Valentine?s Day is not only for sweet words this year, but also strong words on many important issues on race, gender and power in California and the Sacramento Valley. On Feb. 14, a Diversity Symposium will be held on campus, as well as a series of workshops from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free and open to the public, this symposium will be a dialogue driven discussion involving Sac State faculty, guest speakers from other universities and the audience.

“This is not going to be a dry presentation of research,” said history professor Shirley Moore. “This will be an interactive, dialogue driven event.”

Moore wants to focus not only on the ethnic and racial interaction between the white communities, but hopes to explore the interaction between different ethnic cultures and racial communities.

The morning will start out in the University Union Redwood Room, from 9 a.m. to noon, with presentations about race gender and power in California from a number of scholars from different positions of expertise regarding diversity issues.

Some of the participants will be Albert Broussard of Texas A & M University, Maria Raquel Casas of UNLV, Douglas Daniels of UC Santa Barbara, and Patricia Nelson Limerick of University of Colorado, Boulder.

Sac State will be represented by Moore, as well as lecturer Wayne Maeda and history professors Joseph Pitti and Charles Roberts. Roberts is also a historian on Native American and Western Studies.

“Getting it together was difficult, but getting my colleagues together was easy,” Moore said. “I was overwhelmed by the amount of cooperation of my colleagues. They are terrific and I applaud all of them on that.”

From 12 to 1:15 p.m., there will be a performance from the State Jazz Vocal Choir. The rest of the afternoon will be an eventful day of workshops in the University Union and the Library Archives.

The workshops will include speakers from many different ethnic backgrounds and professions. There will be history on California and the role and functions its population plays in preserving its history, and lectures on taking California?s state parks in a new direction.

Workshops will also cover bilingual and multicultural education as well as how to infuse curriculum with color in the classroom and in schoolwork.

“This will be a fruitful and free discussion, I am thrilled and excited! I urge people to come out and learn a lot,” Moore said.

For more information, contact Moore at 278-6669.