The press conference held yesterday allowed student leaders to respond to pictures posted on College Republican chair Brian Battaglia's Web site, but it also led to responses from other students involved in organizations.

Kamilah Cole (junior-women's studies) said that she questions the use of the First Amendment to defend the actions of the members of the College Republicans.

"The First Amendment is all well and good, but they were pinpointing one student organization," Cole said. "Student organizations are funded by the university, and the university should discontinue funding a group that is sanctioning racism."

Cole also spoke as a member of Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) and Women's Concerns Committee.

"This isn't solely a Black Caucus issue," she said. "We have to join in and fight this racism that's running rampant on campus."

Christy Merchant, vice president of Allies, an alliance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and their supporters, said she also thought the issue affected other organizations in the Penn State community.

She said that she was happy with the large number of students in attendance.

"All groups involved were active," Merchant said. "The wide-spread support helps us to support the university when they say they want to take action against the College Republicans. We want to foster an atmosphere of education and learning instead of one of fear."

Andrew Porter, educational director of Allies, agreed.

"These issues are pertinent to everyone," he said. "They evoke responses which are public and private, so each person can listen to the public words and make a private choice to act against these issues."

Hamdan Yousuf, a member of the Muslim Student Association, said that he feels the only way to eliminate hate and discrimination on the Penn State campus is for each person to recognize and remove hidden prejudices within themselves.

"We had hoped the racism was on the decline, but now we see that it is a disease and it is in our own backyard," Yousuf said. "We have to strive to eliminate it every day, like those who came before us."

David Barr Jr. (junior-letters, arts and sciences) was not at the press conference to support an organization, but he said the College Republicans represented their own beliefs well, which helped him reaffirm his own.

"I don't think that there can be a Republican organization that represents the actions of the entire ... student community; they can only represent themselves," he said. "I'm glad they did [because it] completely reaffirmed my delineation from their organization's agenda and obviously questionable personal beliefs of what is acceptable and what is fun at parties."