Over 700 delegates from 40 Massachusetts colleges will convene at 10 a.m. today in Sanders Theatre for the first Massachusetts College Democratic Convention.

By six o'clock this evening the delegates will have heard the nine Democratic candidates for governor and United States Senator and endorsed two for the state primaries on Sept. 6.

Paul Edelman, legislative assistant to Senator Robert Kennedy (D.N.Y.) '48, will deliver the keynote address on "The New Liberalism" at 10:30 a.m.

After lunch the Senatorial candidates--Thomas Boylston Adams, John Collins, Endicott Peabody '42. Robert Bidwell, and John Pierce Lynch -- will address the convention. The gubernatorial candidates -- Edward McCormack, Kenneth P. O'Donnell '49, Kevin White, and Maurice A. Donahue--will follow.

Balloting at the convention will be by school delegations, with the members of each casting individual votes, and will continue "until one candidate receives a majority or time runs out," according to Dennis Kanin '67, convention chairman.

Today's meeting will be "the first time Massachusetts college students have backed candidates before the primaries," Kanin said. He sees it as representing the "increasingly meaningful role" of college students in political activities.

The public will be admitted to the convention as observers for one dollar.