Members of the Penn State community will gather at 4 p.m. today to march to show support for students recently targeted in racist mailings and threats.

The rally will start in front of Old Main and proceed through campus and portions of downtown.

The march, which was initiated by university administrators, is co-sponsored by more than 20 student groups.

In order to accommodate marchers, the State College Police Department said College Avenue will be closed to through traffic from 4 to 5 p.m.

Police said they will use the standard detour. Traffic going westbound on East College Avenue will be redirected from University Drive to Park Avenue, then to North Atherton Street.

Police said anyone parked on College Avenue between South Garner Street and Burrowes Street will not be permitted to move their vehicles until the march has ended.

They encourage drivers to use other parking area between 4 and 5 p.m.

The march was planned after a member of Black Caucus received a racist death threat on Friday. The threat included a warning that a murdered black man's body was buried in a wooded area in Centre County.

The State College Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police concluded their joint search yesterday after no evidence of a body was found, police said.

In addition to yesterday's search, in which a helicopter was used to survey the area specified in the letter, an initial search Friday night and one on Sunday night yielded no evidence.

Should more information develop, State College police said they will search the area again.

As of yesterday evening, Black Caucus had not signed up to co-sponsor today's rally.

However, vice-president Sharleen Morris said the caucus will still be supporting the rally.

At the Blue–White game on Saturday, 26 members of the Black Caucus and Penn State's American Civil Liberties Union ran onto the field of Beaver Stadium and refused to leave, protesting the administration's response to Friday's racist mailing.

Morris said although Black Caucus is supporting the march, it is essentially a "reactive response" from administration, which she said made the plans for the march without consulting their group.

"We were a little insulted, but at the same time we want to use this to get the community involved," Morris said.

Morris said she had spoken with campus administrators since Saturday's protest, but that they had not specifically discussed today's rally. She added that she did not know whether administrators were even aware that Black Caucus was supporting the rally.

Penn State football players and coaches including head coach Joe Paterno will also attend at the request of the caucus, Morris said.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said university administrators tried to include as many campus groups as possible as march co-sponsors. Groups could sign-up to be co-sponsors all day yesterday at the HUB information desk. He added that faculty and staff would be given the hour off to attend the march. Mahon added that entire academic departments plan to go.

Mahon called the racist threat a "terrible experience" for the students involved and disruptive to the entire community.

"The march is to show that this kind of attack, even though it was on a particular individual, is considered an attack on the whole Penn State community," he said.

Undergraduate Student Government President Justin Zartman said USG would support the march. He said the event is an appropriate response by university administrators, but more needs to be done.

"It's a start, and that's why we are going to be sitting down with them (administrators) on Thursday," Zartman said.

USG will convene a joint session of congress Thursday. It will consider responses to racism at Penn State. Penn State President Graham Spanier and other university administrators were invited to Thursday's meeting. Zartman had not received word on whether they would attend.

Collegian Staff Writer Elly Spinweber contributed to this report.