Although this year's Ebony and Ivory Week hasn't been as diverse as was hoped, the message of respecting cultural differences was presented for those interested.

"We try to make it as diverse as possible. We asked other [fraternities and sororities] to participate in the beginning of the semester," said Osvaldo Lee, the week's director and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. secretary.

Ebony and Ivory Week started at Penn State in 1988 as an initiative between Alpha Phi Alpha and Beta Sigma Beta to relieve racial tension, Lee (junior-agricultural business management) said.

The weeklong event started Monday night with guest speaker Yasmin Hernandez, a member of another chapter of Sigma Lambda Upsilon. She urged her audience to be active in their communities. Tuesday night's event was an interactive discussion called "Haters."

"The idea is to portray those that ruin the livelihood of the Penn State community," Lee said. "Haters" featured skits focusing on racial profiling, sexism, prejudice against pregnant women and hatred in the greek community.

Tiffany Richardson (senior-crime, law and justice) attended Tuesday's program. "My ideal world would be to go into a room where we don't know anybody and be able to talk to someone without worrying who is in power."

Last night in HUB Heritage Hall, "Celebrating Our Pastimes" enabled Penn State students to interact with one another. "[The event] gives us a chance to get to know each other; people we don't usually hang out with and play games we used to play," Lee said.

The participants had fun playing games like Double Dutch, Jenga and Twister while listening to music.

"[This event] is pretty neat. I wish I knew about the opportunity for more of these things," Lauren Praetzel (sophomore-psychology) said. "It seems like a lot of people just don't know about them."

Two programs tonight will conclude Ebony and Ivory Week. At 7 p.m. in the Waring Study Lounge, there will be an interactive trivia game entitled "And Still I Rise: Dealing With Life's Epidemics." "You'll have to match characteristics of the disease with the disease itself," Lee said. There will also be someone distributing contraceptives and talking about HIV/AIDS testing.

At 10 p.m. at the Sigma Phi Epsilon house, 524 Locust Lane, there will be a party called "Cultural Extravaganza."

The only way to get in is to present a stamped handbill from attending one of the programs, Lee said.