For its first three years, the center's programming growth was slow. It was isolated from the rest of the Brown community and suffered strained dealings with the school's administration, Floresca says. With his appointment as full-time coordinator last April (previously the center had only half-time administrative help), the role of the center has been expanded.

Whether or not they have Third World centers, many other schools have extensive facilities for minority groups on campus. Oberlin College, for instance, has a co-ed Third World dormitory for 50 students. Across the river, Boston University boasts the Martin Luther King Center, which has an office of minority affairs. Stanford has a center for three of four Third World organizations on campus. The Black Community Services Center started at Stanford as a community affairs office in 1969. It now covers 26 student organizations and about 500 students. Stanford's Chicano cultural center also includes about 500 students, and the Asian American campus organization is seeking to establish a center of its own. These three minority groups, as well as the Native Americans, all have "theme dorms."

Aside from the logistical assistance these facilities afford, many students say the centers help fulfill a deeper need. Princeton senior Rhinold Ponder, former co-chairman of the university's center, points out that Third World students admitted to predominately white institutions face a constant dilemma. "The idea of accepting minority students to a place like Princeton or Harvard is not enough. They just can't be readily integrated into the mainstream--they are culturally different, and in order to share themselves, they have to learn about themselves," Ponder says.

An argument commonly used against establishing a Third World center says minorities will not be assimilated into the mainstream if they are encouraged to congregate. In response, Ponder says, "Any university has to perpetrate an environment conducive to students' well-being and comfort; only then will the minority student be better able to share himself and be well integrated."

Ponder adds that Princeton's center has a stigma of being "radical" attached to it--although "because of this school's rabid conservatism, just about any political activity is deemed radical.'" Some white students, Ponder says, view the center as perpetuating prejudice. But that's usually the perception of those who don't care to find out."

Ponder also warned that any Third World center will flounder without intense student participation. "Given the obstacles any center faces to begin with, it is much easier to take it away than to make it stay if students don't participate heavily. That's the major problem."

Harvard's Jackson, who served this summer on the committee President Bok formed last spring to investigate the possibilities of a Third World center on campus, terms the Princeton model "feasible." She says students trying to establish a Third World center hope for an accessible location with a library, kitchen, a large meeting room, office space for Third World organizations, and smaller seminar rooms.

The committee, chaired by the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, will submit its recommendations to Bok by January 1. Currently, the committee--which includes Archie C. Epps III, dean of students: Edward L. Keenan, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Nancy Randolph, special assistant to Bok; and three undergraduate representatives--is interviewing University officials and will soon hash out substantive models. Gomes' preliminary proposals, which he stressed are far from finalized, suggested three possible models--one patterns after the Institute of Politics, one after Radcliffe's Education for Action, and one after Phillips Brooks House.

Gomes' preliminary report also states, "Our own past history with the Afro-American Cultural Center suggests that more rather than less administrative involvement with the project would be helpful, always mindful of the delicate line between involvement and control."

In response to substantial administrative "involvement." Jackson says, "We don't have a problem with official input. We welcome it--if the University shows a genuine commitment. That would be a reasonable trade-off."