It's an April afternoon and Ed Smith sits in a chair on the third floor of the HUB-Robeson Center ready to talk about an experience that he says is all too common for minority students at Penn State.

Smith, the Black Caucus president, said it is a story he's told a lot lately but not necessarily a story that is being heard -- especially, he says, by the ears of administrators.

It's a story of hate regarding racial slurs, death threats and homophobic remarks that Smith said were yelled at him from a Beaver Hall window.

Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said administrators are willing to meet with Black Caucus leaders to discuss any issues, but they don't feel that a meeting with Penn State President Graham Spanier is necessary.

Between town hall meetings, press conferences, a rally, petitions and visits to Old Main, campus climate is an issue that Black Caucus members have become increasingly more visible and vocal about this semester.

These incidents have shown that acts of intolerance at Penn State are more than skin deep.

And as the fourth anniversary of The Village approaches, the question of campus climate and where Penn State stands still occupies the minds of many students.

The Village was the name given to the student occupation of the HUB in 2001. Protesters camped inside the HUB for over 48 hours while black student leaders held negotiations with administrators to take up death threats and hate mail received by athletes, parents of athletes and black leaders, including then-Black Caucus president, LaKeisha Wolf.

In 2005, Penn State community members report that race relations, gender equity and lesbian and gay issues are still of concern at Penn State.

Smith said he was walking home one Thursday in February around midnight when he heard racial slurs, homophobic remarks and death threats shouted from Beaver Hall.

"I'm gonna kill you f-----," Smith said the man yelled.

"I'm gonna kill you, n-----. I'm gonna lynch you, n-----. I'm gonna drag your ass into the mountains and beat the skin off your ass."

According to Penn State University Police Supervisor Dwight Smith, the case is still open, but investigators have no new leads at this time. Residents of the rooms identified by Ed Smith and others have been interviewed, but Dwight Smith said investigators were not able to positively "pinpoint" the perpetrator in order to file charges.

Some say that hate-related acts such as these are common and often go unreported.

Natasha Brooks (senior-food science) said two weeks ago someone yelled "n-----" at her from a car while she was walking with a friend down College Avenue. She did not report the incident.

"For the most part I feel pretty safe here," Brooks said. "But it does happen and that's why I think Black Caucus gets so upset. I mean, because you're just walking, minding your own business and you get 'n-----' yelled at you. It's really not that random if it just happened to us two weeks ago and in Pollock [Halls]."

She added that she thinks the racial climate could be improved.

"I think it's better then it was before, but we have a lot to move forward with," she said.

Brooks said she and her friend did not report the incident because they did not know who the people were in the car and they did not have time to write down information about the car.

"I can only speak for myself, but a lot of times you don't think anything is going to be done anyway," she said. "And unfortunately, this isn't the first time this has happened. I think when things like this have always happened to you, you kinda just brush it off."

Peggy Lorah, director of the center for women students, said this is a common response among victims of crime.

"I'm never surprised when victims don't report something," she said. "Because in response people will often say, 'We don't do things like that here,' or the converse of that is, 'It happens to everyone, so what's the big deal?' Victims expect what will happen to them will be minimized."

According to the university's Bias Motivated Incidents Report, there were 37 reported acts of intolerance at Penn State campuses during the summer and fall of 2004. The majority of the acts were not physical assaults, but were reports of intolerant behavior.

Most of the hate crimes were reported by Caucasians and by men.

"We've had cases of all sorts," said Denise Hinds-Zaami, Penn State's diversity advocate and a multicultural counselor. "Recently I had it reported to me that two Muslim women were interrogated about themselves when they went into a store."

Hinds-Zaami has been in her position for about 10 months, and she responds to reported incidents of hate, harassment, bias and intolerance. Hate crimes are violent acts committed against a person or group motivated by differences such as race, sexual orientation, gender or any other perceived difference which is not easily altered.

She said she has been made aware of many stories including those of a Jewish woman who had a swastika drawn on the dry erase board posted on her door and a young African-American man who had the word "n-----" written in red paint on his door.

And there are always more, she adds.

"All these things cause people to be frustrated and ask, 'Why do I have to deal with this here?' " she said. "And I say, 'You're right, you shouldn't.' "

But is there a campus climate problem, and is Penn State addressing it?

"It's a relative thing most of the time," said Luke Adams, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) vice president. "If you talk to someone who's been here four or five years they'll tell you we've made some steps. But if you ask someone who's been here just this year, things don't look so good."

Vice Provost for Educational Equity Terrell Jones said Penn State has changed dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years, but a lot of what administrators and students grapple with in terms of climate issues is due in large part to the communities students come from.

"We don't put anything in the water to make people bigots here," he said. "We're talking about people who have come from environments where there's very little diversity and where we've in many ways, we as a society, have lost our resolve to do anything about that."

Vice President of Student Affairs Vicky Triponey said she is the first to admit Penn State still has problems with the racial climate.

"Clearly we're not perfect," she said. "But I think Penn State is ahead of the curve."

Triponey said between various commissions and task forces on diversity, centers such as the LGBTA Student Resource Center and through the work of the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity, Penn State has demonstrated its commitment to improving campus climate.

According to The Daily Collegian archives, the Office of Educational Equity was restructured in 2001 as a result of the Village protest and Black Caucus student leader negotiations with the Penn State administration.

Another improvement Triponey cited was Student Affairs' change in the allocation of its stipends to student groups. Starting next semester, any student leader of a registered group will be able to apply for an award of $1,000. Student leaders will be selected through an application process that will take into consideration issues such as time commitment and financial need.

"I think we have to have a fair and equitable way to divvy up this money," Triponey said. "I don't think it's fair that this should be hooked onto any specific position."

Triponey added that she has created the cabinet of student leaders, which consists of 21 representatives from student groups and includes representatives from groups such as Black Caucus, Latino Caucus and Allies. The cabinet meets monthly to discuss the groups' concerns. "Nobody can do this alone," she said. "It really needs to be a community improvement."