Crenshaw High junior class president Dominique Ulloa was burned out on student leadership conferences.

But the one held at Crenshaw High last week that brought together student leaders from seven public and private campuses was decidedly different.

For one thing, it was organized by Ulloa and fellow leadership student Kristi Hernandez. And instead of discussing fund-raising tactics or designing posters--usual fare at such conferences, said Ulloa--students tackled such thorny issues as race relations, conflict resolution and how to structure life after high school.

Not the sort of issues to be resolved in one afternoon, but participants agreed that as elected leaders, it was their duty to examine the real-life problems and concerns of their peers.

"I wanted to talk about things that really go on on campus," said Ulloa in her opening address in Crenshaw's library. "We need to look at social issues, things that are really relevant to what's going on today."

About 40 students and adult advisers attended the daylong conference--Crenshaw's first--which attracted participants from high schools from Compton to the San Fernando Valley: St. Mary's, Verbum Dei, Dorsey, Hamilton, Taft, Chatsworth and Westchester.

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Almost immediately, the predominantly black and Latino student leaders began detailing issues that made their jobs at their respective schools difficult: apathy, racial tensions, mistrust and lack of adult participation and support.

"People just don't care," complained Phoebe Magruder, a Hamilton senior. "It's impossible to make people get excited, no matter what kind of events you plan."

Fellow Hamilton student Khalid Morris suggested that student government bodies focus more on government and empowerment than traditional social activities such as proms and dances.

"We are the only link most students have to the administration, to the adults and the decisions they make," he said of the students gathered. "So we need to understand ourselves how things work."

Students agreed that racial divisions were a major problem at their schools, one that sabotaged events such as a Cinco de Mayo celebrations, in which only Latinos would show up, and poorly attended Proposition 187 forums. People stereotype each other and keep careful distances from different ethnic or racial groups, they said.

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