MONTPELIER -- Patricia Lewis, a black former Goddard College student, took the school to court Tuesday in a discriminaton suit over her exclusion from a racism seminar five years ago.

Lewis, one of only three black students at Goddard in 1984, was barred from attending the seminar, slated for white women only. She said the experience left her depressed and unable to work or continue college studies.

Goddard President Jack Lindquist said the school "did not discriminate" against Lewis, but declined to elaborate other than to say, "That will come out in the trial."

Lewis, 27, is suing the school for an unspecified amount of compensatory damages for lost work and educational opportunities, punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

Attorney Charles Hurt, representing Goddard, raised the point during testimony that Lewis smoked marijuana "regularly" in 1988 when she filed the suit, which he implied could lead to paranoia and an inability to concentrate.

The case is being beard by an all-white jury before Judge Matthew Katz in Washington Superior Court, and is expected to last several days.

Lewis charged that during her sophomore year she was barred from attending a seminar called "Moon' Over Vermont," publicized as "workshops on racism for white women."

"It was for white women to confront their own racism," said Lindquist. "The purpose was to eradicate racism."

He said the Moon Over Vermont program had been ongoing at the school, focusing on women's issues and excluding men. This was the first dealing with racism and excluding minorities.

Lewis protested the situation with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, which investigated and advised the school that future workshops should be open; the program was discontinued.

"The opinion was that Moon Over Vermont could not continue because it was an educational program and needed to be available to all students," Lindquist said. "They said you could have a subgroup for only one gender, but the general group would have to be accessible to men and women and people of color."

Lewis dropped out of Goddard and returned home to New Haven, Conn., where she worked at a series of odd jobs, including as a stock clerk and a cleaner. She said she was unable to sleep and broke out in a nervous rash over the incident.

"Since the racism conference, I haven't been able to understand why I feel the way I feel," she said quietly during testimony. "I'm extra-sensitive now and extra-protective of myself. I seem not to understand what I'm doing."

She has since gotten a job with the Head Start educational program in New Haven, and was promoted to a job with the New Haven Housing Authority, with her salary climbing from $2,000 in 1984 to $14,800 this year.

On the advice of her Burlington attorney, Neil Mickenberg, Lewis began seeing New Haven psychologist William Coleman, who testified that Lewis was "suffering from a stress reaction to the trauma she experienced by being excluded from the conference."

He said she became socially withdrawn and "generally felt anxious and depressed" over the incident.

Coleman told the jury that Lewis reacted so strongly because she was shy, and being only one of three blacks on campus, "What that individual does gets highlighted. A given behavior on Pat's part would be considered somehow representative of black women."