City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries and his bodyguards have left Sanders Theatre. The protesters, shivering in the cold Wednesday night, have gathered their signs and gone inside.

But the tensions that the Jeffries event spawned remain.

Throughout the week, leaders of various student groups have been careful not to criticize the Black Students Association (BSA) or its decision to invite the controversial Jeffries.

Again and again, student leader after student leader emphasized that BSA had the right to invite anyone they wanted to the campus.

And rally organizers were careful to point out that they were protesting against Jeffries and his views, not against BSA.

But behind the conciliatory talk, it is clear that the event has damaged ties between BSA and other minority organizations.

Shai A. Held '94, chair of the Hillel coordinating council and organizer of the protest, acknowledges that relations between the groups have been "hurt."

"We have said many times that the protest was not of the BSA...That is not to say we are not disappointed," says Held.

Linda L. Wei '92, president of the Asian Americans Association, says she was surprised by BSA's decision to invite Jeffries--who has been condemned as a racist, an anti-Semite and a homophobe.

"I don't think it was a good thing. It took us all by surprise," she says.

But both Held and Wei hold hope for the future.

"There's a relationship that began to develop before the invitation was tendered...There's a wound, but not a break," Held says.

"I don't think any group is not willing to forgive," says Wei. "We want to talk about it certainly. We probably want to prevent it from happening again."

Wei says that it is important for students not to "point fingers" and to make sure the dialogue continues.

"I think that any time a controversial speaker like Leonard Jeffries comes to speak there's a risk of fragmenting the community," said Nicholas C. Wienstock '91-'92, co-chair of Actively Working Against Racism and Ethnocentrism.