"[Harvard' is trying very hard to recruit Eastern European students too, I've noticed a lot more Eastern European people here," Shields says. "It's a good thing."

Former president of the now-defunct International Assembly Costas Panagopoulos '94 however sayshe saw the shortage of organizations concerned with international issues as a negative sign.

"I'm appalled at the lack of international organizations. It's not for lack of interest. Basically, it boils down to the lack of 'internationlization here," Panagopoulos says. "Harvard does not even have a concentration in international affairs, or any kind of solid international program."

Diversified Curriculum

But according to many students and administrators, the faculty is making slow, steady progress in internationalizing the curriculum.

P resident Neil L. Rudenstine writes in the President's Report that a healthy proportion of courses offered are international in scope.

"A recent survey showed that nearly 40 percent of all courses in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences--and about 45 percent of all Core Curriculum courses--have a significant international dimension," Rudenstine wrote.

And Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell says he sees a "real burgeoning of emphasis on international studies" at Harvard.

"There isn't any new department or concentration that we can point to there certainly has been...a thrust in dealing with issues in a more global and cosmopolitan way," Buell says.

"For example, the way the African-American Studies Department and its affiliated faculty has been developing and taking shape shows a much less U.S.-centred and much more globalist perspective," Buell says. "Harvard is in the process of becoming a central space to study African culture from a variety of disciplinary standpoints."

Citing the recent developments in Latin American studies, two students said they had noticed a greater emphasis on international affairs in the college curriculum.

"When I first arrived, here, I thought there was a lack of courses offered in Latin-American studies, and I did feel frustrated," says Alejandro Ramirez '94, president of the Harvard University Mexican Association.

"I'm an economist, and there were no courses on economics in Latin American countries. As I've been here, [though], I've seen a real effort on Harvard's part," Ramirez says. "For instance, Professor [John H.] Coatsworth is here now, offering a new course, I've just found out the university is planning to open a center for Latin-American studies.

Coatsworth is a renowned historian of Latin America and the chair of the Committee on Latin American and Iberian Studies.

"The professors that teach Latin-American courses are some of the best in the world," said Edmundo Gonzales '95, former president of the Forum on Hispanic Affairs. "I'm quite satisfied."