The Penn State Board of Trustees spent an hour at their meeting Friday listening to a report about minority students and discussing the topic.

Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity, told the board that minority students are generally less satisfied with the university than non-minorities.

Minority enrollment rates range from more than 20 percent to less than two percent, depending on the location of the campus, Jones said. University Park falls right in the middle with about 11 percent.

Three students were also invited to tell the board about their experiences with race at Penn State.

Pucci Lee (senior-computer science), who transferred here from the University of Hong Kong, said attending Penn State opened her up to cultures she didn't associate with before.

Ethan Elliott (senior-secondary education), a white student who grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania, said many of his professors have been from other cultures, but issues of race are rarely raised in the classroom.

Gabriel Bryant (senior-journalism), a black student and president of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, told the board that there is a feeling among minorities that the university doesn't do enough to ensure their security.

The trustees also saw some of the ways Penn State has tried to connect with minorities in Pennsylvania.

Donald Sheffield, director of the Office of Diversity Outreach Programs at Penn State Beaver, explained a project at his campus in which education students work with minority children in public housing in Beaver County.

Several trustees — including Walter Conti, who was cut off after speaking for six minutes — said they wished for more time to talk about the subject.

The minority report was timely given the racist hate mail received by several students in the fall, although it had been put on the trustees' agenda before then.

In December, about 50 black students met with Penn State President Graham Spanier and faculty leaders to ask for improvements in the way the university teaches race issues.

"I've think they've had a planning meeting or two with Faculty Senate leaders," Spanier said after the trustees meeting Friday. "That discussion, right now, is principally in the hands of the Faculty Senate leadership."