YALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LOBBY CLASS RING RETAILERS, CAMPAIGN AROUND ANNUAL SALES, CITING GOLD INDUSTRY’S EGREGIOUS PRACTICES

Starting this week, university students on a number of college campuses will take action against class ring retail giants Jostens, American Achievement Corporation (AAC) and Herff-Jones.

For years, college students have raised America's public consciousness through social activism: anti-war marches, apartheid sit-ins, sweatshop protests. Now, students have embraced a new cause. Yale students are part of a larger campaign called No Dirty Gold, an international effort to educate consumers about the harmful impacts of gold mining and to build consumer support for industry reforms.

Class ring companies have never before had such public attention drawn to their role in the gold mining industry. Students are using these actions to change the mining industry's violation of environmental, labor, and human rights, starting at the university consumer level. Yale University will be the first campus to lead the student campaign on class ring sales.

When Jostens, AAC and Herff-Jones set up shop in campus bookstores to ring up sales on class rings, No Dirty Gold campaign organizers will set up their tables across the aisle, and pass out information about the harmful global effects of class rings production and gold mining.

Please visit www.nodirtygold.org to download a copy of the “Cyanide. Pollution. Human rights abuse. That's not so classy, is it?” pledge card that students are handing out on university campuses. Pledge cards signed by concerned students will then be sent to company headquarters. For more information, please contact Payal Sampat, Earthworks, (202) 247-1180 or psampat@earthworks.org.

NOTE TO TV AND PRINT PHOTOGRAPHERS: Visuals will include students demonstrating in front of class ring retail display, talking to fellow students, passing out flyers and pledges.

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