More than 100 students and professors participated in a forum on minority issues at the first annual W.E.B. DuBois Colloquium on Saturday.

Organized by a group of minority students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), the conference saw a series of paper presentations by students in department ranging from English and American Literature to Philosophy.

Scheduled to coincide with Black History Month, the four-hour symposium presented an opportunity for minority GSAS students to meet.

"We're trying to develop a sense of community and cohesion because minority graduate students are particularly alienated from the mainstream of undergraduate life." said Sherce Queen, a fifth-year graduate student and assistant head tutor in the Government Department.

Although graduate students held some annual social events for minorities. "There is no setting for serious dialogue on issues of concern to Blacks," said first-year Government student Michael Dawson of the original impetus for the project.

Keynote speaker Orlando Patterson, professor of Sociology, stressed the importance of tying the academic treatment of Black history with current dilemmas which Black Americans face.

"In attempting to undo the past, Black Americans have come close to undoing the significance and relevance of slavery," he said in a speech which summarized the argument in his award-winning book, Slavery and Social Death.

"That has reinforced complacency concerning the particular and peculiar plight of Black America today," he added.