A racial slur in the April Fool's Day edition of Carnegie Mellon University's student newspaper was intended to be funny. But to African-American students planning a demonstration against the paper today, it was simply offensive.

Christopher Howard, a CMU junior majoring in chemical engineering and the vice president of the campus African-American awareness group Spirit, said yesterday he knows people still use the "n" word. He was surprised, though, to see it printed in The Tartan, CMU's student newspaper.

"For them to put that kind of thing in print seemed really unnecessary to us," said Howard, who planned the demonstration and alerted members of his historically black fraternity, as well as student members of Spirit and of the National Society of Black Engineers. "Those things have to go through editors -- it's not like it just popped up in there."

The demonstration will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the painted fence on CMU's campus.

Yesterday, the Tartan's editor, Alexander Meseguer, issued an apology on the newspaper's Web site for a comic strip. It appeared Thursday in The Tartan's annual April Fool's Day edition, called the Natrat.

In the comic strip, one person says to another, "I hit a n--- today." The companion replies, "Just one?"

The comic strip was signed by Edwin Hazelton, but that was a fake name. The paper has not named the cartoonist.

"In it, a comic was published which referred to African-Americans in a derogatory and insulting way," according to the statement. "The Tartan finds this incident deplorable and in no way does it represent the official opinion of the Tartan's staff."

Later, Meseguer said he was busy working on the front page and front section of the April Fool's Day edition when deadline rolled around at 5 a.m. Thursday. He should have seen the the comic strip before it went to print, but did not, he said.

Managing Editor Jim Puls signed off on the strip, but only because he was tired and under intense deadline pressure, Meseguer said.

"It was late at night and basically our judgment was impaired because it was a late night and we were delirious, basically," said Meseguer, who plans to attend today's demonstration to answer questions about the slur. "It's not an excuse, but we're trying to do anything we can to prevent this from happening again."

The Tartan's editors are reviewing what happened to see if they need to change operating procedures to prevent similar mistakes. Meanwhile, he said, a team of 12 reporters and editors combed the campus yesterday to collect what remained of the 6,000 copies of the April Fool's Day edition.

University officials are still trying to decide what, if any, punishment should be meted out over the slur, which is "deplorable and very upsetting," said Michael Murphy, CMU's dean of student affairs.

Although people have the right to say and print offensive statements, such actions have consequences, he said.

"At some level, we do all have the right to do and say offensive things, but we also have a responsibility," Murphy said. "Within this community, we take that responsibility very seriously."