The tents and posters outside Johnson Hall may come down, and the protesters may finally get to go home today.
At 3 p.m., the University Senate will meet in 177 Lawrence Hall and decide whether the University should join the Worker Rights Consortium, which monitors working conditions in factories that manufacture University products made by licensees such as Nike.
In a meeting that packed the EMU Fir Room full of students on Monday, University President Dave Frohnmayer agreed he would sign on with the WRC if the senate recommends that he do so.
The senate and the Licensing Code of Conduct Committee, which has already voiced support to sign, are advisory bodies only. Frohnmayer has the final decision whether to sign on.
However, Monday’s meeting did not result in compliance with the protesters’ demands. Frohnmayer is considering joining the WRC for only one year, not the five-year contract that protesters have demanded he sign.
Another meeting between Frohnmayer and students is tentatively scheduled after the senate meeting at 6 p.m. in 177 Lawrence Hall.
Tuesday marked a full week of night-and-day student occupation of the lawn surrounding the administrative building. In the past week the number of tents on the lawn has continued to grow, and police have arrested a total of 14 students on trespassing charges for refusing to leave the inside of the building after it closes at 5 p.m.
Despite Monday’s meeting with students and Frohnmayer’s promise to join the WRC pending senate approval, protesters at a rally on the Johnson Hall steps Tuesday said their cause still has a long way to go.
“We had a beautiful showing at the meeting last night,” said Laura Close, one of the most vocal students at the protest. “But we still do not have a voice.”
The protest has grown in the past days beyond simply a push for the WRC. Those involved are also demonstrating against the current form of University decision-making and what they believe is a lack of student voice in that process.
“I’d like the administration to take more seriously our concerns about democracy and recognize that some students are not as complacent as our media spokespersons are,” Human Rights Alliance member Devin Dinihanian said.