SAN MARCOS ---- Cal State San Marcos celebrates the start of Black History Month this week as student dancers sound off with rhythmic stomping at the Dome and the university community puts time aside to look at where the region and the nation stands now on the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that led to the integration of the public schools.

The stomping is set for noon on Friday at the Dome Plaza in a show described as part competition among teams of dancers, who are guests from fraternities and sororities at another CSU campus, San Diego State. Their show, known as a step show, features a dance style in which the feet stomp out rhythms of unity, pride in one's organization and talent. The steps are accompanied by music and chants.

Dilcie D. Perez, CSUSM's associate director for multicultural programs and community outreach, says the audience will be encouraged to join in. "Step," Perez said, "goes way back."

The landmark school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education also goes back. Fifty years ago, on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case brought against the school board of Topeka, Kan., that separate facilities are inherently unequal. The historic decision opened the door for the busing that brought black children to predominantly white schools.

A look back at how far the region and the nation has come, since the Brown decision, is set to be discussed on Feb. 26, when a panel on "blacks in education" convenes at 11:30 a.m. at the Commons. Reggie Owens, a member of an African-American advisory panel at CSUSM, is scheduled to speak about the evolution of equal opportunity since the Brown decision and he is to be joined by sociologists Garry Rolison and Sharon Elise, both of the San Marcos faculty. Also scheduled is the university's associate director of student and residential life operations, Gezai Berhane, who is set to speak about his experience as an immigrant from Eritrea.

Elise said her talk would include the idea that blacks experience life on campus as "hyper visible outsiders" whose very noticeability means they are not equals. She also noted that a 1999 report from Harvard University's civil rights project (www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu.) asserts that segregation for blacks is actually on the rise in the wake of Brown v. Topeka.

Honey Folk, the president of the Black Student Union, said that February will also be a month for a "represent campaign." She adds, "We want to show the administration that there's a lot more work to do in order to reach the cultural diversity we purport to be so dedicated to."

Perez, a CSUSM alumna herself, says the events are a way to urge students, faculty, staff and the community that the best defense against thinking in stereotypes is to "keep and open mind," adding, "we're more the same than different."

Folk said blacks are under-represented on campus. The Black Student Union says blacks make up some 2.7 percent of 7,000 students at Cal State San Marcos, whereas they comprise some 6 percent of the region's population. The university said that six of its 201 full-time professors are black.

Among other scheduled black history month events:

The Associated Students Inc. black history month breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 13 at the Clarke Field House/University Student Union, with guest speaker Edmond Heatley, the associate superintendent for human resources for the Oceanside Unified School District.

The college bowl, sponsored by the Black Student Union, which tests students' knowledge of African American history in a competition modeled after television's venerable 'GE College Bowl' from the 1960s.

And the wind-up event, a soul food luncheon, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 27 at the field house. The organizers, the office of multicultural programs and the African American Faculty/Staff Association, say lunch will be accompanied by readings "related to the nourishment of the soul."