Sister Tess Browne of the National Farmworker Ministry told the crowd she had been inspired by the civil rights movement.

"I saw that it was the same struggle in the Southwest. Like in the South, if we have faith and keep struggling we will achieve something," Browne said.

Womack and Professor of the Philosophy of Religion and Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '74 encouraged students to get involved in the struggle to improve working conditions on America's farms.

West said students should feel solidarity with others who are suffering.

"We are here to respond to the human call, human being to human being," he said.

Those who organized the panel said the goal was to make students aware of the ways that they can become active in UFW movement for worker rights.

Campos said he hopes to encourage supermarket chains to pledge not to buy produce from distributors that do not have unionized contracts.

Yet both Campos and UFW organizer Daisy M. Rooks said they are not advocating a strawberry boycott.

"We do not want a boycott, but we do want to send a message to distributors to stop intimidating their workers," Rooks said.

For Daniel M. Morgan '99, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), the panel offered the opportunity to hear about farm worker conditions from the workers themselves.

He said that the voice of the workers was noticeably absent from last fall's grape debate and their voice was "sorely needed in discourse about the grape referendum."

In another reference to last fall's controversy, Justin B. Wood '98-'99, also a member of PSLM, said he was very disappointed that last night's debate did not draw more students who had been active in the grape debate.

"I think it's unconscionable that no members of the grape coalition showed up to hear experiences of California strawberry workers," he said.