And Counter encouraged students to look "more deeply" at issues like bilingual education that he said would become increasingly important over the years.

The debate at times turned slightly contentious. At one point, Stanford's student moderator praised Stanford's and the West Coast's commitment to diversity while criticizing the commitment of Harvard and the East Coast.

"At Harvard, on the other hand...there's not necessarily an emphasis on solutions. [It's] let's fight, let's fight, let's fight," he said.

Harvard student panelist Chanda S. Prescod-Weinstein '03, who has been active in the living wage campaign, said she disagreed, saying that her first experience with discrimination had happened in California.

Prescod-Weinstein also noted that moves to end affirmative action similar to Prop. 209 in California have not been made in Massachusetts.

Yesterday's discussion was the first Face of America event at Harvard. Face of America at Harvard is spearheaded by the Multicultural Issues Forum and the student advisory committee of the Foundation. Anderson is the chair of the former , while Ebie guides the latter.

Conferences will take place at Stanford in June and at Harvard in September.

-Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.