In a move that will significantly increase the number of faculty and courses in Latin American studies, Harvard will create a University-wide research center in the field as early as next fall.

The new center, which will be similar to the existing Center for European Studies, will bring together professors from all of Harvard's schools. The University will also hire up to six new professors in Latin American Studies over the next five years, President Neil L. Rudenstine said Saturday.

Rudenstine announced the new initiative in a speech to about 800 Harvard Club officers and Harvard Alumni Association staff members. The plan depends on the progress of the $2.1 billion capital campaign, he said, but the project is "not easy to fundraise for."

"We obviously need to get more faculty, more scholarship funds, money for students to do research in the field, money for the right kinds of conferences and publications to take place," he said. "It's ambitious."

Harvard needs more scholarship in the growing field, Rudenstine said.

"Latin America has to be one of those areas where we have a base," he said. "It's critical for the future...of the hemisphere as a whole that we learn more about it, that students more about it and that [Latin Americans] learn about us."

The Center

The new center will replace the current Committee on Latin American and Iberian Studies, which meets only occasionally and is missing many Latin American Studies specialties, members said.

"The institute would put Latin American studies on the map in Harvard in a much stronger way than now," said Senior Lecturer on Sociology Donald P. Warwick.

With the new faculty, the center "will add new positions in areas we don't currently represent," Mary M. Gaylord, professor of Romance languages and literature and a member of the committee, said yesterday.

"Compared to other places, Harvard does not have as many senior appointments in Latin American studies," Gaylord said. "Given the importance of Latin American studies, Harvard needs to catch up."

For undergraduates, the new faculty will mean more courses in more areas, and possibly new core offerings, said Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth, who chairs the committee.

The new center will also likely attract a larger number of visiting scholars from Latin America, Coatsworth said.

Despite undergraduate calls for a more courses on ethnic studies in the U.S., the center will focus more on other Latin American countries. But with an expanded focus on Latin America, students could see a greater interest in American Latino studies as America, students could see a greater interest in American Latino studies as well, Costsworth said.

"It's not a center for [study of Latinos in the United States], but there are so many overlapping interests that center can't help to support it," Costsworth said.

Even with the growing number of Latin American specialists, however, Latin American Studies is unlikely to become a formal concentration.