Yesterday, members of the Black Caucus held a rally on the steps of Old Main, petitioning to get Penn State President Graham Spanier to meet with the group.

The administration has come out to state that offers to meet with members of the Black Caucus have been rejected by the group. And on Friday, Spanier called Ed Smith, the Black Caucus president, to schedule a meeting, which Smith said was "too late." In fact, members of the Black Caucus have continually met with Vicky Triponey, vice president for student affairs, and Thomas Poole, associate vice provost for educational equity, in order to solve the issues raised by the group.

However, Black Caucus members believe meeting with Spanier is the only way to get things done. Unfortunately, Spanier does not have the ability to solve every problem at the university. Maybe he has the power to overturn decisions made by other university officials, but making the policy often falls to those under him.

Plus, if the Black Caucus believes that only Spanier can solve its problems, then why are they requesting a new unit titled the Office of the Vice President for Multicultural Affairs? If Black Caucus is not utilizing the resources they already have available, such as Triponey, Poole and Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity, then why should the university create an additional position that would only duplicate the positions held by others? Why should the university have diversity advocates if the Black Caucus does not want to use exactly what they are advocating.

The fact that Spanier himself has put forward an effort to personally contact Black Caucus' leadership proves that he is concerned with racial equality at Penn State. However, Spanier collaborates with members of the administration such as Triponey and Poole in order to solve problems raised by students.

Black Caucus needs to recognize that there are specific administrators in certain positions to solve certain problems on campus. Black Caucus has the ability to work together with the right administrators on campus, but it chooses to attempt to go straight to the top. Unfortunately, the answer is not at the top. Spanier does not have the ability to solve problems single handedly. Penn State has more than one person in the administration for a reason. There are professionals on this campus that are willing and able to attempt to work toward a common goal with Black Caucus.

The president of a university as large as Penn State is not going to solve every problem the Black Caucus has. Members need to utilize the resources that are already provided and recognize the people who have the ability to help them change the climate of this campus.