Chavez-Thompson to Address Law Conference

Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, will come to Harvard Law School to discuss issues faced by women of color as part of a March 1 conference sponsored by the Women of Color Collective (WCC).

The second annual spring conference, titled "Perspectives: Women of Color and Social Change," will feature eight panel discussions led by women professionals, including Norma Cantu, assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, and Rutgers Law School Professor Dorothy Roberts.

In the evening after the discussions, the conference will host an arts program.

"Last year we had an amazing array of cultural activities," said one of the conference's organizers, third-year law student Tracy-Elizabeth Clay. "It was very emotional--we ended up hugging and crying."

The first conference last spring was a huge success, Clay said, attracting more than 105 participants from as far away as Colorado, Arizona and Michigan.

Third-year law student Hannah L. Kilson, another organizer of the conference, said the last conference drew nationwide attention.

Third-year law student Carla A. Halpern attended the conference last year.

"It was a phenomenal success, considering the amount of resources they had and the number of people organizing the event," she said.

This year's conference is only the second major event organized by the WCC, a group originally created to provide support for women of color at the HLS, Kilson said.

In recent years, continuing lack of diversity in both the faculty and the student body prompted the group to step up its activities, said Kilson.

Clay said her goal this year is to get more HLS students to attend. Students and professionals arrived from all over the nation, but the HLS attendance was surprisingly low last year, Clay said.

She cited lack of publicity around the University as a possible cause for low attendance.

"We got blasted last year for not telling Harvard about the conference. So this year we want to spread the word to everyone who might be interested," Clay said.

Kilson said she believed that publicity was adequate, and low HLS attendance was a result of student apathy.

"The Law School student body is just not a group of raging activists. It's hard to get people to turn out for things," Kilson said.

For example, she said, only a small portion of the crowd at Angela Davis' recent appearance was from HLS.

"There's a certain irony in things like the five students from the University of Michigan--think of the distance from the campus, and then how few Harvard Law School students came from the dorms."

Kilson also said she remembers several HLS students who paid the registration fee as a gesture of support, knowing that they wouldn't attend the event.

"Harvard Law School students don't tend to go in large numbers to many events--it's just the nature of the student body.

Halpern said she is not a women of color, but believes that majority groups need to acknowledge minority issues. "It's disappointing that more men and white people don't take this issue seriously. Women of color shouldn't have the whole burden of making this issue known--others should take up the slack," she said.

But, Kilson continued, the organizers aren't concerned with getting every member of the Harvard Law School to attend. "If there are a lot of people from other institutions who might not otherwise come if it weren't Harvard, well, that's fine," she said

"Harvard Law School students don't tend to go in large numbers to many events--it's just the nature of the student body.

Halpern said she is not a women of color, but believes that majority groups need to acknowledge minority issues. "It's disappointing that more men and white people don't take this issue seriously. Women of color shouldn't have the whole burden of making this issue known--others should take up the slack," she said.

But, Kilson continued, the organizers aren't concerned with getting every member of the Harvard Law School to attend. "If there are a lot of people from other institutions who might not otherwise come if it weren't Harvard, well, that's fine," she said