They have one at Berkeley. And at Wisconsin. At Yale. Stanford. And even Princeton is starting one.

But not Harvard.

Around the country, ethnic studies programs have gained legitimacy in recent years, as faculty emphasize new types of multi-cultural research and students line up to study the experiences of minority groups.

To their backers, ethnic studies programs--and more specifically focused areas such as Chicano studies--offer a valuable and different perspective on the American experience.

"It is moving slowly, but some of the big schools are starting to recognize that it is going to be a multi-cultural society in the 21st century and they need ethnic studies programs," says Larry Trujillo, a professor at Berkeley.

But despite the high volume of scholarship generated by these programs and the visible student enthusiasm, some academics continue to say that ethnic studies cannot be viewed as an independent discipline.

And that attitude is nowhere as visible as at Harvard, where administrators say that, despite a newly established visiting professor program in ethnic studies, they do not see the need for a separate department.

Says Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education David Pilbeam, "I don't see that it makes an effective concentration. I don't think that that's the way to address the concerns of undergraduates."

Pilbeam is heading a faculty committee, appointed last fall by Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, to recruit visiting scholars for the ethnic studies program that is supposed to bring one full-time visitor to campus each year.

Students, however, see the new program as a case of too little, too late and have promised to pressure the faculty next year.

Members of the Minority Students Alliance, which has lobbied throughout the past two years for a visiting professorship in Chicano Studies, say they will soon propose that Harvard join the swelling ranks of universities who have added official Chicano studies departments to their course catalogs.

But the students will have a difficult time persuading the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to take such a step. According to Edith Ramirez '89, Spence "did not seem the least bit interested" when approached with the request for a Chicano studies department or degree-granting committee.

And, when asked whether the ethnic studies program might result in a permanent department, Spence said in a recent interview, "I really don't know how I feel about it, and I don't think I even know enough yet about what is going on in the various [ethnic studies] disciplines."

What Spence has done is respond to student requests by remaking them in ways more acceptable to the often tradition-bound faculty, students say.

Last fall, he created an ethnic studies program to include courses in Native American, Asian-American and Hispanic-American culture.