The dialogue between the Black Caucus and administration is becoming absurd. As with any situation involving two negotiating parties there are conflicting viewpoints; this information is trivial. The fact is that the administration has impudently adopted an accusatory and neglectful tone toward the caucus.

If students at your university feel unsafe and distressed, it is your responsibility as an administrator to assuage their concerns.

This is done through clearly articulating your commitment to care for the students.

The responsibility in this case does not lie wholly, or even largely, on the students, but on those supposed caretakers whose responsibility it is to accommodate students' needs.

I do not know every particular in this situation, but there is one thing I do know: A public proclamation by President Spanier condemning racism on this campus will have an unparalleled effect.

Not only will it affirm the university's policy on campus racism, it will alert all students to the issue's significance.

Specifically, white students on campus respond with fleeting concern to this crucial matter facing black students. As whites do not directly suffer from these racist remarks, the predicament remains distant to them. President Spanier, I plead that, as the leader of this community, you vocally denounce campus racism in order that the entire Penn State body may recognize the importance of, and your commitment to, this issue.

Lastly, you must reiterate your genuine concern by hearing, face-to-face, the burning cries of those students seeking institutionalized change.