COLORS holds racial sensitivity forum

Richard Glanton, president of the Barnes Foundation, shared his political views with more than 70 students Monday at the eighth annual Campus Organized Lectures On Racial Sensitivity forum. Glanton spoke in the place of Alan Keyes, former United Nations ambassador, who could not attend the event. Biren Johnson, a Wharton senior and co-chairperson of COLORS 1995, said the program, which continues throughout the week, is an intramural event co-sponsored by the Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Chi fraternities and designed to foster better race relations. Glanton, a Philadelphia lawyer, spoke about the history of the Barnes Foundation and his own relation to it. The Barnes paintings, by such artists as Kandinsky, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, had not been seen by the general public until the collection was exhibited two years ago. It is currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He then took questions from the audience, often discussing his political views on local issues. "Philadelphia is one of the only cities I know of that [delegates] money [for] renovating housing projects," Glanton said. "It doesn't make sense because it is much cheaper to relocate people from housing projects to restored vacant houses." One member of the audience asked Glanton about his views regarding President Clinton's health care plan. "It's foolish," he said. "People in Canada and Poland and other places with state-operated health care come to the United States to get first class care." Glanton also touched on the subject of affirmative action. "I am not for affirmative action. I am for equality," he explained. "But if we have to have affirmative action in order to have equality, than so be it. If affirmative action can be ended, however, and equality restored than that is fine also." Wharton sophomore Deacon Pham said he was not impressed with Glanton's lecture. Glanton "was very articulate, but overall I didn't think the presentation was really relevant to the whole COLORS theme until he answered questions from the floor," he said. College junior Chris Greene, co-chairperson of the event, explained that Keyes, who was originally scheduled to give the keynote address, cancelled at 10 a.m., leaving Glanton little time to prepare.