SESJ wins national award

Last year, they strolled around campus in cardboard outfits, walked the runway in sweat-free apparel, and staged a sit-in at the University of Montana President’s office.
And this summer, the Students for Economic and Social Justice received national recognition for their innovative approaches and tireless commitment for promoting anti-sweatshop policies on the UM campus.
The student group was awarded Action Campaign of the Year by Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C.
“This award proved this was an important issue on a national scale and a lot of students care where their apparel comes from,” said SESJ member Kelly Driscoll.
The group also gained recognition for their progress on campus. In 2007, the University of Montana agreed to sign on the Workers Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors labor conditions in factories. 

Last year, they strolled around campus in cardboard outfits, walked the runway in sweat-free apparel, and staged a sit-in at the University of Montana President’s office.
And this summer, the Students for Economic and Social Justice received national recognition for their innovative approaches and tireless commitment for promoting anti-sweatshop policies on the UM campus.
The student group was awarded Action Campaign of the Year by Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C.
“This award proved this was an important issue on a national scale and a lot of students care where their apparel comes from,” said SESJ member Kelly Driscoll.
The group also gained recognition for their progress on campus. In 2007, the University of Montana agreed to sign on the Workers Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors labor conditions in factories.
In April, the group made headlines by refusing to leave President Dennison’s office without UM’s commitment to the Designated Suppliers Program. The designation would be an agreement from the University to buy university logo apparel from factories that enforce certain codes of conduct.
The award was a shock to many members of SESJ, said Svein Newman, an SESJ member, who received notice of the award less than a couple weeks before the conference.
Newman was one of five SESJ students who received the Campus Progress award at their conference on July 8 in Washington D.C. The conference included workshops and sessions on activism and the arts, human rights, activism and the media and climate change, said Ella Torti, a SESJ member who also attended the conference.
“It was cool to go to Washington D.C. and represent Montana on a national level,” she said.
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards conducted the keynote speech during the conference and key panelists included prominent non-governmental organization heads, actor Ryan Gosling, poet Paul Flores and rapper M-1, Newman said.
“The highlight was being around 1,000 activists and bouncing ideas back and forth,” he said.
And, to Newman, it built energy for another year of activism on campus.
“The more buzz we can build, the better off we are,” Newman said.
But SESJ’s continued goal to ensure Grizzly apparel is not made in sweatshops, has not been looked lightly upon by UM officials.
Eight students who participated in the sit-in in April were arrested and received three-day suspensions from UM for violating the campus student conduct code.
Many of these students will be fulfilling their suspensions this semester.
“There is no question that the [SESJ] students are committed to a good cause,” Dennison said, emphasizing that the award commended the SESJ students on a period of activism, not just one incident.
“But with civil disobedience comes the consequences of the actions,” he said, “Otherwise it has no meaning.”
However, this punishment has not deterred the members from their commitment to the cause.  Saara Snow, an SESJ member who received a suspension, said, “I just have more time on my hands to do more activism,” she said.
And with a signature short of DSP designation at UM, the students of SESJ are gearing up for further progress on sweat-free policies on campus.
“We’re hopeful it can happen. It’s both just and reasonable,” Newman said.
As in past years, the discussion will continue, Dennison said, and plans are underway for an event in late September between vendors that produce Griz gear with working groups on campus and the community interested in factory and workplace issues.
“I’m not going to sign [the DSP] until all issues are resolved,” Dennison said.
And until those issues are worked out, the group will be “prominent on campus,” Driscoll said, continuing to educate students on social and economic issues.
On SESJ’s plans for the coming semester, she simply said, “We’ll be around.”
stefanie.kilts@umontana.edu