It’s an unlikely move that deserves much praise: Ohio State has joined a coalition that will hire an independent monitor to determine if university-licensed apparel is being made in sweatshop conditions.Along with Notre Dame and the University of California system, OSU will employ Price-Waterhouse-Coopers to visit overseas factories and report on its findings. While a recent study found that there is no widespread problem of workers who make OSU products being abused, it’s good to see that the university hasn’t ruled out the possibility and is taking steps to find out for sure.Whether college apparel is being made in overseas factories with horrific working conditions has been a hot topic of debate at universities across the country. After a 10-day sit-in that ended this week, the University of Arizona-Tuscon became the latest school to agree to tighter oversight on the treatment of workers who produce its apparel.The protest was led by United Students Against Sweatshops, an activist group that in two years has spread from just a few schools to nearly 80 universities. Similar protests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke University have gotten their administrations to agree to fully disclose factories that make apparel and take steps to ensure workers are being paid a living wage.OSU’s agreement is not perfect by any means. As university representatives have conceded, because some manufacturers buy blind goods, it’s difficult to determine the factory of origin.Some labor activists have also expressed doubts whether an agency like Price-Waterhouse could really accurately determine factory conditions. Workers who are being abused might be reluctant to speak out, especially if they’re at risk of losing their jobs.Additionally, there’s the potential for a conflict of interest. Price-Waterhouse’s clients include companies infamous for using sweatshop labor, including Liz Claiborne, Reebok and Nike.Nike has faced heavy criticism for the low pay and abuse of workers at its factories in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. Anti-Racist Action and the Feminist Majority protested earlier this year at Nike Women’s Safety Run to bring to light the hypocrisy in Nike advocating women’s rights while it is known as one of the worst companies for oppressing and exploiting women in foreign countries.Therein lies another flaw in OSU’s good intentions: There’s still the Department of Athletics’ agreement with Nike that needs closer scrutiny. While Nike agreed that independent monitors would have the chance to observe its factories, it stipulated it would only do so if other major shoe wear competitors would also allow their factories to be monitored.It’s refreshing to see that OSU unilaterally acted to join the monitoring coalition, but it’s depressing that other than the safety run protest there’s been a complete lack of student activism on the subject here. Most students seem unconcerned if their clothes are produced in brutal conditions by workers being paid measly wages, which, if a lawsuit filed earlier this year is accurate, could be the case.That suit alleges that companies including The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Crew, Wal-Mart, Lane Bryant and Columbus’ own (and big-time OSU donor Les Wexner’s) The Limited use sweatshop labor to produce their wares.It specifically targets clothes produced on the Central Pacific island of Saipan. According to the lawsuit, Saipan is the home of 32 clothing factories that force people to work up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, while threatening them with beatings if they refuse unpaid overtime to meet managers’ quotas.The lawsuit alleges that more than 50,000 workers – most of whom are young women from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand – paid as much as $7,000 as a ”recruitment fee” to go to Saipan, lured by recruiters who said they would be living an hour’s train ride from Los Angeles. Once there, their passports were confiscated. They were forced to live under guard in cramped, rat-infested quarters, not allowed to leave the factory compound and had their social activities strictly monitored.The truly sick part about any clothing makers using sweatshop labor is the huge profits they’re reaping off the suffering of others. Because it’s a U.S. territory, clothing produced in Saipan is stamped ”Made in the USA” and is exempt from duties, tariffs and quotas. In the last fiscal year, the Saipan factories shipped an estimated $1 billion in clothing, with more than $200 million in savings because it’s duty-free.The college clothing industry is also lucrative: The total market for college licensed goods is $2.5 billion per year.With that kind of money being made, the very least colleges can do is make sure workers aren’t brutalized and being paid a wage on which they can barely survive. OSU has taken the lead on that step. Now, the true test will be what it does if it finds out that’s precisely the case.