Become an Affiliate

By choosing to affiliate with the WRC, a university sends a strong message to students, faculty and other concerned parties that it is committed to protecting the rights of workers producing apparel and other goods bearing university names and logos.

Benefits of Affiliation

• Accurate, thorough, timely and impartial assessments of conditions in factories that produce collegiate apparel and other goods—with specific reference to whether factories are in compliance with universities’ Codes of Conduct.
• Research on important dynamics and trends in the apparel industry that affect workplace conditions in factories that produce collegiate goods.
• The opportunity to work in concert with other WRC affiliates to address problems at supplier factories and improve conditions.
• Access to in-depth consultation with WRC staff and investigators, as well as labor rights experts on the WRC advisory council and other international experts and advocates who work with the WRC.
• The opportunity to visit communities where factories are located and meet with workers and local NGOs.
• The ability to help shape WRC policies and practices as the organization develops – through the election of university representatives to the WRC Governing Board, through participation in the WRC University Caucus, and through consultation and collaboration with WRC staff and Board members.

Affiliate Requirements

Affiliate universities must adopt a manufacturing Code of Conduct and work toward the incorporation of this Code into applicable contracts with companies making their apparel. They must also provide the WRC with a list of names and locations of all factories involved in the production of their logo goods and are required to pay annual affiliation fees to the WRC.

Affiliation Letter

When a college or university decides to affiliate with the WRC, this affiliation is expressed in the form of a letter from the school’s President or Chancellor to the WRC. Schools are free to use whatever language they deem appropriate, as long as the letter clearly state the institution’s decision to affiliate and its recognition of the three obligations of affiliation: maintaining a manufacturing Code of Conduct, providing the WRC with factory disclosure information, and paying affiliation fees. Click here for an affiliation letter template.

Model Code

Member schools may adopt this code as the standard they will require of licensees. The Worker Rights Consortium will use this code of conduct as the basis for its investigations.

How to Disclose Factories

Each affiliate school should submit disclosure data from each of its licensees and/or vendors on a quarterly basis.

The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), Exemplar, and Fanatics Licensing handle the disclosure process for all of their client universities and colleges that are affiliated with the WRC. Universities and colleges that are clients of one of these licensing firms should notify the firm that they have affiliated with the WRC and request that the firm begin providing disclosure data to the WRC. (Note: Universities located outside the United States may have access to comparable mechanisms for coordinating and simplifying the disclosure process.)

Universities that manage their licensing programs independently should submit disclosure data to the WRC digitally. Contact Kimberly Capehart at: [email protected] for details.