Students occupied the president’s office at prestigious Georgetown University on Thursday, demanding the institution sever ties with Nike.

The $86.7bn clothing company’s contract to manufacture licensed Georgetown jerseys and shoes expires in December, and the students say the Washington DC university’s president, John DeGioia, should deny the apparel giant a new contract in 2017 in light of revelations about poor conditions under Hansae, which operates Nike’s Vietnam factory.

“Nike has not been required to sign Georgetown’s code of conduct,” said Isabelle Teare, a junior justice and peace studies major at Georgetown. “However, on our website, it says every licensee has to not only sign but adhere to Georgetown’s code of conduct.” Georgetown has the largest contract in the country with Nike’s Air Jordan brand, according to school paper the Hoya.



The Georgetown Solidarity Committee (GSC) – a student-led workers’ rights organization at the university – learned of the factory’s “deplorable” conditions last October, Teare said, after a strike by Hansae workers. “The past year has been us trying to figure out why Nike has been getting special treatment from Georgetown,” she told the Guardian.

On Wednesday, students from the GSC delivered a letter to DeGioia demanding he end Nike’s association with Georgetown, singing “We wish you would cut the contract” to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the Hoya reported.

Nike licenses jerseys from Georgetown for legendary university players such as Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson, all of whom went on to NBA glory. John R Thompson Jr, who coached all three players, sits on Nike’s board. Activists say the company’s contract with Georgetown is among its most valuable: the Georgetown-Nike relationship goes back to 1985 and the very beginning of Nike’s “college colors program”.



The university responded to pressure from student groups earlier this year. DeGioia sent a letter to Nike after objections from the GSC and the university’s Licensing Oversight Committee, asking the manufacturer to comply with an inspection of the Hansae facility by the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a labor rights group. Nike let the WRC co-inspect the factory with the Fair Labor Association, a labor watchdog preferred by international businesses such as Apple.

In its report, the WRC alleged that pregnant women were systematically fired from the facility, and that many workers were required to work overtime, had restricted access to toilets and were victims of what the WRC called “extensive wage theft”.

Georgetown is a founding affiliate of the WRC.



Teare took part in campus athletics herself until recently – she competed on the university’s sailing team, she said, until she felt the need to devote more of her time to activism; now she organizes as a member of the GSC. Teare said Nike’s labor practices were at odds with the Jesuit university’s institutional values.

Georgetown opened a new university athletic center named for Thompson, the former basketball coach, in October.

