The university will always seek the most effective ways to ensure that licensed products bearing the university's name and logos are manufactured under fair and humane conditions."
Purdue's licensing program is administered by the Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents about 200 universities.
Purdue receives 10 percent of the wholesale cost of collegiate products sold with its brand. Income from licensed products totals about $1 million annually. All of the income supports scholarships.
As part of its effort to monitor conditions in factories where licensed products are made, Purdue has joined both the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association.
The university also has formed the Purdue Merchandise Licensing and Marketing Policy Committee, which includes Purdue faculty, staff and students, including a member of the Purdue Organization for Labor Equality.
The committee's charge is to explore promising methods for ensuring that merchandise licensed by Purdue is manufactured in accordance with the code that governs the licensing program.
The Purdue student group has advocated Purdue joining the Designated Suppliers Program, which the Workers Rights Consortium has proposed for its members.
The program requires university licensees to source most university apparel from consortium-approved supplier factories.
The U.S. Department of Justice in January refused the consortium's request for an antitrust clearance for the program. The consortium has acknowledged that it cannot implement the program without the clearance. It plans to renew the request in 2009.
"The university and the Purdue Organization for Labor Equality share many goals which can only be accomplished if we continue to work together," the statement said.
"The organization's support and advice are an important part of Purdue's effort to evaluate how best to protect the rights of workers who produce university-licensed apparel."