MONTPELIER -- A black former Goddard College student, barred from attending a whites-only conference at the school in 1984, was awarded- $102,000 In damages Friday by an all-white jury.

Patricia Lewis, 27, who sued the school claiming she was excluded from participating in a racism conference slated for white women, said after the four-day trial that she felt vindicated, adding, "Now I just want to go home."

Lewis

Neil Mickenberg, one of Lewis' two attorneys, said, "The evidence was so overwhelming. This jury was saying that there was no question in their minds that the school discriminated against Pat because of her race."

Goddard officials are expected to appeal the case. Goddard President Jack Lindquist was out of the state late Friday and could not be reached for comment, nor could his attorney, Charles Hurt.

During closing remarks earlier Friday, however, Hurt told jurors the school had not discriminated against Lewis.

The jury listened to two hours of closing arguments and deliberated for about two more hours before ruling against Goddard.

Lewis was barred from attending the conference during her sophomore year at the school. She dropped out of the college immediately after the Incident, and said she was so shaken she could not complete her studies or find suitable work.

She has since begun working for the New Haven (Conn.) Housing Authority, and said Friday she planned to return to that job.

Lewis sued the school, for $175,000 in lost wages, tuition costs and counseling fees.

"This suit is not about racial discrimination -- there wasn't any," Hurt said in his closing arguments. "What this case is about is someone trying to exploit racial discrimination.

"You are an all-white jury and (Lewis) is depending on you to feel guilty for the discrimination that has happened in the past. She is asking for your sympathy. But the truth is she was never harmed here, that she left the college for reasons other than discrimination.

"We all realize that college students often drop out of college because they know that college was not right for them. Fortunately they don't all sue their college."

Lewis' attorney, Frank Kochman, in comments to the Jury, countered, "What we are asking for is fairness, not guilt, fairness. What (Hurt) wants to exploit is what he hopes are the biases of the community, ...that you will believe that kind of nonsense and that kind of stereotyping." Kochman said the conference dealt with hypothetical racist situations, creating what he called a "hypothetical antiracist police force ... when right before their noses they had a real black woman screaming her pain to them and they were deaf.

"Goddard did this because it was vanguard, chic. It was the 'in' thing to do."

Hurt urged jurors to use common sense in realizing that the progressive school would not condone a discriminatory conference, and said Lewis dropped out because she was homesick, missed her boyfriend who lives in New Haven, Conn., and felt out of place in the nearly all-white community.

He said the conference was to benefit white women, but was open to anyone who chose to attend. He added, "Goddard is a small college doing the best it can to fight racism in this area."