Financial assistance for the event came from the Harvard Foundation, Education for Action (E4A) and numerous businesses and individuals throughout the Boston area. President Neil L. Rudenstine, Dean Archie C. Epps III, Assistant Dean Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle and S. Alan Counter all gave their full support and encouragement.

So what kind of press coverage did we receive? None. This is the largest Asian American conference Harvard has ever seen and will ever see for many years to come. In accordance with this, we sent releases to every major Harvard news publication on campus. Yet not a single word of the conference appeared anywhere in print.

The press further aggravates this problem when it misrepresents its sources of information and, therefore, misleads its readers. People reading the front-page article in The Crimson about prank calls may have been led to believe that the AAA "has not heard about the calls and has no plans to address the issue."

This is simply not true. The AAA Steering Committee constantly focuses much of its time and energy on these issues in the belief that fighting racism is an on-going process. Our response to racial incidents on campus is a contiguous one, and we are greatly disturbed at being dismissed so easily by inaccurate reporting.

We at AAA condemn any policies and actions that have marginalized Asians and Asian Americans in the past. This is why we are so concerned today with the rebirth of such outrages across the nation and at Harvard itself.

As a voice for Asian Americans on campus, it is our main goal to educate the Harvard community about issues that face Asian Americans through rational dialogue. Most students at Harvard are unaware of issues confronting Asian Americans on campus and even attempt to deny that any such problems exist.

Furthermore, many do not realize that the Asian American community has been trying to address these issues in a constructive manner through such programs as the ECASU conference.

But how can members of the Harvard community take action if they aren't accurately informed of the ethnic issues and racially motivated occurrences that take place on campus? This is why we are frustrated with the publications at Harvard.

We believe that the campus news periodicals must firmly acknowledge that anti-Asian sentiment is a growing problem in America and devote more time and energy in addressing these issues. Only then can the Harvard community as a whole work together in easing racial tension and help prevent ethnic conflict in the future. Connie Chang   Mark Kim   Co-presidents Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association