White slips of paper in hand, Penn State sweatshop activists descended on Old Main at 9:30 last night with a message in mind and a movement afoot.

The pieces of paper were then taped to the front door of Old Main, blanketing its frame with letters urging President Spanier to take up a proposal for the adoption of stricter workers' rights through what is known as the Designated Supplier Program.

"I want to show the President that there is very broad support for this program and there's a lot momentum behind this campaign," said Theresa Haas, president of the Penn State chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).

Sweatshop activist Charles Kernaghan, who spoke at 7:30 last evening to a crowd of about 100 in Kern Auditorium, accompanied the students.

Flanked by blown-up photographs of sweatshop atrocities he has witnessed, Kernaghan described his first-hand findings while investigating sweatshop conditions worldwide. He also addressed steps that could improve working conditions in factories like those producing Penn State apparel.

Kernaghan is the director of the National Labor Committee, an independent, nonprofit human rights organization focused on the protection of worker rights. He is also known for bringing talk-show hostess Kathie Lee Gifford to tears on national television when he exposed the use of child labor in production of her personal clothing line, according to a press release.

Kernaghan came to campus to speak at the 17th Annual Philip Murray Memorial Labor Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, the United Steelworkers of America and the Rock Ethics Institute. The speech was titled "The Fight to End Sweatshops and Win Workers' Rights in the Global Economy."

Kernaghan shared numerous stories from his travels, including tales of rummaging through dumpsters behind Dominican sweatshops for discarded Nike pricing documents and posing as an investor looking to manufacture denim shirts in Bangladesh.

"Even if you don't agree with what he said, you have to believe that he knows what he's talking about," Caitlin Corr (sophomore-labor and industrial relations) said.

Kernaghan attempted to bring the scope of the profitability of sweatshop labor into focus by pulling out a $15.99 Penn State baseball cap, telling the audience that the cap was worth between two and three cents of worker wages.

Kernaghan praised and encouraged efforts to mobilize the anti-sweatshop movement on college campuses through groups like the USAS.

"What is happening here is remarkable," he said of awareness efforts at Penn State. "Your voice is stronger than you think. These companies are scared to death that you might wake up and start asking questions."

Citing the enormous purchasing power of young people and anti-sweatshop legislation slated for introduction to the U.S. Senate for the first time ever in late May, Kernaghan concluded the speech by looking forward.

"I saw that the drive for empowerment was the main theme of the talk," said Will Pratt (freshman-engineering). "It was eye-opening."