Penn State President Graham Spanier said he believes Martin Luther King Jr. would approve of affirmative action policies, one day after the celebration of the civil rights leader's birthday.

"I think Dr. King would support affirmative action today in the way it was originally intended. That is, to take affirmative action to give minorities the equal level of access that they were historically denied," he said.

Spanier was responding to Brian Battaglia (sophomore-aerospace engineering), who asked if affirmative action violated King's ideal of judging people on their character and not on their race. Spanier answered this and other student questions for an audience of about 45 at his annual "fireside chat" question and answer session last night, sponsored by Lion Support.

Julie Rodenberg (graduate-forestry) brought up the topic of diversity when she asked Spanier for his thoughts on the University of Michigan's affirmative action case facing the U.S. Supreme Court.

Spanier said he is worried that Michigan's affirmative action policies might be overturned because they put so much weight on race. "At Penn State, our approach to affirmative action has served us very well without resorting to some of the things Michigan uses," he said. Battaglia said he enjoyed the opportunity to hear Spanier's opinions and interact with him personally.

"I was impressed by the way he said the university went about affirmative action," he said.

Spanier said Penn State's efforts to diversify its student body consist largely of recruiting more minorities to apply. "You have a better chance of having diversity if you recruit people who wouldn't normally apply. You need affirmative action to get them interested," he said. The discussion branched off when Sara Ryan (sophomore-political science) brought up a proposal to change the intercultural and international competence general education requirement from three to six credits.

Spanier said he does not believe the solution is to increase the number of credits, but rather to incorporate diversity topics into more classes.

Spanier also clarified a comment he made last fall suggesting that more afternoon and evening classes be offered to reduce the number of 8 a.m. classes. "We need to be a more student-centered university, and many college students seem to be creatures of the night," he said. "Why don't we acknowledge this and offer more classes in the late morning and afternoon and experiment more with evening classes?"

Spanier said he never intended to suggest that all 8 a.m. classes should be eliminated.