Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310124
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"Tradition and Diversity: Living in a Multicultural Society" will be held from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday in the Brush Mountain Room at Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center.
"It's going to be interesting, I can promise you that," said the YMCA's director, Barbara Michelson.
The morning session of the workshop will include a panel discussion featuring representatives of various points of view on the debate.
After lunch, the seminar will break into small groups for role-playing exercise designed to help ease the conflicts.
Bob Stuart, a volunteer for the YMCA, will serve as a moderator for one of the small groups.
"Of course we won't solve this issue in an hour and a half, but we hope the participants will have some insight on how this complex problem can be solved," he said.
Michelson said the gathering is part of the YMCA's annual Gold Triangle Forum.
"We did a similar program last year, but this year we wanted to broaden its scope," she said.
She expects about 70 people to attend the seminar which is free to the public.
The issue of whether to include references to Easter and Christmas on the school calendar has caused quite a stir in Montgomery County in the past few months.
In December, about 300 county residents crowded into a Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting to protest after discovering belatedly that the School Board had changed the names of the "Christmas" and "Easter" holidays to "winter break" and "spring break."
School Board Chairman Daniel Schneck resigned after the supervisors, who have no direct control over school policy, unanimously passed a resolution in support of the religious designations for the school holidays.
by CNB