Students and others have urged that universities join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an organization that, in its words, intends to "receive and verify worker complaints of abuses and violations" of codes of conduct and "coordinate proactive investigations" of working conditions with local human rights organizations. It does not intend to conduct monitoring. It will have an organizing meeting in April, at which time it will select its governing board and advisory council and "deliberate on programmatic development."

Will Harvard join the WRC? It's too early to tell. We'll be in a better position to decide that issue after WRC organizes itself, chooses its leadership and decides how it will go about carrying out its goals.

We believe that, at this point, no one has come up with the perfect answer to how universities can best deal with these issues, and that is one reason we have pursued our joint initiative with other universities, even as other organizations have taken shape. Genuine progress requires a program that has a high likelihood of being effective, verifiable and credible. We have undertaken our own effort in concert with other universities, and we are ready to welcome new information and help from others as we move forward.

Allan A. Ryan Jr. is a University attorney in the Office of the General Counsel.