President Neil L. Rudenstine expressed doubt last Friday about the possibility of creating a separate ethnic studies department soon within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

In an interview, Rudenstine qualified his remarks on ethnic studies by noting that he did not speak for FAS and had not read several recent documents to and from FAS Dean Jeremy R. Knowles on the subject.

But the president did question whether ethnic studies is, in fact, a discipline worthy of its own department. And he added that there are neither enough qualified professors in academic life nor enough resources at the University to establish separate departments for the study of many different ethnicities.

Student leaders of the ethnic studies movement disagreed.

"In terms of finding prominent scholars who do these sort of studies, as you seek so shall you find," said Srishti Gupta '97, vice chair of the Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural Relations.

"A lot of people in the student body feel that the administration has a very narrow approach to this issue in contrast to other top schools, such as Dartmouth, Columbia and the University of California at Berkeley, where ethnic studies is an established discipline," Gupta continued. "These schools, in addition to various others, are evidence enough that these scholars do exist and that these areas of study are well established."

Gupta and several other students at the Harvard Foundation co-authored a report last spring calling for the use of funds generated in the University's ongoing $2.1 billion campaign to create a chaired professorship in Asian American studies, Latin American studies, Native American studies and comparative ethnic studies.

The students who wrote the report agreed last night that ethnic studies must establish itself as a thriving discipline within a department before a separate department could be created.

But they said ethnic studies is already thriving in academia and Harvard should not ignore such a major intellectual development.

The president said a program has to attract a critical mass of interested scholars and go through program status within an existing department before it can be a separate entity.

"I agree that there needs to be a flourishing program. But such a pro- gram cannot flourish in the absence of concrete courses," said Veronica S. Jung '97, AAC co-chair.

"We're not asking for the creation of a department out of nowhere," said Julie C. Kim '97, AAC co-chair.

Outgoing Undergraduate Council Vice President Justin C. Label '97, who is running for president of the council, called on the students and the administration to find "common ground."

Emphasizing that he has not studied the issue in so much depth as the AAC and the administration, Label said the council's experience in dealing with the administration could be utilized to broker a compromise.

Label recommended a slow but steady increase in course offerings and the appointment of a handful of visiting or associate professors who specialize in ethnic studies as a short-term solution.

But other students said FAS must be willing to invest in an ethnic studies program now.