Exorbitant prices may be a reason to avoid the Hornet Bookstore, but at least none of the high-priced goods on campus come from sweatshop labor. Thank President Donald Gerth who pushed hard to involve Sacramento State in the Fair Labor Association.

“We sell a lot of stuff here,” Gerth said. “We buy things that are made in various parts of the world.”

Sac State businesses, most of which are run by the multi-million dollar CSUS Foundation, can terminate vendors? contracts if they use sweatshop labor.

“Our vendors are required to have a standard code of conduct,” said Julia Milardovich, director of the Bookstore.

The Fair Labor Association has hundreds of members, not all of them universities. The Association notifies its members when companies are found to be operating sweatshops, according to Milardovich.

“It?s almost always Nike that it?s about,” she said.

Unfortunately, Nike is a member of Fair Labor. Ironic, considering the company?s use of cheap labor in the Far East. Hopefully Fair Labor, and organizations like it, will one day have real teeth. Until then, it is up to the University to terminate any vendors that use cheap labor. Fortunately, the Bookstore?s largest clothing vendors, Russel and Jansport, are based largely in the United States.

Watchdog organizations like Fair Labor are a good start. Although free trade agreements can benefit American exports, the government itself should do something to get rid of sweatshop labor. Only a strong international agreement will suffice. However far off that may be, at least there?s a reason to shop at the Bookstore?

?An unidentified 48-year-old spent 35 minutes in a Riverside Hall elevator last Monday until firemen helped him down. The escape required a pry-bar to prop open the door and a long step down from the rogue elevator, according to campus police.

Facilities Management was reticent. After countless transfers throughout their office, I finally heard from Customer Service Manager Bruce Balon, who downplayed the incident.

“Whoever was in the elevator must have punched some buttons or done something,” Balon said. Perhaps, but why did the fire department have to jack the elevator door open?

In any case, stuck elevators are not a rare occurrence.

“We have elevators stuck occasionally,” Balon said. “Most of them don?t get stuck with people in it, they just get stuck.” The elevators are inspected and certified once a year, he said. I recommend that the University?s 48 elevators be checked more often. Much more often.

The rickety elevator on the west side of the University Union has become the subject of jokes among students who use it. Its usual “second floor shake” before opening to The State Hornet office is frightening. Elevators need not be this thrilling. Thank God for stairs?

?I?ve been receiving complaints from students about the recent malfunction of two daily permit machines in the back parking lots. The broken machines make it difficult to purchase daily permits, and hence, avoid parking tickets, they say. Not the case, said Supervising Parking Officer Suzanne Bracamonte.

“We have nine machines and seven are operational right now,” Bracamonte said.

There are also three more machines in the back lots, according to Bracamonte. One is in the information booth near the Overflow Lot. This is not to say that the parking situation isn?t deplorable. In fact, the broken machines have resulted in long waits at working machines. Parking and Transportation should fix the broken machines as soon as possible. Perhaps installing more machines would also help students park faster.

Of course students have a point when we say the parking situation is becoming more inconvenient. It?s no coincidence that student lots are being used as fodder for University construction projects, most notably the Regional and Continuing Education building and the upcoming Modoc Hall in the Overflow Lot. To make matters worse, the University had no problem breaking ground on the RCE building and a new parking garage in the middle of the fall semester. Perhaps administration needs a lesson in student empathy. I recommend moving their reserved spots into overflow. That?ll teach ?em.