Amherst Adopts Plan To Fight Racial Tension

Students and administrators at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, agreed Saturday to a minority representation plan aimed at combatting racial tensions that have plagued the campus for years.

The agreement, arrived at after three weeks of federally mediated negotiations between school officials and minority students, proposes reforms in campus security and faculty hiring.

Its provisions largely follow those suggested by a report, officially released today, by the Massachusetts Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The report advises the state's largest public university to develop plans to provide more scholarship opportunities for minority students, to establish a more culturally diverse curriculum, and to encourage students to report incidents of racial harassment.

Both administrators and minority students spoke favorably of the document yesterday, saying that it exposed a number of racial problems at the school.

"I am very satisfied with the document," said Penny Cameron, a member of the Black Student Union who participated in the talks. "There is a concrete basis for improvement here."

Cameron said the document's comprehensive nature surprised her.

"It's really quite lengthy," she said. "Once we had a chance to talk, I thought we had a chance to work this out.

Among the plan's specific goals are the achievement of a 20 percent minority admissions rate by 1995, an increase in the number of minority staff and faculty to 20 percent by 1995, and the establishment of 40 new minority scholarships.