NIU students and staff are among those invited to a two-day workshop sponsored by the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College and Chicago United on April 12 and 13.

James Harper, an NIU student who transferred from Wheaton College, is working to ensure NIU participates in the two-day workshop.

“I have been talking to Van Amos (Center for Black Studies director) and to Larry Robertson (Student Association Minority Relations director) … with a view to making concrete arrangements for NIU students to attend the Wheaton workshop.

Harper said the workshop will help NIU students deal with the racial problems at the university.

“I believe too that NIU students and staff can make useful input to the various discussions at the workshop in view of our university’s racial tension,” Harper said.

Robertson said he circulated information about the workshop to NIU’s minority organizations.

Robertson said he hoped NIU students would honor the invitation, but he said fewer students would be able to participate in the workshop since it is during the week.

“Ethnic and Racial Issues in Business Education and Ministry” will commence with a keynote address on the outcome of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s dream by Warren Bacon, president of Chicago United.

A program of activities released by Wheaton College’s Department of Philosophy also shows that the keynote address will be followed by two sessions of talks and papers presented by Christian studies and business scholars including Darlene Hannah, a social psychology professor and Alvaro Nievez, a professor of sociology, both from Wheaton College.

Other speakers are Walter Washington, director of Principal’s Scholars Program at the University of Illinois; Mario Aranda, co-chairman of Chicago United’s Special Task Force on Education; Patrick Keleher, director of Chicago United’s Public Policy and Mig Daliah Rivera, associate director of the Latino Institute.

A third session will focus attention on ethnic racial understanding and will be attended by staff and students of Wheaton College and Chicago United. The three sessions will be held at Wheaton College’s Edman chapel located on the northeast corner of Washington and Franklin streets in Wheaton.

Wednesday’s sessions will be held at Wheaton College’s Barrows Auditorium in the east wing of the Graham Center located on College Avenue, one half mile west of President Street in Wheaton.

Speakers will include Wayne Gordon, pastor of the Lawn Dale Community Church; Irene Johnson, chairman of the Le Claire Courts Resident Management Corporation in Chicago; John McDermott, director of urban affairs at Illinois Bell; John Atinasi, director of Research and Documentation Latino Institute.