[applause] >> thank you, kiahna. this symposium will explore the opportunities and challenges for people of color in the 21st century. this year we will look particularly at questions of race on campus and on changing demographics and cities, have the effect minorities quality of life. so while we will consider the country has made progress on the racial front we will also examine why race related problems persist. in fact, intensified in the past year, and try to identify kernels of hope that can emerge from our new multiracial reality. the issues of race as we all know played this country since its colonial times, for over 300 years. we have struggled at the time of the adoption of the constitution, during the civil war, jim crow, civil rights era and on to today. there's been progress all along the way of course, but we still face significant racial issues today and most deal effectively with these issues if our democracy is to survive. today the dialogue will touch on individual cultural institutional and structu