When allegations surfaced last September that two white students had urinated on two Korean students in a racially motivated incident, most of the campus was shocked.

Many students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, though, were not surprised. At a conference about hate crimes against the Asian community on Friday, students said more subtle acts of discrimination are commonplace on campus.

Stephanie Kao, co-chair of United Asian American Organizations, recalled a birthday celebration marred by a hurtful joke taken too far.

"We were painting the Rock (at Washtenaw and Hill) for someone's birthday, and then some people threw eggs at us," Kao said.

Although racial slurs were not involved, Kao said the assailants targeted her group because they were all Asian.

Although the incident in September produced an outcry from local and national media and University administrators, the campus climate has remained the same.

"I think people are more sensitive now, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that people are friendly toward Asians," Kao said.

At a November rally held in response to the urination incident, Vice President for Student Affairs E. Royster Harper said that the administration will soon create a centralized hotline for students to report hate crimes. The number will allow University officials to monitor the severity and frequency of hate crimes on campus and build educational programs to help change the "cold" climate on campus, Harper said.

But the hotline is still not operational.

Students don't know how to react to racial discrimination or where to report it, Kao said.

APIA Change, a student group intended to improve the campus's social climate, set up an e-mail list for people to report hate crimes. In the four months since the alleged incident, though, the e-mail list has only received about 20 e-mails - far below the number of incidents that really happen, Kao said.

The stereotype of a studious Asian leads people to believe the group won't defend itself, said Khin Mai Aung, an attorney from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Thieves target Asian students because they think they are less likely to report the crime than other groups, Aung said at a hate-crime workshop held at the Law School on Friday.

Amy Stillman, chair of the University's American Culture program, said people in positions of authority have a dismissive attitude toward hate crimes that discourages Asian victims from speaking up.

"Sometimes you have a situation that students want to report to the authority, but (they) get the response that it's insignificant and they're misunderstanding," Stillman said.

Stillman reiterated the importance of reporting hate crimes.

"The more we hear about, the more we can statistically quantify," she said.

Stillman said that she and a few other professors are reevaluating whether the University's Race and Ethnicity course requirement has accomplished its goal of raising awareness of discrimination.

Some courses are seen as an easy way to fulfill the requirement, she said.

She cited Introduction to Anthropology, in which about 700 students enroll each semester.

"I'm not saying it's a bad class," Stillman said. "But students are not taught about various kinds of discrimination in the way they are in ethnic studies courses."