In a meeting with student representatives of campus Latino-American organizations yesterday, Harvard professors urged the students to be realistic in their push for a Latino and Latin American studies department.

A group of students, many of whom are affiliated with RAZA, Fuerza Latina and Concilio Latino, said they plan to present a letter formally requesting the creation of the department to University President Lawrence H. Summers at his office hours next Tuesday. They said they will ask for Summers to respond to their letter by March 15.

The letter also asks Summers to incorporate Latino Studies into the Core Curriculum and increase numbers of Latino and Latin American Faculty and administrators.

But while student sentiment at the meeting focused on the push for a department, the professors said the resources can exist without a formal department.

“You can call it a center, a program or a concentration, but what is important is that it gets the job done,” said Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth.

Coatsworth, who also serves as the director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, said Harvard’s administration should work to promote teaching and research on the Latin American and Latino-American population, which he called “hugely interesting.”

Coatsworth also said he wanted to draw attention to the resources that already exist—like the Rockefeller Center, which organizes discussions and film series and provides research grants. He also mentioned the Interfaculty Committee on Latino Studies, a group founded in 1998 to promote discussion in the field.

“Latin American studies has been quietly gaining resources at Harvard and I think that you are going to see a lot bigger things from it in the future,” Coatsworth said.

But students at the meeting said these resources are not enough. They cited difficulty in finding classes within the field and the lack of professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences with interest in Latin American studies as major problems.

The students said they were also discouraged by Summers’ refusal last year to accept a proposal from the Faculty that asked for a permanent Center for Latino Studies.

“I feel like the only way to get things done around here is to take over Mass. Hall,” said President of RAZA Maribel Hernandez ’04.

Provost Steven E. Hyman and a group of professors have also initiated discussion recently about a center to study globalization and immigration—but students said yesterday they were concerned that Latino studies would “slip through the cracks.”

Despite the students’ plans to deliver a formal letter to Summers next week, the professors urged them to be patient.

“There is a different sense of rhythm here between students who want to see immediate change and professors and administrators who have had different experiences with these things,” said Rudenstein Professor for the Study of Latin American David L. Carrasco.

Carrasco, who came to Harvard from Princeton this fall, said other schools currently look to Harvard’s efforts in Latino studies as a model.

Coatsworth also said the students should not view Summers’ previous decision as a setback.

“I believe that we are probably not aware of the extent to which Harvard is in the process of modernizing itself,” Coatsworth said. “There are grounds to be very optimistic about the pace of change at Harvard University.”

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu