Last week, more than 50 students staged a dramatic protest of what they saw as Harvard's failure to "celebrate diversity."

Dressed in black, they carried signs and passed out fliers with complaints and demands signed by nine campus organizations, spanning many ethnic and racial minority groups.

The demands, many concerning the hiring of minority faculty and the need for ethnic studies courses, are not new, Groups have been asking for both since the beginning of the year, and so far, few concrete results can be seen, the students say.

In fact, students say they are not even sure who to take their demands to, and Harvard's top-level administrators have offered conflicting versions of who exactly is in charge when it comes to handling complaints from students.

The coalition called for, among other things, a reexamination of the question of ethnic studies and stronger efforts to diversify the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Specific demands included more Asian American studies courses, and ethnic studies requirements under the Core Curriculum, a town meeting to address faculty diversity issues and a review process to lead to the appointment of a Latino professor.

Assistant Dean for Academic Planning Joseph I McCarthy, who works on issues of affirmative action in the Faculty, said there has not been a direct response to the coalition's demands.

"No, there has not been a specific reaction here that I know of," he said yesterday. "But there is definitely the continuing effort to hire excellent faculty and diversify the faculty."

Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell said he is "not sure how many people have taken notice" of the coalition's demands.

"Some have taken very careful notice," he said, but it appears to some student leaders that top administration authorities move slowly, if at all.

Zaheer R. Ali '94, who wrote a letter to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles in late February, said the dean's response, which came just Wednesday, seemed "rather late."

"I think now that is going to become an issue, when we'll see how willing he is to resolve issues of concern to students," he said. "That just shows the central administration is quite slow".

President Neil I. Rudenstine defended the dean's delay, saying Knowles is incredibly busy and has many responsibilities.

"I don't honestly think Dean Knowles is inaccessible," Rudenstine said. "Unlike me, he actually has a faculty of 800 people, he has 6,400 undergraduates and all those graduate students."

This is not the first time, though, that Knowles has drawn complaints from minority student leaders for his handling of concerns.

In early October, Latino student leaders requested a meeting with Knowles to discuss ethnic studies in the curriculum.

At the time, Knowles referred the students to Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, who is the College's point person on race relations issues a response that "offended" one of the students acting on the issue and sparked student meetings to discuss procrastination by the administration.

Epps then said he would act a a "facilitator" in the matter, directing the students' concerns to the proper authorities. In the end, students met with four top-level administrators. Epps, Buell, Associate Dean for Affirmative Action Manorie Garber and, in due time, Knowles.

Although the students eventually did meet with Knowles, confusion yet reigns over the question of who is in charge, a confusion that may have slowed the process of answering student concerns.

Students say it is not always clear who is the proper person to approach with concerns over curricular and faculty issues.

"It's difficult to figure out who to go to and what to do," said Veronica Rosales '94, former president of Mexican American student group Raza, at a junior parents weekend event Saturday.

Epps said the exact procedure is still being worked out

"We're talking about it among ourselves," he said yesterday. "The curricular concerns are under the academic deans, and the extracurricular concerns fall under Mr. lewett and myself."

Rudenstine said it is "the faculty and academic deans and FAS, who will have to analyze, think through, talk with students and figure out what is the right direction to go there."

That is precisely the problem, Ali said. Knowles "does not have a positive history as far as meeting with students," he said.

The coalition flier cited meetings with Epps, Buell, Garber and Knowles, but called these authorities "irresponsive."

But officials defend Knowles and other FAS authorities efforts to meet the requests of undergraduate groups. Students may not be able to see concrete change at this moment, but a gradual process is underway, they say.

The Faculty's Committee on Educational Policy formed a subcommittee in March to explore the question of ethnic studies and perhaps to look at the affirmative action difficulties of the FAS.

Buell, who chairs the subcommittee, gives Knowles credit for originating it and said the action shows how concerned the Dean of the Faculty is about student requests.

"This is going to be a more comprehensively active committee that's focused on trying to make recommendations on permanent curriculum development," Buell said. The committee has not met yet, he said, but will come together soon.

"I hope, by the end of spring term, we will have some specific policy recommendations that will contain the ingredients for a coherent plan for developing a more permanent future for ethnic studies in the curriculum," he said.

Next year, Buell said, four visiting professors will offer courses on Asian American and Latino issues, alleviating that concern somewhat.

And the subcommittee will likely address another of the coalition's demands, that the Core Curriculum include an ethnic studies requirement. Buell said, although he personally "is not sure that's the form it should take."

On the issue of faculty hiring, McCarthy said if a Latino faculty member is not hired soon, "it will not be for lack of effort."

"There's an offer out now to a Latino faculty member," he said, although it is not for a tenured position.

Rudenstine said the University "has been working very hard at [faculty hiring]."

"We'll continue to work hard at it but we'll be taking some steps in the not so distant future that are sufficiently complicated that they're taken some time to work out," he said.

So it remains unclear when the efforts now taking place will bear fruit, and the time frame of undergraduate students is far narrower than of tenured faculty members.

"Harvard is a very conservative place from a radical student's point of view," Rosales said.

Minority student group leaders have long called for an improvement in faculty diversity and for the inclusion of ethnic studies in the curriculum. However, the response from administrators has been slow, and students say it is not always clear who is the proper person to approach with concerns over curricular and faculty issues