August 2, 2002

Is Your College Ready to Tackle More Than Sweatshops?

By PETER SUBER

If your college discovered that its sweatshirts were made in sweatshops by workers paid below the minimum wage, it would probably yank the contract immediately and find a new vendor. But what if your heating-oil supplier pollutes? What if your temp agency discriminates against Mexican-American employees?

Any higher-education institution that objects on principle to sweatshops should not overlook vendors who are guilty of similar or even more egregious misdeeds. To make their visions of