ATLANTA, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Officials at Emory University said the private Atlanta school is holding a four-day conference dealing with race relations and past racism at Emory.
In 2003, a professor's racial epithet led to debates on campus and research about race relations going as far back as the time of the 175-year-old university's slave-owning founders.
Those issues will be discussed as part of the program that begins Sunday night, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
About 30 public and private colleges will participate in the program, examining the effects of slavery at U.S. higher-learning institutions, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Emory's board of trustees said it regrets the school's ties to slavery but said it does not intend to apologize for it.
Emory President James Wagner said an apology might be seen as "inappropriate and an attempt to force today's values and our own words in the mouths of the dead."
"We've talked about African-Americans on campus before, but now we're talking about Emory and African-Americans. As a black student, I think it's good they've admitted mistakes from the past. Emory is a great school and this just shows it. Now we can talk about it, so let's just talk about it," said senior Kyle Black.
