She said the conference had been endorsed by Professor of Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '72, Professor of Afro-American Studies and of Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah and DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr.

However, none of them will attend the conference, she said.

Jung also emphasized that a recent resolution passed by the Undergraduate Council had given a boost to supporters of ethnic studies.

On Sunday, the council endorsed the effort to increase dialogue about Ethnic Studies, marking the first time that the council has identified comparative race and ethnic studies as "an academic concern of relevance and importance to the entire student body," Jung said.

The conference is also co-sponsored by the Minority Students Alliance, Education for Action, the Harvard Native American Program, the Asian American Association, the Black Men's Forum, Black Student Association, Korean Americans for Culture and Community, the South Asian Association, the Student Advisory Committee of the Harvard Foundation, the Harvard Phillipine Forum, the Progressive Action Network and the Undergraduate Council.

The conference will be held this Saturday at Harvard Hall from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The conference will feature a keynote speech at 9:30 a.m. by Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart, the chair of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a panel discussion at 11 a.m. on "Ethnic Studies and the Challenge for the Academy for the 21st Century."

"This panel will address the history and development of ethnic studies at major research universities," Jung said. "The panel will also address the academic relevance of ethnic studies in university curriculums."

The afternoon will feature presentations by scholars of ethnic studies.

Other speakers at the conference include Carlos Munoz Jr., professor of Chicano studies at U.C. Berkeley; Ling-Chi Wang, chair of the Asian-American Studies Department and former chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at U.C. Berkeley; Patricia Hilden, professor of Native American Studies at U.C. Berkeley; Peter Kiang, an assistant professor at the Institute of Asian American Studies at UMass Boston; and Juliana Chang, assistant professor of English and American literature at Boston College