Early morning drama at the home of Dean of the Law School Robert C. Clark prefaced an afternoon of heated debate yesterday about the school's efforts to hire minority and women faculty.

Approximately 20 law students, members of the Coalition for Civil Rights, surprised Clark at the doorstep of his Irving Street home to protest what they say is a lack of diversity on the Law School faculty.

An eight-day deadline set by coalition members for a response from Clark to their demands expired yesterday, and the students remained unsatisfied with a letter from the dean explaining his efforts towards faculty diversity.

The students arrived at Clark's home at about 8 a.m. and waited approximately 45 minutes for him to appear. They brandished signs demanding diversity and sang traditional spiritual protest songs, chanting "No justice, no peace" as they waited in the chilly morning weather.

"I was taking a shower and I heard someone besides myself singing," Clark said later in the day.

The protesters escorted Clark on his morning walk to the Law School and continued the discussion of the appointment process with him over coffee in Harkness Commons.

Clark scheduled an impromptu town hall meeting in the afternoon to continue the debate.

"We just want to keep the dean reminded that we're serious about our protest and that we want some substantive changes in the tenuring process and hiring process at this law school," said Ronald S. Sullivan, a second-year law student and chair of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA).

Of the 64 tenured or tenuretracked faculty members, six are Black men and five are white women.

In the letter issued earlier this week, Clark pledged he would actively recruit women candidates and reexamine women professors who have visited the school during the past ten years.

But coalition members said they staged yesterday's round of demonstrations because they wanted more than promises from the dean.

"Harvard Law School should be able to find one African-American woman on this planet that is qualified to teach here," said protest co-organizer Andrew S. Levin, a first-year law student.

During the walk to Harkness Commons, students outlined their demands: an immediate increase in minority hiring; an increased role in the hiring process; and a cooperative facultystudent effort to identify candidates.

Clark defended the school's minority hiringrecord and said Harvard is actively seeking moreminority appointments.

"Literally the pool is getting bigger rapidly,"he said. "I think it's going to show in ourappointments over the next few years."

Although Clark said he is willing to work withstudents, he pointed out that he is not solelyresponsible for hiring new faculty.