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U-M students arrested after protest

April 4, 2007

A dozen University of Michigan students were arrested Tuesday evening after taking over President Mary Sue Coleman's office, according to a U-M graduate student who visited them in jail.

The students hadn't been formally charged with trespassing as of 7:45 p.m., more than an hour after their arrest.

At 9 a.m., members of U-M's Sweatfree Coalition stormed the office, demanding that Coleman sign onto a program to ensure factories producing items with U-M's logo aren't sweatshops, said Neil Sardana, a graduate student in public policy and public health.

Around 5:52 p.m., Blase Kearney, a political science sophomore who was arrested, told The State News in a phone interview that he could see three police vans from a window in the locked office, and that he wouldn't leave until administrators met the group's demands or he was arrested.

The coalition wants U-M to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program, a list of about 300 "certified" factories around the world that provide fair wages and respect workers' rights.

MSU, a member of the consortium, has not adopted the Designated Suppliers Program and Students for Economic Justice hasn't made that a major campaign issue this year.

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