Despite sharp criticism from the Undergraduate Student Government Senate, the 1999 Framework to Foster Diversity report will remain confidential, Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity, said yesterday.

During a meeting last week between the Senate Diversity Committee and Jones, Jones expressed doubt in the senate's ability to understand diversity because the senators present weren't diverse themselves.

"You can't talk about diversity since you're all white," he said.

This was the second time Jones publicly suggested that many non-minorities do not understand diversity issues. During a day of meetings with black state legislators and students in April 2001, Jones told two newspaper reporters that most white people are not good at dealing with racism.

Town Sen. Rob Michaels expressed displeasure about Jones' more recent comment. He cited Jones' statement when the senate was debating its condemnation of the administration.

"An administrator who claims to work for the Office of Educational Equity should show students some respect, and he clearly didn't do that," Michaels said.

During its meeting Tuesday night, senate condemned the university administration for not releasing

the information in the report and called for Penn State to do so immediately.

The framework, which went into effect in 1998 and continues until 2003, is a long-term blueprint to promote diversity on campus.

The senate called for the removal of Jones as head of the framework committee and the appointment of "more responsive leadership."

Yesterday, Jones maintained that the 1999 documents will never be released.

"Those are working documents for us; the completed ones are meant for the public to see," Jones said.

He said that the 1999 findings will be interspersed in the 2001 report, which will be released on the Internet as a mid-plan assessment later this semester.

The results of the document will be used to develop an inclusive understanding of diversity, create a welcoming campus environment, recruit and retain a diverse student body and workforce, and coordinate organizational change to support these efforts.

After the meeting with Jones last week, Michaels resigned from the Framework to Foster Diversity Review Team, saying he could "no longer in good faith participate in a process in which the student body has no confidence."

Jones said it was not necessary for Michaels to resign.

"It was his option and I understand his reasoning; his ethics were there," Jones said.

Jones said Michaels is the only person who has quit the committee.