Campus ethnic leaders report that the healing process is well under way in the wake of the widespread campus outcry over The California Aggie's handling of issues of diversity on its news pages. At a noon open-mike gathering on the Quad last Friday, peace was made between the student managers of the Aggie and leaders of the campus cross-cultural community. In addition, the Aggie staff has embraced a training program on diversity issues, which began last week with a four-hour session on journalism ethics headlined by Sacramento Bee executive Editor Rick Rodriguez. "I applaud the Aggie for making changes," Winnie LaNier, director of the Cross-Cultural Center, said before the noontime gathering of both Aggie staff members and representatives of the campus minority community. "You all have instituted a change that won't die when you graduate. "You should all be proud of joining together. We have just begun to make a significant difference," LaNier said to the applause of both the Aggie staff and diversity activists. Students were also congratulated on their efforts at cooperation by Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Carol Wall, Assistant Vice Chancellor Yvonne Marsh and Media Board Chair Larry Swanson. Students from Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Azatlan and the Progressive Student Coalition publicly welcomed incoming Aggie Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Emmerich, who served this year as managing editor, and said they look forward to working together to boost multicultural representation within the pages of the Aggie. Emmerich has stated that she intends to work to include more voices in the Aggie, and to tap the expertise on the Campus Media Board to help diversify the staff and coverage. The media board plans to meet every Friday afternoon through the summer to set new goals and establish a timeline for action on suggestions from Vice Chancellor Wall. By July 1, the board hopes to develop an inclusive mission statement to guide the Aggie. A professional-development program for all campus media staff is expected to be in place by Aug. 1, board chair Swanson said. About 25 members of the current and future Aggie news staff took part in a discussion on diversity with Bee editor Rodriguez, the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic journalist and a noted expert on journalism ethics and race issues. Rodriguez stressed that freedom of the press also carries a responsibility to be sensitive to the community in which any form of media operates. "To say that the First Amendment allows you to publish anything is to abuse it," Rodriguez said. "That's a naïve interpretation of free speech, and I think it's wrong. Part of the responsibility of the press is to be responsive to the whole community. Our responsibility at The Sacramento Bee is to bring the community together." Rodriguez discussed several incidents in which the Bee published material offensive to minority communities, which, in turn, picketed and boycotted the newspaper. Resentment still lingers among some members of ethnic communities because of these incidents, he said. Rodriguez explained that he, and the Bee staff, had learned from those mistakes and, in some cases, had changed policies. And he urged the Aggie staff to do the same as the result of the episodes this spring. "We published one picture that showed innocent children, one black and one white, playing together. But the words we used to describe the picture were wrong; they obliterated the message of the picture," he recounted. "That was seven or more years ago, but people still remember. That anger is still there." He told the students that if they need to take a stand, they must also ask, "Is this fair?" And he urged them to balance good journalism with community responsibility. "You need to think about the words, the pictures, the cartoons and ask yourselves whether the message is getting through. Ask yourselves, 'Did I do this right?' That is part of the soul of a journalist, to question everything you do."