Minority student leaders say the present dearth of ethnic studies hurts both their communities and the student body as a whole.

"It just shows that Harvard isn't committed to the type of diversity that they preach to the students that come in, the students who are applying," says Efrain Cortes '93, president of La O. "It is a very important issue to the Latino community at Harvard."

Although her organization has not launched a vocal campaign for ethnic studies courses, Native Americans at Harvard President Venus S. McGhee '94 says she sees a shortage of Native American classes and faculty representation.

"We have a visiting professor at the Divinity School," she says. "Besides that, there isn't enough to put together a Native American Studies concentration."

Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association President Zaheer R. Ali '94 says he would like to see the existing Afro-American Studies Department strengthened.

"I definitely think that everyone should fight for representation in the curriculum," says Ali. His organization, he said, "is more interested in bringing faculty with diversity of experiences...it's not enough to have just a Black or a brown face."

Student minority leaders also say they see a strong demand for the courses they are requesting.

"A lot of people come to me saying they'd like to take classes in Hispanic literature or Hispanic history," says Cortes.

Foundation Academic Affairs Committee Chair Mariano-Florentino Cuellar '93 says he thinks that some students who "wouldn't concentrate" in ethnic studies would definitely take classes in the field.

Yoon says she thinks that many students are currently interested in ethnic studies but are discouraged by the lack of support.

Some students attempting to write these on minority-focused topics have found it impossible in the present framework.

Tae-hui Kim '93, a Social Studies concentrator, wanted to write her senior honors essay on Korean American small businesses in the U.S. She said she could find no classes related to the topic and no Harvard professors knowledgeable in the field.

"I had a hard time finding anyone who knew any thing about it," she said. She is writing instead about low-income housing policies, a topic that arose out of her classwork.

Harvard trails a number of other institutions in the area of ethnic studies. Yale has interdisciplinary majors in Chicano studies and Asian-American studies.

A number of schools on the West Coast offer concentrations in ethnic studies as well. At the University of California at Berkeley, a Council for Ethnic Studies Curricula oversees all ethnic studies disciplines.