Voices were raised last night in a passionate discussion about sweatshop labor and Penn State's involvement and ethical responsibility in the global issue.

The forum, "Ethics, Finance and Sweat," was sponsored by a new faculty group, Cultural Politics and Policy, to address the university's position about labor conditions in factories that manufacture apparel with its logo.

More than 100 people attended the gathering in Kern Auditorium. At times, the discussion became heated, even contentious, with shouted exchanges.

A booklet called "Global Alliance for Workers and Communities" was passed out to the audience. The cover shows a smiling young woman working in a factory.

The booklet upset Kelly Hough (senior-religious studies).

"Look at the sponsors: the Gap, Nike, the World Bank and Penn State. And look at the smiling, happy sweatshop workers!"

Her observation prompted two people to throw their booklets in disgust.

The forum focused on how and if the university should help workers in factories in third-world nations.

Penn State President Graham Spanier appointed a committee last spring to investigate to which labor-monitoring organization the university should belong. Penn State joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) in March 1999, but some people want the university to join the Worker Rights Consortium instead.

Students for Accountability and Reform (STAR) camped out on Old Main lawn for 19 days in April in an effort to persuade Spanier to join the WRC.

Justin Leto, co-founder of STAR, discussed why he wants Penn State to join the WRC.

"There is a concept the WRC brought into the light — and this is something I feel the committee hasn't dealt with — the concept of living wage," Leto said. "In some of these countries, minimum wage is not a living wage."

He said it is an American responsibility to address this, and the FLA is not doing so.

"The FLA does not believe in a living wage," Leto said.

He said corporate interests are represented on the FLA's executive board.

"You can't let corporations monitor corporations. You have to join the WRC," said audience member Matthieu Dalle (graduate-French).

The chair of the Apparel Advisory Committee, Dan Sieminski, assistant vice president for finance and business, said the committee would advise Spanier which labor-monitoring group to belong to in about three weeks. He wanted to gather student and faculty opinions on the issue last night.

Sieminski said one of the challenges the committee faces is the difficulty of concretely defining concepts like "living wage" and "sweatshop." Audience member Fred Schied, associate professor of education, reacted vehemently against this statement.

"This is a great way to avoid the issue," Schied told Sieminski.

Schied said it's easy to know what is not a sweatshop: a place with a living wage, reasonable hours, no child labor and safe working conditions.

"It's easy to say 'living wage,' " Sieminski responded, "and even to understand it."

But he said it is difficult to actually calculate.

Chris Fegley (graduate-education), a man in the audience, shouted out a suggestion.

"You ask the people who are suffering!"

Some audience members had a hard time understanding why the labor of people in other countries is not worth as much as the labor of Americans.

"Why are children somewhere else less valuable?" asked Alejandro Builes (senior-international business and business logistics).

America benefits from these low-paid foreign workers, said panelist Sam Richards, senior lecturer of sociology, and we must decide whether the financial gains we reap outweigh our social responsibilities.

"From a purely economic perspective, Penn State should continue to invest in corporations who use cheap labor. Why? Because we all benefit," Richards said. "But should we be worrying about the rights and interests of people elsewhere?"

He said 1.3 billion people live on a dollar a day or less.

"Is it worth it? What kind of a world do we want? What kind of a world do we support?," Richards said.

Martin Austermuhle, STAR co-founder, said sweatshops do not occur in a vacuum — they are socially created.

"Penn State, as an educational institution in a rich Western country, has to try to challenge the system in which sweatshops are created," he said. "I think ethically, Penn State is bound to challenge that."