"We used to have [members] to do the dirty work," Contreras says. "Now some say, 'It's pretty much a bureaucracy here, why fight it?"

Students say they are miffed by a number of administrative moves. Latino undergraduates say Harvard has done little to attract tenured faculty who could teach Latino studies, and instead relies upon visiting professors who "don't provide institutional support," according to Contreras.

Students also cite the recent decision to transfer the office of the popular Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations out of University Hall as evidence that Harvard cares little about ethnic studies.

"That's a sign that the University is backing away from having ethnic studies or anything like that," Tello charges.

But Souffront and other students say the center may be a sign that Harvard is coming around.

"I think the University is getting there," Souffront says. "There's been some real change. They did respond to students last year [after the Junior Parents' Weekend demonstrations]."

Contreras says the only way Harvard will support tenured faculty or a department in ethnic studies is if a rich alumnus were to "donate a few million dollars" to the cause.

But Harvard hasn't done much fundraising for Latino studies. In fact, President Neil I. Rudenstine said last weekend that the University is having a hard enough time finding money to support the Latin America center.

"You can't fault Harvard for improving itself," Guttierrez says of the new center, "but you will have to continue to push Harvard to uphold its commitment to academic excellence. I don't think [the center] would be a complete institute [without studies of Latinos in U.S.]