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American Morning

Penn State Students Enter Ninth Day of Racism Protests

Aired May 02, 2001 - 09:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Fast-forwarding from that racially- motivated attack nearly 40 years ago to concerns about racial hatred today: African-American students at Penn State University say that they have been the targets of death threats.

CNN national correspondent Martin Savidge is live on the Penn State campus this morning. We go to him now for the very latest -- good morning, Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Leon.

The protests by several hundred students out of the total population of 41,000 students on the campus of Penn State University is now entering into its ninth straight day. The students have been sitting in by day and sleeping by night inside of the student center here on the university campus. Last night, they also held a candlelight vigil.

The protesters are upset and, in some cases, frightened by what they say is an atmosphere of racial hatred here at Penn State. A number of African-American students have received anonymous death threats. They claim the university is not doing enough to prevent the hatred, nor enough to encourage racial diversity on campus. The president of the university says if there is some racial intolerance, it didn't start here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM SPANIER, PRESIDENT, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY: I think we have racism in our society. It's all around us. It's in every community. And it plays out prominently on university campuses, I believe, because every year, at a place like Penn State, we have 14,000 new students who arrive on a campus like this. And we also have about 14,000 students who leave.

They bring with them biases and prejudices and experiences from their communities. And all of a sudden, an awful lot of people are together in a pretty enclosed environment here at the university.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Classes here at Penn State are scheduled to wrap up on Friday -- the student protesters inside the student union say they are willing to stay beyond that date unless their demands are met. Now, the NAACP has arrived here on campus. They organized a town meeting last night. They are trying to meet with university officials, hoping to come up with some resolution to this standoff. They are also asking for more security measures to be in place for graduation ceremonies that begin on May 11 -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Marty, first of all, do you have any idea about how many students may have been receiving these death threats? From what I've been reading this morning, it is a number of students -- in fact might even be one of the chancellors -- or one of the trustees, rather -- of the university also receiving one of these threats.

SAVIDGE: Well there have been a number of threats. And this is not something that just began within a matter of weeks. It is something that the students say has been ongoing for perhaps as long as two years. The head of the student black caucus, she has received as many as four death threats. And, in fact, the university has provided her with security and the FBI is investigating. They are taking this very seriously here, although some students believe not quite seriously enough -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much, Martin Savidge, reporting live this morning from the campus of Penn State University.

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