We show that the lowest part of the eigenvalue density of the staggered
fermion operator in lattice QCD_3 at small lattice coupling constant beta has
exactly the same shape as in QCD_4. This observation is quite surprising, since
universal properties of the QCD_3 Dirac operator are expected to be described
by a non-chiral matrix model. We show that this effect is related to the
specific nature of the staggered fermion discretization and that the eigenvalue
density evolves towards the non-chiral random matrix prediction when beta is
increased and the continuum limit is approached. We propose a two-matrix model
with one free parameter which interpolates between the two limits and very well
mimics the pattern of evolution with beta of the eigenvalue density of the
staggered fermion operator in QCD_3.Comment: 8 pages 4 figure
