"Respect me, protect me, treasure me, honor me. The Black Woman."

This last line from the poem "Thoughts of a black woman" by Zachary Harris hangs on the wall in Elisha Nixon's office. Nixon's walls also boast a Black History Month flier and pictures of Malcolm X and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

As an African-American counselor and adviser in the Multicultural Resource Center, 208 Boucke, Nixon takes noticeable pride in her heritage.

Although the center offers counseling and academic support to all students, it exists specifically for students of color, she said. These students often find peer support networks at the University but rarely have adult role models, Nixon said, adding that she hopes to help fill this void.

"I feel I need to be productive, to bring something back to my community," Nixon said of her work.

She called her interaction with students "aggressive" and said she can relate to what students of color go through. For these students in particular, Nixon said she stresses responsibility to their community.

"You got here through someone else's hard work," Nixon said she tells her students.

"I'm talking to them not as social security numbers," Nixon said of her student advisees.

Audrey Kharem, a MRC counselor for academic assistance programs and one of Nixon's co-workers, called Nixon indispensable.

"She's quick, she's efficient, but she's quiet about it," Kharem said. "When you work with Elisha you just have to keep your sneakers on . . . she's fast."

Nixon came to the University in 1988 to pursue a master's degree in health education, at which time she also took her job in the center. As a single mother of three, Nixon said the move was difficult because she had to help the whole family adjust.

"I was so shaken by the lack of black community here," Nixon said, adding that she didn't know simple things like where to go to church or get her hair done. Nixon, who remarried about a year and a half ago, said she eventually found support systems but wasn't really presented with them.

However, Nixon said responsibility for education of African-American culture shouldn't rest on institutions like the University.

"I think it behooves the African-American student and African-American people to be responsible for any type of educational programs and services that go along in a college setting," she said.

Nixon advocates student participation for all ages. Upon her arrival in State College, she helped start a support group for area high school students of color and has continued to be active in minority issues within the public school system.

"She's been a force in that area," said Lawrence Young, director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

Nixon's simultaneous roles as a University staff member, single parent (her husband lives in New York), college student and adviser demonstrate her outstanding abilities, Young said.

Despite her involvement, Nixon doesn't think the University is defaulting on its responsibility to African Americans. The University is as open to African-American concerns as the community generally wants it to be, she said, adding that the University's purpose is education, not activities.

"I believe in black people helping and supporting black people," Nixon said.

For example, the University's Black History Month activities are mostly student-planned or student-run, Nixon said. But as far at she's concerned, if they didn't do it, no one would ask why.

Before moving to State College, Nixon was a probation officer in Beaver County and a social worker dealing primarily with underprivileged children.

Nixon's social work showed her the lack of health services and educational facilities many people face. She saw many families who were ill because they lacked knowledge about health services and prevention. Nixon said she is personally interested in issues of death and dying, the inevitable results of inadequate health care.

While in State College, Nixon also worked at Centre HomeCare as a bereavement coordinator, helping families cope with the death of members.

In her current job, Nixon must deal with more than academic problems. Many students also face grief or other personal problems, she said.

Robert Small, 1991 University graduate and one of Nixon's former advisees, agreed that most students turn to her for more than academic problems.

"She is a person you could talk to about those other things," Small said. "I spent a lot of years at Penn State. I had a lot of counselors . . . few of them I would even bother going to see. I would say she's one of the best counselors I ever had."

Students respect Nixon because she really listens to them but also tells them what she thinks, Young said.

Besides being available to students who come to the center, Nixon is the adviser for Omega Theta Pi sorority and the center's liason to the Black Student Council.

Stemming from her work with terminally ill patients, when she would sometimes be the last person to whom a patient spoke, Nixon said her philosophy is one of expressing love.

"In this life we're only given very few opportunities to express love. We're given many opportunities to express hate," she said, adding that people need to learn to show concern for everyone, even those with whom they disagree.