Before an audience of 50, Penn State President Graham Spanier announced yesterday that he will start a fund to reward people who report acts of hate at the university.

Spanier said the fund was a small step, but one that would send a message that "we take seriously all attempts to compromise the safety and security of our university and community."

Outside the auditorium, several students weren't convinced.

A fierce exchange in a Hosler Building hallway became the latest episode in a rocky semester for human relations at Penn State.

As a small crowd formed, students yelled at Spanier for not responding strongly enough to the racist mail sent last week. They were especially upset that Spanier didn't attend a Penn State Black Caucus press conference Wednesday.

"We were able to rally hundreds of people in the HUB in a very public venue," Steven Mark (senior-marketing) told Spanier. "It's not going to make a difference if you're in this back corner."

Spanier told the students he had agreed to speak at the press conference if it was planned with his input on scheduling. He said the Black Caucus selected a time for the event that conflicted with his schedule.

Spanier also said the university has released several public responses to the racist mail.

During the hallway confrontation, Spanier appeared calm, even as an irate student made a comment about his religion.

"Maybe if it was Jewish students who had received the letter, you'd do something," she said.

That comment ended the exchange with Spanier, who nodded and walked away.

The student, visibly shaken, walked to another part of the hallway and lowered her voice to talk with Terrell Jones, the Vice Provost for Educational Equity.

Spanier's speech yesterday was not the first time he has denounced hate on campus.

And the argument in the hallway was not the first time students have accused him of neglecting the subject.

The students were unimpressed with Spanier's brief statement yesterday at a start of a previously scheduled discussion of hate crime law in the Hosler Building auditorium.

The event, which featured Dan Welliver of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, was part of a series of community programs called "Not Hate, Not Here" sponsored by the American Association of University Women and 19 other local groups.

In addition to Spanier's public remarks yesterday, the university sent out a press release Monday about the racist mail, and Spanier wrote a statement on civility that appears on the Penn State Web site and in The Daily Collegian today.

After the speech yesterday afternoon, Penn State officials moved the first press release about the hate messages to a prominent spot on the Web site.

Earlier this month, three black students and a university trustee received racist threats in their mail.

At Wednesday's event in the HUB, Black Caucus president LaKeisha Wolf, one of the students targeted by the letters, talked about the importance of confronting racism.