Gear's Web site also does not allow users to track garments by university, though Joerger said in November that the database would show which factories make which universities' apparel.

"I can only imagine that the reason they didn't put that information on the Web is that they know that it is the easiest way for that information to be useful to us," McKean said.

But Gear's Web site is still unfinished, with links detailing the company's manufacturing process and other tidbits not yet functioning.

John Menghini, president and CEO of Gear, said in a news release that the Web site is intended to be more than a database of Gear's factories.

"It is our hope that this Web site can provide an additional forum from which the issues can be studied and working conditions improved," he said.

Ryan said the next step will be deciding how to use the information companies provide.

"The difficulty with this information is that we don't yet know what's the best way to use our leverage as a university to better working conditions for factory workers," Ryan said.

The University has joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA)--a monitoring partnership between the government and the apparel industry--and it has a one-year deal with four other universities to coordinate sweatshop policies and monitoring systems.