At 6 every Friday night University administrators at Behrend College meet and listen to the concerns of minority students.

"They come early and they're the last to leave," said Stan Washington, Behrend's Student Government Association president.

And while most people more easily associate the word 'diversity' with the University Park campus, student leaders from the Commonwealth campuses say discussion on minority concerns exists in varying degrees at those locations.

The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments briefly turned its attention to the concerns of minority students at the weekend's meeting here.

While council members generally agree recognizing racism is a large problem at some campuses, it may not be an issue at others, said CCSG President P.J. Sternberg.

The council encourages and supports campuses which have diversity problems to work toward solutions, he said.

However, Washington said the council must address the issue of diversity more seriously in discussion.

"I think it's the biggest problem facing CCSG but they spent five minutes on it," Washington said of last weekend's meeting. At some campuses, the lack of minority students makes it difficult for students to identify and tackle the problem, he said.

Brian Donaldson, CCSG representative to the University Board of Trustees, said while council representatives may not be aware of the racist, sexist, ageist and homophobic attitudes on their campuses, problems are present because they exist within all segments of society.

"Unlike (University Park), ageism is probably the biggest diversity problem at the campuses," Donaldson said, adding that many students at the Commonwealth campuses are returning adult students.

At Behrend College, administrators are taking a number of steps to meet student demands including the weekly visit to the Association of Black Collegians, Washington said. Of Behrend College's 2,838 students, 207 are minority students, according to the University Public Information office.

Three University positions are now concerned with advising, recruiting and retaining minorities at Behrend, Washington said. Also, the Association of Black Collegians runs tutoring services and study skill seminars in cooperation with administrators, he said. And the speaker series at Behrend has included or will include such notable speakers as Martin Luther King III, Benjamin Hooks, executive director of NAACP; and Gloria Steinem, a feminist, political activist, and founder of the now-defunct Ms. magazine.

Programs for minority high school students to visit the campus are regularly held, a minority counselor advises the Association of Black Collegians and helps with overall minority student retention, and a residential life assistant coordinator creates programs for new students, he said.

Washington said in general the climate for minorities has improved "by leaps and bounds" at the college. In the 1987-88 school year, students protested and voiced their complaints about the administration's lack of concern for minority students at Behrend.

Washington pointed to the growth in programs as an improvement of the racial climate there. Three years ago, the association was the only campus organization to sponsor programs during Black History Month. Because of the large number of programs held by other organizations this year, the association is only able to host one, he said.

"Right now, its an issue of overprogramming. You can't go three days without a program," Washington said.

But Washington said even at Behrend College, racist incidents still occur.

"Programs are voluntary . . . they don't reach what we call the 'unenlightened,' " Washington said. Making diversity a requirement in some form and permanently filling the vice provost for underrepresented groups are two steps in the right direction, he said.

However, student and administrative concern and awareness of diversity issues at Behrend may be unique in the Commonwealth system.

Washington noted the Behrend College and University Park situations are different and cannot be compared because of the sizes of the campus. For example, Behrend has only one minority organization on the entire campus, he said.

New Kensington -- a commuter campus with 37 minority students of a total population of 1,492 students -- has experienced no publicized or overt acts of racism or sexism, said Mike Gray, Student Government Association vice president for that campus.

Diversity programming exists at New Kensington but attendance to the workshops is low, Gray said. Students recently completed a survey stating they saw no need for further diversity programs, he said.

Beaver Campus, at which 50 of 1,042 students are minority members, faces a similar situation, said Tracy Richardson, freshman representative. But a need for education exists, she said, because students will have to deal with a less homogeneous population in the future.