Black Caucus members attempted to deliver signed letters to Penn State President Graham Spanier yesterday, asking him to meet with Black Caucus members to address Penn State's racial climate.

About 100 students attended the
rally, held at noon on Old Main steps -- the second event in the last week
aimed at scheduling a meeting with Spanier.

When Black Caucus President Ed Smith and Vice President Gandarvaka Gray approached Spanier's office to deliver two folders containing an unknown number of letters, they were met by Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey, Associate Vice Provost for Educational Equity Thomas Poole and a Penn State University Police officer.

Triponey told the pair that Spanier was out of town and had asked her and Vice Provost for Educational Equity Terrell Jones to meet with caucus members.

Smith said he received a telephone message from Spanier on Friday, but said the call was "57 days too late." Smith would not say what the message contained or whether he returned Spanier's call.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said he did not know what Spanier said in the message. Spanier, who was in Washington, D.C. yesterday, could not be reached for comment.

After accepting the letters from Smith and Gray, Triponey invited Smith into her office to schedule a meeting. While in her office, Triponey said that Smith said he was not interested in scheduling a meeting at that time, but would get back to her if he changed his mind.

Smith did not return repeated phone calls yesterday for additional comments.

After meeting with Smith, Triponey sent an e-mail message to him and Gray inviting Black Caucus to meet with her and Jones whenever they wanted.

At press time, Triponey had not received a response from Smith or Gray.

Triponey said it is hard to tell if a meeting with Spanier would happen until she and Jones sit down with Black Caucus members.

She added that Spanier has made it clear that she and Jones are responsible for handling issues surrounding Penn State's racial climate.

Triponey told Smith and Gray that she contacted Smith "several times" about meeting with the group, and added that she would be willing to show caucus members the e-mail messages to prove it.

Smith denied that Triponey contacted him "several times."

Mahon said that he knows Triponey has made "about a half-dozen" attempts to contact Smith, adding that Smith is invited to each month's Cabinet of Student Leaders meeting, led by Triponey.

Caucus member Darryl Watson (sophomore-sociology) said the group meets regularly with Triponey and Jones.

"Something is not right if after those meetings, hateful actions are still occurring," he said. "We need to meet with President Spanier if we really want anything to get done."

Gray said all changes at Penn State occur "from the top down," and said that Jones and Triponey do not have the authority to act on some of the group's demands, including one asking for the creation of a vice president of multicultural affairs.

"The tuition we pay is important when Penn State pays its bills, but when it comes to dealing with death threats made against our community, it seems that we are not important enough," Gray said.

Jones said he feels the request to meet with Spanier is "purely symbolic" and added that since he reports directly to Spanier, any actions taken by him would be as good as actions taken by Spanier.

"The Office of Educational Equity was created to deal specifically with groups such as Black Caucus," he said. "I've seen and spoken with Ed Smith and other members several times, but they never brought up the demands."

On Feb. 17, Smith reported to police that racial slurs were shouted at him from a dorm room window as he was walking past Beaver Hall.

According to university police, police have responded to two reports of racially motivated incidents since January: the racial slurs aimed at Smith at Beaver Hall and a racial epithet written in Tener Hall.

Jones said that while he thinks a meeting between Spanier and Black Caucus is possible, it has not happened because Spanier oversees many different departments on campus.

Mahon said Black Caucus has been "very unfairly critical" of administrators and university police.

"The broad claim that nothing has been done is completely inaccurate," he said. "We do not tolerate incidents of racism and are continuing to investigate the incident at Beaver Hall."

He added that caucus members should begin working with police and university officials instead of criticizing them.

"I don't hear them criticizing the moron who did this," Mahon said. "... Most of us are on the same side here, but this has not been much of a dialogue."