The University of Colorado senior spent the evening saying goodbye to friends before leaving for a summer internship in Wisconsin. As he walked a friend home near campus, a van pulled up and a man began shouting racial slurs at Sterling, whose father is black and mother is white. Sterling yelled back.

Sterling says he was willing to let the incident go, but the man punched him in the face. When the 22-year-old woke moments later on the concrete, his jaw was broken, his attacker gone.

The state's flagship school has been under intense scrutiny for more than a year and a half and for all the wrong reasons -- allegations of misconduct involving the football team, an ethnic studies professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to Nazis and sharply rising tuition amid state budget cutbacks.

But there has also been a rash of racially tinged incidents, leaving minority students outraged by what they say is the inaction of administrators. Some have taken it upon themselves to improve race relations and diversity on a campus that is overwhelmingly white.

"We're not only students, we have to be social activists, we have to be mentors," said Israel Garcia, a 20-year-old sociology and political science major.

Minority students make up fewer than 15 percent of CU's more than 29,000 students. Six percent of students this fall were listed as Hispanic or Latino, 6 percent were Asian, fewer than 2 percent -- 457 -- were black, and just 226 were American Indian.

By comparison, Colorado residents who say they are Hispanic or Latino make up about 19 percent of the population, according to the 2004 American Community Survey, while blacks make up 4 percent. The survey did not include group quarters, including college dormitories.

The problems began cropping up in February, during the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Affairs, when thousands of minority visitors were on campus. Students reported racist remarks, staring and poor service at an area restaurant.

"It definitely put CU in a bad light among other universities," said Nicole Houston, a senior who helped plan the event. "They had no idea that coming to the university would be leaving a piece of their pride here as well."

Last semester, campus police received five complaints of racist incidents on campus, the most serious of which was a fight in a classroom when a white student referred to a black student with a racial slur, Lt. Tim McGraw said.

A report by CU's Department of Housing and Dining Services found 10 bias-motivated incidents involving race or ethnicity in dormitories between August 2004 and February, including graffiti and name calling.

A number of minority students said school officials have not adequately addressed the incidents, despite assurances that diversity is important.

"I would like to think that's true, but where is the actual action?" sophomore Armando Ruiz Alvarez asked as he sat in the office of CU's United Mexican American Students organization. "If they bring more people of color, they're going to have to put more effort toward it, put more money toward it."

Ron Stump, the vice chancellor for student affairs on the Boulder campus, said the school needs more minority students. But he said high schools must prepare and graduate more of those students.

Stump said the school works with high schools and middle schools in Denver to recruit minority students. He also pointed to steps the university has taken to improve the climate for minorities, including training resident hall advisers and staff on diversity issues and setting up a committee to track the concerns of minority students.

The university also is creating a course for incoming freshman that would include discussions on topics such as diversity issues, alcohol use and violence against women.

"We want to deal with those somewhat common problems on any campus, but talk about them in the context of the University of Colorado at Boulder," Stump said.

Students, meanwhile, have taken it upon themselves to address racial harmony. The Student Outreach and Retention Center for Equity opened more than a year ago with the goal of recruiting and retaining nontraditional students, including minorities, gays and the poor.

Garcia recently created the Shoulder2Shoulder campaign -- named after a line in the school's fight song -- after several racial incidents. The group has held rallies against racism, sexism and homophobia, and it has met several times with administrators and the Boulder City Council to discuss problems.

"We just wanted to make sure that whoever these individuals are that keep committing these types of acts we want to make sure that they know there are students, fellow peers, who do not agree with that behavior," Garcia said.

The recent athletics scandal in which the university was accused of using booze, drugs and sex to attract football recruits included allegations of racism. An independent panel concluded university officials did not knowingly sanction any misbehavior, but said the school sorely lacked black students and should address the disparity.

Attorney Nancy Holton represented one of two football players cleared of sexual assault allegations last year. She said police targeted her client because he is black in a "homogenous" town; last year, almost 16 percent of all black students on campus were athletes.

Christine Yosinaga Itano, vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity at CU, said the university has an aggressive program to recruit and retain minorities.

"It's an unfortunate thing that racial issues have been pooled into this thing because it takes away from the underlying issues," Itano said. "They have to do with athletics, the role of women, abuse of alcohol, respect for women in athletics and that cuts across all ethnic groups."

"I think there are factors involved in all this that can't be explained by just race alone," he said. "I would be the first to say that in campuses in general, there needs to be a commitment to diversity."

New University of Colorado President Hank Brown has made diversity a focus of his early tenure. After taking over Aug. 1, he announced a plan to expand the reporting and evaluation of diversity issues and programs, and to create a commission to examine the topic on each of CU's campuses.

"It's a critical part of our program to make sure that the university is a welcoming environment for all ethnic groups and for people of all viewpoints," Brown said.

"I personally love CU, and it's been a great experience," he said. "It's frustrating because I understand why students want to leave, but I wish they wouldn't, because they make it so much harder for the rest of us.

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