Northwestern students often brag about how they live at the library. This week, student activists are taking that claim to a new level.

Supporters of Northwestern Students Against Sweatshops are calling Library Plaza home this week, and they vow to continue camping out there until NU makes a decision on the group’s demand that the university cut its ties to the Fair Labor Association and join the Worker Rights Consortium.

But administrators say the campers will have to continue “sleeping over” at least until Friday, when the school will send an observer to a WRC conference to gather information.

About 35 area students gathered for a strategy session Tuesday night led by Simon Fisher, an intern for Chicago Jobs with Justice. Activists from schools including DePaul University, Loyola University and the University of Chicago met with NSAS and some spent the night outside.

Thirteen students slept in tents in front of the library’s entrance Monday night and many more stayed late in support of NSAS’ efforts, according to NSAS member Mischa Gaus, a Medill junior. The group presented a petition and a letter to administrators on Monday asking them to join the WRC, an organization that monitors compliance with labor laws. NSAS argues the FLA lacks proper in wage regulation and public disclosure.

About 20 students were expected to sleep outside Tuesday night, Gaus said.

“This isn’t just an issue of sweatshops,” said Jenny Abrahamian, a McCormick junior and NSAS member. “It’s an issue of campus democracy. I don’t understand why the administration doesn’t feel an obligation to represent the students they’re in charge of.”

Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance, said the students’ efforts are not going unnoticed.

“We took very seriously what the students in this group have been saying, we took seriously what they said Thursday, we take seriously what they say now and so our attitude toward being responsive to them and our promise to reassess when we know more information is a genuine one,” Sunshine said. “It can’t be made more or less genuine by their sleeping over. But if they choose to do that, that’s their prerogative.”

University Services Director Brian Peters will attend a WRC conference in Chicago on Friday as an observer before NU makes any further decision on its involvement. NSAS also will be represented at the meeting.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to talk directly (to NSAS) on the basis that hopefully we’ll know more about it,” Sunshine said.

Until that happens, NSAS is staying put.

Throughout the week, students have planned “teach-ins” in which they will meet with activist and cultural groups to share messages and promote campus unity.

“The issue we’re dealing with is not an isolated one,” said Abrahamian, who has contacted groups such as the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance, Students for Environmental and Ecological Development and Justice For All. “We’re not by any means saying they need to learn from us. We need to learn from them.”

With the ability to check e-mail and go to the bathroom until 2 a.m. in the library, eat at Norris and shower at the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center, the activists have many resources at their disposal. Yet Abrahamian said the students’ goal is to make their presence known, not to be aggressive.

“It hasn’t been that difficult,” Abrahamian said. “Most students don’t spend much of their time doing homework anyway. It’s actually a pretty convenient location.”

Students said they have enjoyed the atmosphere of the poster-covered plaza, fighting spurts of wind and cold at night by talking and playing music.

Held down at the corners by boxes of colored chalk, markers and a bongo drum, a banner in the plaza quotes University President Henry Bienen saying, “On consequential issues we don’t take student votes.” The bottom of the sign responds: “Campus Democracy?”

“The ground they were standing on is gone and they’re trying to make up a reason,” Abrahamian said. “Since when does a private university of this caliber cave into peer pressure?”

Sunshine said the university will continue to gather information on the WRC before making any decisions.