"One of our goals is to demonstrate that there is a student motivated force and interest in ethnic studies and there is a teaching need," Vice-Chair Srishti Gupta '97 said.

The push for ethnic studies in the curriculum dates back to the 1960s. More recently, students protested for more ethnic studies courses and specialists at a Junior Parents Weekend rally in the spring of 1994 and again in 1995.

Last year, a new group of undergraduates calling themselves the Ethnic Studies Action Committee said it will go beyond the quiet activism of years past and agitate for increased emphasis on ethnic studies.

Also in 1994, the Faculty Council three times deferred voting on a proposal to upgrade the current ad hoc committee on ethnic studies to a standing committee.

Dominguez presented a draft version of a report by the committee on ethnic studies to the Faculty Council. The council discussed, but did not take any action on, the report.

The committee is currently preparing another version of that report.

"The report of the committee is not done. It is being discussed and revised," said Deborah L. Vasquez, Dominguez's assistant.

The Knowles-Dominguez letter says faculty members do not have a consensus of what should be done.

"There are some differences of opinion among the faculty of the FAS on what the role of the Committee on Ethnic Studies should be," the letter says. "Indeed, these differences exist even among those faculty who are themselves most involved in the study of ethnicity."

In their letter, Knowles and Dominguez did not specifically respond to either of the report's recommendations regarding the committee on ethnic studies.

The report's authors also expressed concern about student input into the ethnic studies debate.

"I think there needs to be student representation on this issue. There should be student representation on committees in general," Julie C. Kim '97, co-chair of the academic affairs committee, said last night.

"A lot of people at the undergraduate level have insight that the administration can use," Gupta said.

Definition of Ethnic Studies

Committee members said last night that there is disagreement among students, faculty and administrators about the exact definition and understanding of ethnic studies.