The Kennedy School of Government will do everything within its power to prevent a recent federal decision regarding financial aid from thwarting its attempts at increasing student diversity, Dean Robert D. Putnam told students at an open forum yesterday.

Putnam's comments at the school's fourth "town meeting" of the year came in the wake of a Department of Education ruling issued earlier this week that financial aid granted solely on the basis of race is discriminatory and illegal. The dean said that although the Kennedy School will ultimately have to abide by the federal decision, University lawyers are working to ensure that at least those currently receiving ethnically-based scholarships can continue to receive them.

"The circumstances of [the Department of Education's ruling] are quite ambiguous. It remains, frankly, a very murky issue which requires clarification," Putnam said. "Meanwhile, that does not diminish in the least my commitment to financial aid that will enable us to attract a more diverse student body."

Yesterday's meeting was the second open forum the Kennedy School has sponsored in the past week to discuss ways to promote diversity at the school. In addition, Putnam met early in the week with students from the People of Color Coalition, a student group which has been actively seeking to diversify the school.

While conceding that much remains to be done, Putnam said that the Kennedy School has already made great strides in the recruitment of minority students and faculty members. But he declined to answer questions which sought specific numerical commitments or detailed plans for action.

"My general style with respect to these issues is to try to convey to you my personal feelings on the issues but not to make promises to you that I cannot guarantee that the school will be able to keep," Putnam said. "Frankly, I don't think it's productive from anyone's point of view to say `Once we get to 10 percent, then we can relax.'"

Responding to concerns voiced by several students at the forum, Putnam also called for greater inclusion of women at the Kennedy School.

The dean said the school has already made some progress in this respect, pointing to a new course on gender in politics. But he agreed that such efforts are not enough, and that the school should include more women as role models in its classroom case studies and continue to recruit new women faculty members.