Agreement reached at racially torn Penn State

Penn State Black Caucus spokeswoman Assata Richards, center, leads a crowd in prayer     ON THE NEWS Martin Savidge: Racial tension at Penn State

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Protesting students reached an agreement with Penn State University President Graham Spanier on a "plan to enhance diversity" at the school, where black students have a reported receiving scores of racist and threatening letters and e-mails in recent weeks.

The agreement, signed about 6 p.m. EDT, commits the university to establishing an Africana Studies Research Center and increasing the number of full-time tenured black faculty members to 10 by 2003. Currently, there are four.

A black vice provost will also be added to the president's council, which makes key policy decisions.

Some 300 to 500 black students have been camped out for a week inside the student center, known as the HUB, demanding protection amid scores of threatening letters and e-mails received over the past week. Some students complain they are unable to go home because their personal information was made public in a newspaper last week.

VIDEO CNN's Martin Savidge talks about the controversy and the agreement (May 3) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     RESOURCES Penn State diversity plan (from Penn State)     MESSAGE BOARD Share your throughts on the state of race relations

Tuesday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher asked the head of his criminal investigations section, David Kwait, to begin working with the FBI to track threats against the students. The appointment came after members of the Legislative Black Caucus asked Fisher to expand his involvement in investigating the threats.

The students also demanded more diversification programs at the university, where minorities make up 4 percent of the school's 41,000 students. Penn State announced last week it will add faculty to the African and African-American Studies Department and put $1 million toward the Africana center.

LaKeisha Wolf, president of the school's student black caucus, pressed the issue of increasing diversity but said safety must be taken care of first. She said she hasn't left the student center in nearly a week.

"I've heard a lot about students actually being threatened walking down the street -- black students," she said. "There's actually a lot of flyers that have been posted on campus with a lot of derogatory statements about black students."

Supporters of the Penn State Black Caucus gather inside the Hetzel Union Building on the campus

Wolf, a 21-year-old senior, said she has been threatened four times and now has around-the-clock protection while the FBI investigates those threats. She said she wears a bulletproof vest out of fear for her life.

Wolf accused officials of not reacting strongly enough to a threat to bomb graduation ceremonies at the end of next week.

"Police have only agreed to do a bomb sweep, but they said that they're not going to have metal detectors, pat people down," she told CNN.

Asbury confirmed that police are planning a bomb sweep at each of the university's dozen graduation ceremonies, which are planned over three days next week. The sweeps will cover the inside and outside areas of two buildings where most of the ceremonies will be held, he said.

Terrel Jones, the university's vice provost for educational equity, said school officials are disturbed by the threats and have done all they can to provide security. But he disagreed with the manner of the student protest, saying demonstrators have valid points but are expressing them in the wrong way.

"I am in complete agreement with their assessment of the university and what we need to do ... to make progress," he said. "I think I disagree with their tactics."

The situation brought hundreds of Penn State students to a packed town hall meeting on race relations Tuesday night, with black leaders saying they feared for their lives. Some accused the university of covering up the issue.

Rodney Erickson, Penn State executive vice president, left, and Terrell Jones, vice provost for education equity, leave after a meeting with the Black Caucus

African-American students have been on edge in recent days after the body of a black man was found about 20 miles from campus. A death threat to a black student leader last week said a black man had been killed. However, the body that was found was in a different location from the one mentioned in the letter.

Police said there was no connection between the death and the campus death threat.

Though this is not the first time racist threats have been made against students, Wolf said, the recent incidents are alarming in intensity and timing.

"This is the first time that I personally have ever seen something like this, having a whole lot of people getting these death-threatening letters at the same time," she said.

In November 1999, more than 60 Penn State students received racist e-mail messages. The messages were traced to a site about 200 miles from campus.

Wolf said death threats have been sent to many black students who were "in the spotlight" over the course of the school year, including those featured in the newspaper or members of the school's football team.

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