They are one of the smallest contingents at Harvard.

University officials say they are 52 in number. Student activists disagree, claiming the official figure is twice the accurate count. The point at which the administrators and students converge, however, is that the number of minority faculty members is shamefully low and Harvard must improve its efforts to recruit more.

Because of their scarcity, minority faculty members say they often face unusual teaching, advising and administrative burdens. They also recognize the fact their population will likely remain small for many years, as the pool of Black and Hispanic graduate students is disproportionately tiny. But until Harvard is willing to lessen the load minorities face, it will not succeed in attracting faculty members who can provide insight into both new and established fields, professors say.

"Because of [my] race and gender, I end up taking on more than perhaps I ought to," says Carolivia Herron, assistant professor of Afro-American studies and comparative literature. Although Herron also serves as Afro-Am head tutor, she has not received the customary reduction in teaching load given to head tutors because of the diminished number of courses in her department. She says the administration is working out a plan to ease her teaching responsibilities in the future.

But, as Harvard has not yet filled two vacant positions in her department and several faculty members took leaves of absence this year, Herron was expected to make up for the lack of courses in addition to fulfilling her heavy administrative duties.

One of the few Black women faculty members at Harvard, Herron serves as a frequent adviser to minority students. Often minority students come to her for advice not because they are interested in her area of expertise, literature, but because she is a role model. In addition, Herron says she has spent extra time expanding course offerings in her department, which is not a mainstream, fully developed department such as History or Government.

All of these responsibilities, which most of her white peers do not share, detract from her own academic pursuits, Herron says. And scholarship is the key to tenure at Harvard. "If I only improved courses and didn't write a book, it would be academic suicide," she says, adding that she is currently working on a book. Other Black women faculty members are needed, Herron says, to help diffuse the responsibilities.

Herron's concerns about the overburdening of minority professors to the detriment of their scholarship are echoed by minority faculty members in other departments.

Assistant Professor of Japanese Haruko Iwasaki says that although she does not feel she has been a victim of discrimination, a distinct discrepancy is evident in the system. While most of the tenured faculty members in her department are white males, Iwasaki says those at the junior faculty level "are mostly women. The language side is 90 percent women and minority."

The situation may be improving in East Asian Languages and Civilizations as next year's chairman, Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy Wei-ming Tu, is Chinese. But the University's overall record in hiring Hispanic and Chicano faculty members has not been particularly good, professors agree.

The dearth of Hispanic and Chicano faculty members is especially distressing, Professor of Government Jorge I. Dominguez says, because Harvard has succeeded in attracting more Hispanic undergraduates in recent years. He says he is often asked to advise students studying Hispanic or Chicano issues, even though the subject is not in his field.

"When I am asked to teach a course [of this type], the only honest answer I can give is, I am not competent," Dominguez says, but he adds that he occasionally helps advise a thesis in this area.

Dominguez says it is important for the University to consider whether Harvard has scholars specializing in such subjects and whether Harvard has faculty members of various ethnicities. But Harvard has failed to attract both, he says.

Student Activism

The size of the minority faculty became a central point of student activism this year in the College and at the Law School. The Minority Students Alliance--an undergraduate organization--released a report in April charging that the University has failed to actively recruit minorities and calling on Harvard to investigate a "comprehensive plan" to attract minority scholars. The report also says the University is receiving fewer applications than in previous years. And at the Law School, about 50 Black students held a 24-hour sit-in in protest of the lack of minority faculty.