The hot weather wasn't the only reason for seeing a little more skin than usual yesterday.

"Women are more than just their breasts," Karin Kaskiel (senior-mechanical engineering) said to students passing by Willard Building yesterday afternoon.

Kaskiel, along with three other women from her Art 100 (Concepts and Creations in the Visual Arts) class, displayed a large board with pictures of women's bra-covered breasts for a social action project. The board, which the students called an "anti-objectification piece," was divided down the center into two flaps that, when opened, revealed facts about women.

"We want to be able to go out, wear what we want and it does not mean in any way that we want to have sex, get hit on or be assaulted," Tara Imperatore (sophomore-journalism) said. "Just like in the same respect, men probably want to go out and not get judged either."

Imperatore said she was surprised at the number of students who were interested.

"It's created a lot more buzz than I thought it was going to," she said. "We thought people were just going to kind of walk by."

Gary Cattell, the Willard Preacher, commented negatively on the project, located in the space he frequently uses to speak.

"I think it's a waste of time. I don't think that it's going to do anything," he said. "If they're trying to make a statement against rape, it's not going to work by showing breasts."

The facts behind the pictures that were gathered from the Centre County Women's Resource Center and various Web sites were statistics about sexual assault at Penn State and nationwide used to describe "everyday things about women that you wouldn't know just by looking at them," Imperatore said.

"With a lot of [the facts], we tried to show the emotional and spiritual side of women," Kaskiel said. "When women go out, men don't really care about those things. It's just like, 'Wow that girl has nice boobs.' "

As students walked by, some took pictures with their cellular phones.

"Feel free to touch them," Kaskiel said to students, urging them to open the flaps and read.

Imperatore, who also worked on the project, said the nature of college life prompted the group to speak out.

"The college atmosphere itself made us want to do it," she said. "We want to be comfortable, and when we go out we shouldn't have to cover ourselves up."

Kaskiel added that the project's impact also aimed for sexual assault awareness.

Kary Laskin (senior-public relations and marketing), a bystander, said she thought the project was a good way to capture attention.

"It's definitely different. You walk by and you can't help but look it," she said. "I think it's a good concept that there's more than just the physical, and it's a good way to show it."

Stacy Missari (senior-journalism), another member of the group who worked on the project, said the reactions from men were mostly favorable.

"Most of the men have reacted positively, but we got one guy who reacted adamantly," Missari said. "He was saying there's an equal blame on women for sexual assault."

Imperatore said it is comments like those that reinforce their project's purpose.

"He's the reason why we're doing this," she said.

Rachel Loeb and Collegian staff writer Leann Frola contributed to this report.