of the President has formed a committee to examine proposals made by students who are concerned with labor issues, which will be presented to suppliers of UC-trademarked items.

Holmes said the DSP would require licensees affiliated with the university to manufacture in a specific group of smaller factories. This, in turn, would require unionization and sufficient living wages for factory workers.

“To raise the living wage and rule out sweatshops is definitely something everyone will agree with,” she said.

Seneor said an increase in manufacturing cost would be minimal because the cost of labor to make the apparel is minimal.

“Labor makes up only one to three percent of the total production cost,” she said. “The shift from sweatshops would only increase the price by 25 cents, and that’s only if the consumer entirely absorbs the price.”

Holmes said UCLA trademark licensees, which include BearWear, would have to comply with the decision made by the UC president and the chancellors.