"Diversity Dialogues," a campuswide discussion at Cornell University on diversity in America, is scheduled for April 18 through 30, with events both on campus and in downtown Ithaca.

The week-and-a-half series, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education, and Robert L. Harris Jr., vice provost for diversity and faculty development.

"The university administration has made diversity one of its top priorities," Kramnick said. "We want to encourage the discussion and celebration of racial, ethnic and gender diversity on campus and in America."

Harris noted that many students on the freshman survey for the class of 2005 expressed interest in learning more about race, racism and diversity in the United States. In addition, he said, many student leaders of color have suggested that incidents of bias have occurred on campus because of a lack of understanding and appreciation for different racial and ethnic groups.

"We are becoming an increasingly multicultural society with the greatest growth in the college-age population over the next dozen or so years coming from students of color," Harris said. "We need greater discussion about our similarities and differences, what binds us together as a nation and what also allows for expression of our ethnicity, gender, race, religion and sexuality. We have become a more pluralistic nation, indeed a more pluralistic global society, and our campus should reflect, without rancor or discord, the nation and world that our students will have to navigate in the future. We selected the time frame because it coincides with several events such as Gaypril and Asian American Heritage Week. We thought that it would be a good idea to have a sustained period of dialogue on diversity in America rather than a few discrete events."

A featured speaker will be Margaret Morgan Lawrence, a 1936 Cornell alumna and one of the few black students who attended the university before World War II. Lawrence became one of America's most distinguished and influential pediatric psychiatrists. She will speak April 22 at 4:30 p.m. in Goldwin Smith Hall D, on campus. Author of Young Inner City Families , her talk is titled, "My Life: Cornell and Afterwards."When Lawrence arrived at Cornell in the fall of 1932, she was the only black student in the College of Arts and Sciences. She was not permitted to live in the women's dormitory. The dean of students found her a room with a family on Hudson Street, where she worked as a servant to pay for her room and board, wearing a uniform and waiting on the dinner table. She ate separately in the kitchen. She also was responsible for the housecleaning, washing and ironing.

She received her medical degree and a master's degree in public health from Columbia University and her psychoanalytic training at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Institute. She has been awarded many honorary degrees and in 1992 received the Cornell Black Alumni Award.

Other events in the series include:

• Thursday, April 18 : Michael Jones-Correa, associate professor of government, Cornell; "All Politics Is Local: Latinos and the 2000 Elections," 4:30 p.m., Goldwin Smith D;
• Friday, April 19 : Matthew Frye Jacobson, professor of American studies, Yale University; "Hyphen Nation: The Politics of Diversity in a Nation of Immigrants," 4:30 p.m., McGraw Hall 165;
• Friday, April 19 : Loren Cameron, author of Body Alchemy: Transexual Portraits ; slide show and discussion of his work and life, 7:30 p.m., Women's Community Building, corner of Seneca and Cayuga streets;
• Wednesday, April 24 : Frank Wu, professor, Howard University Law School; "Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White," 7:30 p.m., Call Auditorium, Kennedy Hall;
• Tuesday, April 30 : Daniel Usner, professor of history and director of the American Indian Program, Cornell; "American Indians Encounter D.H. Lawrence in the Southwest," 4:30 p.m., Goldwin Smith D.