[KS] korean studies at the university of california in jeopardy

[michael robinson]

  With all due respect to Berkeley and its pretensions to being a flagship
campus, they have ignored Korean Studies for so long, it is hard for me to
work up any pity for the program now in peril.  Other campuses and centers
are alive and well, and as far as I'm concerned Berkeley can sit on there
Korea money for another ten years.

 

Mike R.

 

From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws] On Behalf Of Christine Hong
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 12:18 AM
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] korean studies at the university of california in jeopardy

 

those of you who subscribe to this listserv might already be aware of this,
but arnold schwarzenegger's education budget cuts are imperiling korean
studies not only at uc berkeley but also within the whole university of
california system.  there currently is no major in korean in berkeley's east
asian languages and cultures (ealc) department; in order for a korean major
to exist and for graduate students to be able to pursue an advanced degree
in korean at berkeley, the department must have at least two professors who
specialize in korean, and berkeley's ealc department does not meet even this
minimum requirement.  this is, without question, a travesty, given that
berkeley is the flagship campus in the university of california system--a
school that both touts itself as the major university in the pacific rim and
can boast of a near-majority of ethnic asian students, amongst whom there
are many koreans and korean americans.  the problem at hand, however, is
less that berkeley's ealc program doesn't have a major program, but that,
with the governor's budget cuts, even the korean minor program is
threatened.  (i would add that departments like french are far less
impacted, despite the statistical evidence pointing to declining
undergraduate enrollment in french classes.)  at present, there is just one
full-time faculty member in korean--an assistant professor who is currently
on leave.  with the exception of this professor, all of the ealc faculty in
korean are language instructors; it is important to recognize that their
temporary hiring status affords them no longterm job security.  should they
be fired as a result of these budget cuts--as currently looks likely--ealc's
korean program, which sustains just a minor at present, will be utterly
decimated, unlike the chinese and japanese programs, which will be adversely
affected but not disabled beyond repair.   

professor alan tansman, the chair of berkeley's ealc, has written the
following public protest, which i pass along to you:

The Governor's budget cuts have finally trickled down to the university
departments, and it seems that some were hit more than others. East Asian
Languages and Cultures received a 28% cut to what is called its TAS budget,
out of which 90% of our language teaching budget comes. This means that for
next year we will be cutting 40% of our Japanese, 58% of our Chinese, and
66% of our language classes. The most advanced levels will be cut. In
Korean, which right now does not have a Major program, even the Minor
program is under threat.  Chinese already turns away over 100 a students
every year; this will get worse. We will likely have to "dumb down" the
Chinese and Japanese majors to accommodate the fewer classes we can offer.
Also, we will likely have to exclude from the classes all students not in
the College of Letters and Sciences (Engineering, humanities graduate
students, law, etc.), and perhaps all non-majors and non-minors. The cut is
particularly dire because every student cut from the program is cut not just
from one class but from all those that follow in the language sequence. Of
course these cuts mean firing qualified teachers, who are difficult to find.
Once hurt like this, the program will be hard to rebuild. The level of cuts
in other departments, and other language programs, is not clear, but east
Asian Languages seems to have been hit far harder.

i'm a postdoc here at berkeley in the english department--my name's
christine hong--and i'm hoping to bring attention to and mobilization on
this issue.  please feel free to contact me at cjhong at berkeley.edu with
suggestions, advice, feedback.  many thanks.

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