Student groups addressed the MSU Board of Trustees on Friday, urging trustees and MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon to support workers' rights.

The protest came one week after Simon said MSU would join the Worker Rights Consortium, or WRC, which is a group of students and university administrators who work to make sure university clothing is not produced by companies that have human rights violations.

Members of Students for Economic Justice and Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan, or MEXA, paraded into the meeting room with black bands tied around their mouths to represent that they were "silenced" because they were only allowed to address the board for 15 minutes - something all groups are allowed to do.

But the groups protested on Friday after Simon told them their entire list of demands for joining the organization had not been met. The demands addressed women's rights and organizing rights. The students also requested the contracts be signed by May 1.

SEJ member Tommy Simon said the group's campaign for the WRC is far from over.

"We don't want this to be seen as an end. It's finally the beginning," Tommy Simon said.

Repeated calls were made to President Simon this weekend, but were not answered.

Although MSU does have the intention of signing onto the WRC, MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said the student groups' jumped the gun on the decision when they announced it at the trustees meeting.

"I was disappointed that it was announced the way it was. It was premature," Denbow said, adding that MSU has yet to officially sign the contracts to join the WRC. "It wasn't announced as an intent, but a done deal. It was the institution's announcement to make."

Trustee Dorothy Gonzales said she is supportive of a decision to join the WRC.

"It's great," Gonzales said. "Everyone should be treated equal and paid equally for the work they do. I'm proud that students had the tenacity for this and stuck with it."

After the meeting, SEJ and MEXA members met with Simon to discuss the tactics used by the students during their presentation.

Simon told the group their attention-getting tactic of addressing the board at the end of the meeting only hurt their cause.

"(Lou Anna K. Simon's) reaction was that she didn't want us to hurt our own campaign by these public statements," Tommy Simon said. "Her response may have been underestimating the importance and power of the student voice behind this."

Denbow said although some of the administrators didn't agree with the way the students presented their cause, the president is still behind the WRC.