If the Detroit area is the most racially segregated large metropolitan area in the country - as widely reported in the media, based on year 2000 census figures - what can be done to change the situation? This is the central issue to be explored at a "Conference on Fair Housing and Diversity in Metropolitan Detroit," on Thursday, June 12, in the Spencer Partrich Auditorium at the Wayne State University Law School.

Organized by the Fair Housing Education Project at Wayne State, the 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. conference is intended to raise awareness about fair housing issues, encourage efforts to deal with housing discrimination, and prompt actions that will lead to meaningful changes in residential living patterns.

It is aimed primarily at business and community leaders, government officials, housing providers, attorneys and educators. Students and the public are invited.

One purpose of the conference is to identify specific courses of action that can be taken to facilitate diversity and to reverse the trend toward residential racial segregation.

"We know that thousands of persons in the Detroit metropolitan area are concerned about the situation and recognize the importance of building more inclusive communities," says project director Saul Green, former director of the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit. "The question is, what are we going to do about it."

Among speakers at the conference will be Green; Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano; U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts; and professor John Powell, who holds the Williams Chair in civil rights and civil liberties at Ohio State University and is executive director of the Kirwan Institute of Race and Ethnicity. There also will be a panel consisting of representatives from the Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, National Council on Community and Justice, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, Detroit Alliance for Fair Banking and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Breakout sessions will follow the panel discussion.

Advance registration is required and there is no charge for admission. Contact the law school at 313-577-3641. A box lunch is available for $10 to persons who reserve in advance.

The Fair Housing and Education Project is jointly operated by the WSU Law School and WSU's College of Urban Labor and Metropolitan Affairs, which is offering a class on fair housing issues. The year-old project is funded by a grant from HUD.