Unfortunately, racism is still rearing its ugly head today, as we have seen on campus this past school year.

Fortunately, though, a new committee is being created to combat this problem: the All-University Diversity Task Force.

The task force will be made up of students, officials and community leaders and will meet four times a year to help bring diverse groups together and create discussion leading toward action that will ease tensions on campus concerning race-related problems.

Hopefully, when this committee is put together, it can help heal the wounds left from incidents such as the racist flier in Shaw Hall and the mannequin head debacle. But, more importantly, this group can create awareness and promote healthy discussion about diversity and stop events like those from occurring again.

It's always good to have a group of your peers act as a median between two separate parties, such as alleged violators and prosecutors. The task force will hopefully be able to ease some tension and act as a mediator when hot topics arise on campus.

The big issue here though is the sad fact that we still need to create committees roughly 40 years after the civil rights movement. How long is it going to take students to realize the world, and especially this campus, is a very diverse place and there is no room for racism?

Let's just hope this committee functions well when put into action, and isn't just a short-term solution, like some committees end up being. Too often, committees are formed and never really find their bearing as they tread water for a few weeks before being completely drowned out. On a campus as large as MSU's, many groups are formed but few are able to have as great an impact as they had hoped.

We hope in the end, whether sooner or later, this task force will not only succeed in combating racism, but also in ending it.