N.C. State officials plan some modest changes to the campus Free Expression Tunnel - as well as some greater efforts to educate students on racial issues - following the November discovery of racist writings on the tunnel wall.

As the News & Observer's Jay Price reports today, NCSU Chancellor James Oblinger has accepted all of a task force's recommendations to improve the campus culture.

The incident, in which writings threatening then presidential candidate Barack Obama were discovered, prompted the university system to consider a policy on hate crimes for all public university campuses.

A UNC system task force will recommend that all public universities follow a single policy related to hate crimes.

But the task force, formed following the November discovery of racist threats to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama inside N.C. State’s Free Expression Tunnel, has stopped short of recommending mandatory diversity training for new public university students.

The group was asked to consider both a systemwide hate crimes policy and the need for mandatory diversity training. It is recommending the systemwide policy to UNC President Erskine Bowles but wants a new task force to continue exploring the need for diversity training.

A systemwide policy detailing unacceptable behavior would both force campuses to standardize their codes of conduct and send a message to students about what is acceptable behavior, said Harold Martin, a UNC system vice president who chaired the task force. The more detailed the policy is, the more power a campus has to punish bad behavior, Martin said.

“It heightens the level of visibility and importance of student codes of conduct,” Martin said. “It will force the campuses to be clearer about codes of conduct and allow them to punish students who violate it.”

The policy would include a broad statement about the university's commitment to diveristy and multiculturalism as well as more detailed information prohibiting, for example, the infliction or threat of bodily harm, and harassment.

Task force members prefer that a new policy not specifically use the phrase "hate crimes," saying it should have a broader reach.

A public forum in January revealed strong opinions on both sides of the issue. Proponents of a new policy said it would ease tensions on campuses. Opponents feared an infringement on freedom of speech and expression, with some saying it appeared an overreaction to a single incident.

Several UNC system campuses offer diversity training during freshman orientation, but none mandate it. The task force was asked simply to consider whether students should receive such training; its members concluded that a new commission should look at the issue more broadly, taking faculty and staff into account as well.

“It can’t just center on students; it must also focus on employees,” said Tracy Wright, a task force member and administrator at Appalachian State University. “You can’t just attack one piece of the puzzle and think everything will be alright.”

The task force’s final report is due to Bowles March 31.

Jon Sanders, writing in the Carolina Journal, has some choice words today for the UNC system and the very wordy commission it formed after some ugly graffitti threatening President-Elect Barack Obama appeared on the walls of N.C. State's Free Expression Tunnel.

A quick review: The UNC system has created the "UNC Study Commission to Review Student Codes of Conduct as They Relate to Hate Crimes." Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

The commission is tasked with determining whether A) the state's universities should adhere to a single policy related to hate crimes and B) whether all new public university students should go through mandatory diversity training.

Earlier this week, the commission held a public forum. More on that here.

Six of seven speakers at a public forum Thursday urged a UNC system commission to create a hate crimes policy and mandate diversity training for students at the state's public universities.

Several said a specific university-wide policy on hate crimes would make the college experience more comfortable for students who, by virtue of their race, religion or sexual orientation, have been subject to abusive comment from their fellow students.

Others said mandatory diversity training would help establish a behavioral baseline for students and make clear that some things are not acceptable. One student emphasized that students long remember their interactions with other students far longer than, for example, they remember what they learned in some generic freshman class.

Last month, four N.C. State students decorated the free expression tunnel on their campus with bigoted messages threatening President-Elect Barack Obama.

The feds and local police investigated but found no reason to charge the students with a crime. But it got campus and UNC system administrators thinking about policy.

Now, the university system has convened a group to take a close look at whether there should be a single policy laying out minimum standards related to hate crimes.

 The group met for the first time Wednesday and got a primer on Constitutional law. Members learned that there are no simple answers, since most free speech and expression is protected under the First Amendment.

The group expects to hold at least one open forum to solicit comments from the public on this issue. In addition, you can email your thoughts to study_commission@northcarolina.edu.

For the record, the task force goes by this full, jazzy name: UNC Study Commission to Review Student Codes of Conduct s They Relate To Hate Crimes. 

You may have read about the controversial graffiti over at N.C. State this week that spurred some members of the campus community to action.

Turns out something similar happened at another college campus as well. At Purdue University in Indiana, racist graffiti disparaging president-elect Barack Obama was found on campus. 

At N.C. State University, racist graffiti popped up following Barack Obama's big win Tuesday on the walls of the Free Expression Tunnel, a campus area inviting all manner of message and graffiti.

As the News & Observer's Josh Shaffer reports, racist messages had been written early Wednesday but were quickly covered in white paint and new messages condemning hate speech.

Campus police are investigating. Is that an overreaction? Jon Sanders of the John Locke Foundation believes it is. He wonders how it is that, at the free expression tunnel, some expression isn't all that free.

UPDATE: An update Thursday afternoon - four culprits won't be charged, police say.