
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 22, 1991                   TAG: 9104220180
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

UVA STUDENTS DISCUSSING RACE ISSUES

Some law students at the University of Virginia think the best way to deal with complicated racial issues is to talk about them over dinner.

Groups of 10 law students - five black and five white - meet twice a month for dinner, sometimes drinks, and honest discussion of racial matters.

Some students and educators say personal conversations such as these might be the best way to deal with complicated issues that have raised tensions.

There has been debate this year at UVa over affirmative action and other matters, including a white law student's federal lawsuit to eliminate race-based scholarships, but it has remained fairly calm on the Charlottesville campus.

Theodore W. Small Jr., a black student from Florida, last year founded Students United to Promote Racial Awareness, which sponsors the dinner groups and discussions about things ranging from affirmative action to the television program "In Living Color."

Last year at UVa the atmosphere was tense after anti-black messages were painted on campus and white students called for the resignation of the first black person elected president of student council.

The mood seems to be changing, administrators say.

by CNB