VAULT was established in October 2003 with the purpose of seeking to ensure that no officially licensed UT merchandise was made in sweatshops. Eric Harkness, the group’s founder, indicated in the Daily Beacon (October 30, 2003) that he got the idea for the organization from similar projects at Harvard, Yale, and Duke. Interim President Joseph Johnson expressed his support for the efforts, as the students began researching exactly where the various logo items were made. All companies that have contracts with the UT Bookstore are members of the Fair Labor Association and are required to have affidavits on file, but with outside companies, which also provide UT logo merchandise, UT has little means of verifying working conditions in factories.