The Penn State Board of Trustees meeting Friday included protests from five student activists in an effort to get the university to adopt the Designated Supplier Program (DSP) -- an action that they say would improve conditions for the workers in the factories where university apparel is produced.

The students entered the boardroom of the Nittany Lion Inn, 200 W. Park Ave., where the meeting was being held, shortly after the meeting began, carrying signs that read "DSP NOW!"

They stood silently, off to the side of the room, while Penn State President Graham Spanier's State of the University address was played for the trustees.

At the conclusion of the address, Cynthia Baldwin, chairwoman of the board, addressed the students who were protesting.

"You are being disruptive of this meeting," Baldwin said to the students over the microphone. "I would request that you please be seated. There are other avenues to address your concerns."

After Baldwin's statement, the group left the meeting.

"We all decided that if they asked us to leave, [we would] leave," said Olivia Guevara, co-founder of Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and one of the students who took part in the protest.

Guevara said Baldwin's suggestion to explore "other avenues" has not yielded results.

She and other activists have been trying to schedule a meeting with Spanier, she said, but have been unsuccessful.

"I think there was a good group of people from an array of fields and disciplines at the Board of Trustees meeting," Guevara said. "Hopefully, they raised the issue or even questioned it at the meeting."

There was no formal discussion of the DSP after the students left the meeting, although some administrators were heard discussing the issue during breaks in the board of trustees meeting. On April 5, Spanier issued a statement through the university-run newswire, live.psu.edu, which said Penn State was investigating the DSP, but had not determined if it would be a feasible or desirable option to adopt.

At Friday's meeting, Spanier insisted that his position "hasn't changed."

"They cannot give us a timeline," Guevara said. "This is kinda like, 'What do we do now?"

Zach Scheid, another co-founder of SLAP, said the group of activists was happy with the effort.

"He noticed us," Scheid said, referring to Spanier.

"I think he was kind of shocked to see us there."