The Student Labor Action Coalition held a dance party in front of Bascom Hall Friday to celebrate UW-Madison's decision to cut ties with Nike.
The university terminated its contract with Nike in the spring of 2010 over Nike's violation of workers' rights in Honduras.
The celebration began with approximately a dozen students gathering in front of Bascom Hall to dance, eat cake and make signs.
"This is a celebration of student power to show that student power can make change [and] can make things happen," said Xander Gieryn, a SLAC member and UW-Madison freshman.
When SLAC members finished making signs they danced into Bascom Hall to the band Cake's cover of the Gloria Gaynor song "I Will Survive." As the students entered Bascom Hall they chanted "What's disgusting? / Union busting!" and "What's outrageous? / Sweat shop wages!"
After dancing in front of Chancellor Biddy Martin's office, SLAC members gave her secretary a letter addressed to Martin that discussed the significance of UW-Madison's decision to terminate its contract with Nike. As SLAC members left the building they chanted "We'll be back."
SLAC sent Martin an invitation to join the celebration but she did not attend the event.
"We definitely wanted to, first of all, thank her and remind her that there are other issues at hand that she has a direct influence on," SLAC member and UW-Madison freshman Edd O'Meara said.
UW-Madison, SLAC alumnus and Green Party candidate for Wisconsin State Assembly Ben Manski attended the event.
"This is great spirit," Manski said. "Student activists today might be a little more hip than we were in the '90s."
