Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990                   TAG: 9006010128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CAMPUS ETHNIC ATTACKS ALL TOO COMMON, GROUP REPORTS

The attacks, ranging from verbal slurs to physical assaults, are directed at one in five minority students, officials of the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence said. Attacks on gay students appear to be even more frequent, the organization said.

"If we had an incidence of disease at 20 percent, the surgeon general would have declared a public health crisis," Howard J. Ehrlich, research director for the 5-year-old group, said during a news conference called to release a report on campus racism.

The report, "Campus Ethnoviolence and the Policy Options," said minority students at predominantly white campuses suffer almost constant pressures because of their ethnic backgrounds.

"For most students, there are times when the classroom atmosphere can be stressful. For the minority students, stress and discomfort may be an everyday occurrence," the 72-page report said.

Ehrlich said figures show that between 800,000 and 1 million students are victimized each year by ethnic violence. A quarter of those, he said, have been harassed on more than one occasion.

The institute's report was released a day after the American Association of State Colleges and Universities unveiled a new book designed to help college administrators combat campus racism.

That publication, "The Lurking Evil: Racial and Ethnic Conflict on the College Campus," contains 16 articles - most of them written by college administrators - that describe problems with campus racism and offer suggestions for dealing with them.

Ehrlich said while the percentage of bigots on college campuses doesn't appear to have increased, "numerically we have more people committing more acts."