Yet Gross concluded that students today, as opposed to those active during his years at the College, are making tangible gains. After hearing from the two undergraduate panelists about public service work underway in the immediate community, from the annual Take Back the Night rally to Project Health, Gross concluded that students are actually changing the world around them.

In the course of sharing their experiences as campus activists, the panelists discovered a striking difference in the concentration choices of today's student activists and their predecessors of 20 to 30 years ago.

Gross pointed out that the radical departments in his undergraduate years were mathematics and philosophy.

Redmond said she has found that most of her activist peers are social studies concentrators. The sociology and women's studies departments also attract a disproportionate number of activists, according to the panel.

Undergraduate attendees of the dinner said they appreciated the opportunity to mingle with students and alumni with similar interests.

"Just the e-mail addresses you get out of something like this make it worth it and give you ideas for the future," said Joelle G. Novey '01.

Jonathan T. Jacoby '99, a student member of the Standing Committee and one of the event's organizers, said he was impressed by the turn-out.

"I think it's wonderful that students and faculty can engage in an informal dialogue that responds to relevant issues," Jacoby said.