The university is implementing a new five-year Framework to Foster Diversity to pick up where the previous framework, which expired at the end of last semester, left off.

The release of the new framework comes on the heels of last semester's controversy surrounding the Penn State College Republicans and the Black Caucus.

During winter break, the university released a statement announcing the new framework.

"Because of the many concerns that have arisen among groups on campus, the university administration felt it important to provide an update on steps being taken to address intolerance at Penn State," the statement said.

Thomas Poole, associate vice provost for educational equity, said the new framework will be a continuation of the previous one.

"Many of the initiatives we'll see in the new framework will be new strategies and tactics to improve [on initiatives from the first one]," he said.

The first step will be to assess the previous framework's progress before developing a plan to implement the new one, he said.

"We are calling more attention to the notion of institutional viability," he said. "Now we are asking, 'How successful will we be as an educational institution if we don't take diversity seriously and structure it into our system?' I don't think we've ever asked it that way before."

He said students might already be able to see some of the progress.

However, many students say that this type of framework is not a productive way of attacking these incidents.

Ed Smith (sophomore-economics), a member of Black Caucus, said the framework's response is counter-productive.

"Reworking the framework is not good enough because it neglects the actual situation. It is too much of a 'start-from-scratch' approach, which is not what we want. Penn State is merely dealing with the symptoms," he said.

Black Caucus members question the effectiveness of another framework, saying it will only circumvent the real issues. "We have been here already. Many minority groups have been violated on many different occasions like the recent incidents," Smith said.

The framework should include a mechanism of enforcement, he added.

"Penn State's proposed codes have been violated without punishment time and time again. It is one thing to produce objectives, and it is completely another to enforce them," he said.

Black Caucus President Tiffanie Lewis said the framework makes good efforts, but it needs to take action.

"The framework approach has failed, and it is obvious. It is not doing anything because people are doing these things and getting away with it," Lewis said.

At the end of last semester, Black Caucus issued a list of demands to foster diversity on campus.

"Our demands are more strategic and direct. The framework is very broad, too general and very sugar-coated, instead of being head-on," she said.

Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Ian Rosenberger said USG is very eager to assist in any attempts to help with the university's initiatives.

"It is very obvious that we have much to do. We have the tools to facilitate change; it is a question of bringing change to life," he said.