
DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 1997          TAG: 9711120479

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                        LENGTH:   61 lines

VA. TECH PRESIDENT ADMITS SCHOOL HAS RACISM PROBLEM

Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen has acknowledged a problem with campus racism and said the school will hire a vice president for minority affairs to deal with such matters.

``It saddens and discourages me more than I can tell you that there are those in this community who think that it is either humorous or acceptable to send a blatantly racist e-mail or to yell obscene names at other students or engage in deliberate cruelty,'' Torgersen said this week at a rare open forum on campus.

Torgersen's comments are related to several incidents. Six weeks ago, a student sent members of a campus fraternity an e-mail that characterized blacks as welfare recipients, thieves, and ``V.D. spreaders.''

White students reportedly have shouted racial epithets at blacks this fall, and anti-gay graffiti has been found on dormitory bathroom walls.

Those problems were aggravated recently when students in a history course discovered evidence that two prominent Virginia Tech graduates from a century ago were founding members of a Ku Klux Klan chapter at the school.

Claudius Lee, for whom a campus dorm is named, and O.M. Stull, who coined the school nickname ``Hokie,'' were listed as Klan members in the 1896 yearbook.

Speaking before more than 200 students and faculty members, Torgersen said racial problems are common across society, but they ``should not be tolerated, and I will do all that I can to see that they come to an end.''

Torgersen said the university would begin a national search for a vice president to deal with minority affairs, black faculty recruitment and other diversity issues. The Board of Visitors approved the new administrative position after a closed meeting Monday.

Torgersen's speech was greeted with applause, but some black students said creating a new title isn't enough.

``It sounds like a quick fix, like to bandage the problem,'' said Beverly Norton, a 21-year-old junior from Richmond. ``It's good for a step.''

Torgersen announced other steps, too, including appointing a committee to review university policies relating to ``demeaning'' behavior; putting campus climate issues back into freshman summer orientation programs; and seeking scholarship funds to support the university's requirement that beginning next year all students own a computer - a requirement that some blacks have charged will fall disproportionately hard on minorities.

About 4.5 percent of Tech's 25,000 students are black, and 2 percent of its faculty are black. About 41 percent of its students are women. MEMO: Ian Zack of The Roanoke Times contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic with color photo of Torgersen

RECENT INCIDENTS

Events that Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen responded to

at a campus forum:

A student sent members of a fraternity e-mail that contained

racist remarks against blacks.

White students reportedly have shouted racial epithets at black

students.

Anti-gay graffiti has been found in dorm bathrooms. KEYWORDS: RACISM