A nationwide hotline has been initiated by the University in an effort to inform University students, parents, and concerned persons on issues surrounding the racial climate at University Park.

"Our focus is not just to disseminate information. We want to hear what their concerns are. If they are having a problem or their son or daughter is having a problem we want to help them resolve that problem," said Pat Peterson, director of the Campus Life Assistance Center.

"It's a large university and people often just don't know where to start if they have a question, a problem, or a concern," she said at a news conference Friday morning.

The national hotline -- 1-800-343-6143 -- will encourage parents to ask questions and thus address their concerns directly to the University, she said.

The hotline is part of a University effort to open communication on racial issues with students' parents. University officials met with the parents of black students in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh March 1-2 to discuss racial incidents that occurred last month on campus and in the borough.

The hotline expects to serve parents and other University and community members who have directed their questions across the University to staff, employees, and faculty, said Charlene Harrison, director of Campus Life Assistance Center's Off-Campus Programs.

Blacks comprise 1,400 of the 37,000 students on campus and about 2,500 of the University's 69,000 students systemwide.

Applications from black students to attend University Park are down 28 percent from this time last year, said Gary Kelsey, director of minority admissions and community affairs.

The hotline is staffed by the Campus Life Assistance Center from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, she said, adding that calls made after that time are monitored by an answering machine.

The toll-free number will enable the parents and those who have previously not known where to direct their questions to access information regarding racial issues, she said.

"I think this will be an impetus to some people to pick up the phone and call," she said.

Harrison said one of the "handful" of phone calls received Friday was made by a community member who addressed concerns about students with shaved heads. The persons were found to be swimmers, not Nazi skinheads --members of a radical group whose members shave their heads and condone racism.

The center's staff is interested in responding candidly, said Harrison. However, she said, there would be times when the staff might not know all that is happening at the University. Workers who have been trained in cross-cultural communication take the calls, she said, noting that no one has been hired specifically for this task.

The University has not decided how long the number, which costs the University $15 per hour, will be in operation, she said. Harrison expects between 20 and 50 phone calls a day, she said.

A letter providing the phone number and other information on racial issues will be sent to the families of all University Park students, she said.

Racial tensions mounted last month after 10 black women were accosted by five white men and University Police Services found racial flyers deriding Undergraduate Student Government President Seth Williams.

Black students protested Feb. 14-18 to heighten public awareness about racial intolerance. University officials agreed to a set of demands presented by the students, including a thorough investigation of all acts of racial intolerance on campus, and the return of social scientists who studied the University's racial climate at the end of last semester.