Officials, groups respond to racist e-mails

By JILL LEONARD
Collegian Staff Writer

Even though the racist e-mails that were circulating through campus last week and the beginning of this week only reached a relatively small number of students, the entire campus population and the community may feel its impact.

At 4:30 p.m. today, Black Caucus and the Student Minority Advisement and Recruitment Team will hold a Unity Rally open to the community in the inner-quad area of Pollock Commons, said Bill Mahon, director of Public Information.

Mahon added as more students find out about the rally, more groups are coming forward to sponsor it.

To help deal with the situation, the university has also recently developed a Web site (www.psu.edu/ur/diversityefforts/) that includes updates on the investigation as well as links to news releases about hate e-mail distributed at other universities, Mahon said.

The page includes statements from Penn State President Graham Spanier, vice provost for educational equity Terrell Jones and Black Caucus President Joseph Dawkins, Mahon said.

Mahon added it is common for the office to quickly develop these types of resources when a large number of people are interested in an issue.

Jones said about 66 students received the original racist e-mail. However, copies of the e-mail spread rapidly because a few student groups forwarded the message via their list servers, Jones said.

"They made a mistake in that they didn't include a disclaimer at the top (of the e-mail)," Jones said.

The racist e-mail messages began appearing Nov. 2. A person using the alias "The Patriot" signed the messages, which were traced to a computer lab at Temple University in Philadelphia. Another 48 minority students received a second e-mail Monday night. Since the original message was sent, many things have surfaced from the ordeal, Jones said.

"It has become an issue for parents who want to ensure their daughter or son's safety, and for students who want to know who did it and find out the investigative techniques," he said.

Jones said considering the nature of the messages, students have been reacting well. The circumstances are unfortunate, but true, Jones said, adding the same events could have transpired anywhere.

Brandi Patton-Thompas, co-president of SMART, said the constant media attention the messages have attracted has probably made people more aware of the specific issues concerning racism. On the other hand, Patton-Thompas said the hateful messages will not fully affect people until they realize racism is a community issue.

Centre County CrimeStoppers is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the hate mail. To report any possible leads, call (800) 352-7463. All callers may remain anonymous.